Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Oriental Aristocrat

20 June 2024
''Copied from a report at Sockpuppet investigations/Nauman335

Suspected sockpuppets
An article was created @ Draft:Na Baligh Afraad on 6 June - I draftified it because it failed to meet GNG. A few days later, @Mfarazbaig re-created Na Baligh Afraad. I draftified it too and clearly mentioned to submit it for review before moving back to main NS. Today, @Mfarazbaig unilaterally moved it back to the main NS without making any effort to address my concerns, saying that “Anyone who disagrees can take it to the AfD”. The similar type of editing behaviour was recently noted by a blocked IP of master account. It's worth noting that Draft:Na Baligh Afraad has been edited by socks of master account. Moreover, @Mfarazbaig has been previously accused of engaging in UPE by several admins and was a suspected sock of multiple sock farms. In-fact he remained blocked from 2017 to 2023. Saqib ( talk  I  contribs ) 17:58, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
 * They also recently created a PROMO article on SadaPay which was previously created multiple times by UPEs. — Saqib  ( talk  I  contribs ) 18:05, 20 June 2024 (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

 * Technically . Behaviourally they don't quite match Nauman335, other than the recent common draft targets, probable undisclosed paid editing, and persistently moving rejected drafts back to mainspace. They have a device in common with the case history but are not confirmed to any recently active socks. They also have been logging out to edit in ways that violate WP:LOUTSOCK, which isn't great since they were fairly recently relieved by Arbcom of a very long block for sockpuppetry based partly on the same behaviour.
 * However, they are also with Sockpuppet investigations/Oriental Aristocrat, based on info from the wiki, but that case has been stale for a while. Mfarazbaig's initial block comes from a report at Sockpuppet investigations/Liborbital - the case is noted in their block log but as far as I can interpret that report, they were not Liborbital; that report was more like there were a bunch of accounts obviously socking and there was little value in determining which accounts were which users' socks, so they were blocked without a tag. But buried in that report is a user, who was determined to be  to Mfarazbaig.
 * For some more background: that report led to Mfarazbaig being blocked indefinitely on 16 October 2017. Oriental Aristocrat came along a long time later, 17 June 2022, and was blocked as arbitration enforcement for disruptive India-Pakistan editing on 1 May 2023. OA's last known confirmed sock was blocked on 7 November 2023, and there is data from those checks on cuwiki which I would call "technically indistinguishable" with Mfarazbaig now, if not for the time gap. Also, Mfarazbaig's appeal to Arbcom was accepted on the same day that Pirate of the High Seas (OA's latest sock) was blocked. Mfarazbaig was checked at the time but the appeal went through, so I assume Arbcom didn't see what I think should have been apparent at the time (courtesy ping ). Maybe they were using a proxy at the time? They have used proxies in the past.
 * I feel that Mfarazbaig should be blocked for logged-out socking and probable undisclosed paid editing, and their probable connection to Oriental Aristocrat, but the successful Arbcom appeal is tripping me up here. I'm going to leave this for more opinions. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 17:03, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @Ivanvector, your email should contain some brief discussion on the appeal we (former me + AC) got. If there is fresh evidence to indicate continued socking, and moreover, continued socking that established a clear link to Oriental, I'd say you're empowered to issue a new block. But you can get a 2O from a current CU or AC about it given the timing of some things. I'd tend toward AC's inbox. Izno (talk) 20:24, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I forgot about that conversation. Seems we agreed then, and agree now, that notwithstanding their successful appeal they should be blocked as anyone else would be if they continue socking.
 * On that note, in addition to the incriminating technical info, Mfarazbaig didn't edit at all after being unblocked until March 2024, just long enough for the former account to expire from the checkuser window, where their very first edit was restoring a merged-by-consensus article 2023 Zaman Park raid, which had also been repeatedly restored by the OA sock Pirate of the High Seas. Pirate used edit summaries like "passes GNG" and "the scope of this article is different"; Mfarazbaig's edit summaries were "satisfies WP:GNG and WP:NEVENT" and "this re-titled article is about the police raid and not the protests". When they hit 3RR there, they created a copy of the article at Zaman Park raid, and then continued edit-warring to keep it separate, noting again "Easily passes GNG and NEVENT". Pirate also had a history of moving drafts to mainspace against AFC advice, such as Khalistan Tiger Force, which is one of Mfarazbaig's behaviours noted by the filer. Add to that Mfarazbaig's recent checkuser-confirmed logged-out edit warring (also over restoring a redirected article) which I can't elaborate on by policy. And for the last thing, the timing of the SPI where Pirate of the High Seas was blocked versus the timing of Mfaragbaiz's Arbcom appeal suggests they may have been trying to get an old account unblocked as they knew their current sock was about to be canned. Mfarazbaig is blocked pending tagging, a status I think I just made up; this finding also makes Mfarazbaig the master of the Oriental Aristocrat case, and I need to think about how to handle that. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 23:06, 30 June 2024 (UTC)