Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Matthiasberoli/Archive

01 March 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


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was indefinitely blocked for continuously fabricating sources on articles related to singer Eric Clapton. Please refer Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive910. Now after his indef block, Clapton747 starts editing the Eric Clapton articles adding the same kind of content and I have found instances of fabricating sources for certifications. Pretty sure the accounts are linked. — I B  [ Poke ] 12:24, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 1) Please check this addition of false websites as screengrab for which the master was originally blocked. Also check the history of any Eric Clpaton article, you can see how closely both the editors are adding the same content. — I B  [ Poke ] 09:57, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 2) User:Matthiasberoli added discography links to the "above" field rather than the "Related articles" field in Template:Eric Clapton, which is an unusual choice of parameters (see Template:Navbox musical artist). —Ojorojo (talk) 14:58, 6 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 3) The same false certification being used to add to another article, using grab from a SPS, presumably by the editor ihimself. — I B  [ Poke ] 10:13, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 4) After the discography links were corrected in Template:Eric Clapton, User:Clapton747 re-added the discography links to the "above" field and removed them from the standard "Related articles" field". —Ojorojo (talk) 14:58, 6 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 5) Coupled with the fact that the sockpuppet accusation the editor accused has done nothing to veto or dismiss the report also makes me suspicious. — I B  [ Poke ] 10:13, 2 March 2016 (UTC)
 * request your validation now. — I B  [ Poke ] 18:48, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Matthiasberoli was blocked for using fake sources in BLP (Clapton) articles. One of those that appears to be unique, or almost unique, to that user is using photographs of (probably fake) Clapton awards posted by users of the equipboard.com website as sources on album sales. This is convenient because you can easily find every link to that website in Wikipedia pretty quickly through the external link search, and then use BLAME to find the sockpuppet that put it there. The socks I've found so far:


 * Matthiasberoli ,


 * 92.209.200.166


 * 188.106.157.31


 * 188.108.37.122


 * Clapton747.

There are probably other bad sources they habitually use, but this is the most typical that I've found. They even format it the same way, and also note that Clapton747 and Matthiasberoli hardly ever use edit summaries and avoid all interaction with other users. Geogene (talk) 04:26, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The user/sock has used the website profusely to falsify all Eric Clapton awards and music certifications. I'm going through past edits to rollback all uses of equipboard.com from Wikipedia. — I B  [ Poke ] 11:20, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - In order to facilitate and expedite your request, please provide diffs to support your case. Please give two or more diffs meeting the following format:
 * 1) At least one diff is from the sockmaster (or an account already blocked as a confirmed sockpuppet of the sockmaster), showing the behaviour characteristic of the sockmaster.
 * 2) At least one diff per suspected sockpuppet, showing the suspected sockpuppet emulating the behaviour of the sockmaster given in the first diff.
 * 3) In situations where it is not immediately obvious from the diffs what the characteristic behaviour is, a short explanation must be provided. Around one sentence is enough for this.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  23:32, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * - Please, compare those two accounts.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  23:23, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
 * ✅ = Matthiasberoli. . - Mailer Diablo 10:41, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Tagging and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:42, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

10 March 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Just after the sock Clayton75 was indefinitely blocked, the IP started adding the same website to a Clapton article. IP geolocator proves that this is the same user since it is from Saschen Germany where the master resides. Already blocked, just reporting this for keeping in check. Also requesting WP:CU for any sleepers. — I B  [ Poke ] 16:33, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I've declined the CU request. We rarely publicly disclose the IP(s) of named accounts.--Bbb23 (talk) 01:16, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
 * One IP is blocked, other one is not active. Closing the case.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  18:57, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Same Clapton-specific account behaviour. Is using the same suspicious links like before. For example: this one, everyone can write something on this site... And funnily every linked article by him is written by somebody called Judith Schönfelder (like this one). The same person which an IP added into the "Further reading" section of an article (Schönfelder, Judith: Doyle and Derek World Tour. Platin Books. Berlin, Germany. 2016. (German).) And he again used the already noticed Equipboard links and as an IP another website similar to Equipboard. While using these relatively static accounts and IPs heavily, he also tried to use many different identities at once (see this article version history and these two version comments by user:Ss112). I think this is evidence enough. Ali1610 (talk) 20:45, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I added another bunch of IPs that came up since the last case in March, and one account that also is for sure him, but it is inactive for a while. --Ali1610 (talk) 10:29, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Added the most recent IP. --Ali1610 (talk) 16:35, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

I get the feeling that Matthiasberoli/Cdcoverdude/any of his other accounts or IPs will never stop trying to add content to Eric Clapton articles on Wikipedia. His IPs have been blocked before but he just resurfaces later on with another series of IPs. I don't know why he is so persistent on adding content from forums that he has been told by several users, including, are not reliable sources or are outright fabrications. This is not excusing his behaviour, but the main reason Live in San Diego (Eric Clapton album) even has content at the moment is because this persistent German user has used a series of accounts to edit it, so I feel that's evidence enough. Whenever there is a new Clapton release, he's usually here using a bunch of accounts to edit its page. That's how I found out about him at I Still Do, where he tried to pass off an Eric Clapton fan page's post on Instagram as a legitimate source for the Argentinean peak. Before that, it was Slowhand at 70 – Live at the Royal Albert Hall, where he was caught out linking to dubious sources and using screenshots as a source for a slew of charts and certifications.  Ss 112  23:30, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I removed a bunch of unreliable sources, including Whereseric.com from the article. Can we please ban this user? — I B  [ Poke ] 08:11, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Just for the record, his first account should have been User:Börsenmakler; typical sources already in that very first edits (but back then he was still focused on German WP). It is really annoying having to clean up every article this user has edited, that’s for sure!--XanonymusX (talk) 12:40, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Can't we black list these fan websites? — I B  [ <b style="font-family:Tempus Sans ITC;color:#1C1CF0;">Poke</b> ] 14:56, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, probably. See WP:BLACKLIST. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 15:42, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * User:Börsenmakler was the first incarnation of this user. He was the one who started inserting links to the fansite whereseric.com (1). He stopped editing in the German wikipedia after having had multiple arguments with other people.
 * The Wallytraud account started in November 2014 in the german wikipedia, funnily one of his first edits was also related to Giorgio Armani, the same field Börsenmakler covered here... This account swithed to Eric Clapton-related articles shortly after. The account was used in the German wikipedia to manipulate good article candidations, but he also edited in en-WP. He was identified as a Matthiasberoli incarnation because of his usage of the Astrid Keil book that was the thing in question which resulted in the account block. Misbehavings of this account in the en-WP: 1, 2 and 3 (both similar to the equipboard images).
 * Cdcoverdude: (information is not given in the link, you can only research this with translating it, which may be difficult for every non-Asian), 2 (unreliable link to a Facebook fanpage), 3, 4 & 5 (multiple Equipboard usage), 6, 7 & 8 (usage of nachrichten.com, which can easily be manipulated and will definitely have to be blacklisted, for otherwise unverifiable information), 9 (added non-given information), 10 (award is not given in the whole magazine, and there is no page 197), 11 (tries to sell a music shop buyer chart for an official IFPI music chart)... I hope this is enough.
 * Do you also need difflinks from the IPs or other people? --Ali1610 (talk) 17:22, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * something's gonna happen here? --Ali1610 (talk) 10:57, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * the only recently active IP is, their most recent edit is adding a citation to a website already declared non-RS by the ANI thread referred in the archive. That would be worth an evasion block, if it were active. None of the others have edited this month.
 * what I would like to see are diffs showing the named accounts adding links to these or similar sites. One is given for Cdcoverdude for equipboard.com, but only one, and I didn't find any others, and I don't think one diff is enough evidence to prove anything here. As for and, I don't know what they're doing here, they don't look related to me at all. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 14:35, 27 October 2016 (UTC)


 * please block . Per 's evidence, they are re-adding links to the same websites that got the master blocked here as well as links to similarly unreliable sites, and I'm also concerned they're using archive.org to bypass our blacklist. None of the IPs have edited recently enough to warrant a block. I can navigate the German Wikipedia well enough to learn that the two older accounts are not blocked there, and I am otherwise disinclined to recommend blocking accounts that haven't edited here in more than a year. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 22:05, 31 October 2016 (UTC)
 * ✅ Katietalk 23:05, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Account tagged, case closed. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 23:21, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
In the German Wikipedia, this user was blocked indefinitely this morning because of being a reincarnation of the sockmaster we there call Claptonfan. We thought that he may have ceased his behaviour from previous incarnations, but then found out that he is still using fabricated sources. Many of his edits with this account in the English Wikpedia seem to be fine, but some of them are still showing the old behaviour. Examples: I don't know if Checkuser assistance is needed here, I think it's quite hard to find technical similarities after almost seven years (in case there was no other account that went unnoticed). Ali1610 (talk) 15:03, 16 July 2023 (UTC)
 * This edit, this edit and this edit are all linking to articles in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Having access to WP:LIB, you can easily find out that all of them only mention the artists' name, but don't contain anything at all about the record certification that they try to source.
 * Additionally, he is using chart books as a source for certifications in Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, as can be seen in many of his edits. We have a German user who also has some of these books and found out that many of these inserted certifications are not given in these books.
 * And in this edit, you can see he added a PDF file containing the European Top 100 Albums charts from September 21, 1991. But this chart page has been manipulated. At position 68, a symbol has been added to show that the album should have received a 5-times Platinum award in Europe. But on the original chart (page 46 of the PDF or page 27 of the magazine), there is no symbol at all beneath the album at position 68...

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

Similar edits (charts, certifications, unreliable sources) to the Eric Clapton albums discography by IPs in the same ranges as earlier reported (all Germany): —Ojorojo (talk) 18:00, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Past accounts are of course stale, but cross-referencing with old logs makes this . Given the behavioral overlap and block on De, I believe there is enough to block as a suspected sock and have done so, and tagged the account. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 00:07, 18 July 2023 (UTC)