Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Jeff Apter/Archive

Report date May 5 2009, 07:18 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * Evidence submitted by Trigs (talk)

From at least 10/26/07 to present, sockpuppet activity has been used to repeatedly vandalize a specific set of related pages concerning a band,  it's albums,     awards,  members,  and members' side-projects   . (This also extends to a few other non-related pages that I have not been tracking consistently.)

- Similar Edits:  All edits are centered around the creation of the fake page for Yair Garfias, inserting this "person" into the legitimate band-related pages, and also changing various dates on these pages to fit the fictional story. (There is absolutely NO credible evidence behind the claims.) There are too many diffs to list individually, but each IP has only a few edits, so you can easily track the changes through the IPs' histories.

- Location:  All IP's seem to show the exact same location in Mexico if I'm reading the WHOIS properly. (CheckUser if needed. There are likely more IP's involved that have yet to be discovered.)  Coincidentally, this Yair Garfias also happens to be Mexican.

- Intent:  Jeff Apter is actually a real person and an English-speaking author. The user in question has borrowed the name to seem more credible. This has nothing to do with proving socks specifically, but it does show the lengths this user will go to to fake an identity.

Deletion will be proposed for the fake page soon, but establishing sockpuppetry and considering a lengthy block/ban (if collateral damage can be avoided over that IP range) seems to be a good first step to avoid a repeat performance by this very determined user. If I should approach this case in a different manner, please let me know.

Trigs (talk) 07:18, 5 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
 * neither account has edited in months, and neither is blocked. Deciding to move from editing with an account to IP editing is not a breach of WP:SOCK. Neither is having a dynamic IP. Without diffs showing abusive bahaviour, this case is essentially unworkable. Mayalld (talk) 21:23, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

due to no evidence of abusive behaviour. Mayalld (talk) 21:23, 6 May 2009 (UTC) Mayalld (talk) 21:23, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Conclusions