Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Sakura china/Archive

Report date May 14 2009, 20:13 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Evidence submitted by User:CactusWriter

On April 18, User:Sakura china created the East-West dichotomy article which prominently featured the name and website of Thorsten J. Pattberg, including uploading and adding his picture. Two days later, the SPA User:Neworientalist created the Thorsten J. Pattberg article with sourcing by Sakura China. During the following weeks the suspected sockpuppets listed above have been SPAs for the purpose of adding Pattberg's name to various WP articles in order to reference an unpublished book. Examples include:, , , ,   ,. . This appears to be a blatant concerted effort at WP:Self promotion. — Cactus Writer |   needles  20:13, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The statement today by User:Sakura china at Articles for deletion/Thorsten J. Pattberg confirms an intent to provide publicity for the non-credentialed Pattberg and his unpublished writing. — Cactus Writer |   needles  05:24, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The SPA account User:Pattberg appeared at Articles for deletion/Thorsten J. Pattberg to cast a support "keep" !vote. (This account was created in December 2007 when it made one edit, so it might be considered the master account. Perhaps a checkuser request would be in order here?) — Cactus Writer |   needles  09:42, 18 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.

I second CactusWriter's assessment of the situation here. --dab (𒁳) 09:45, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Comments by other users

Looks like a suspicious case. Xxanthippe (talk) 23:15, 18 May 2009 (UTC).


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments


 * Conclusions


 * Yeah, same edits to articles, two votes in an open AfD. Quacking of sockpuppetry or, at the very least, meatpuppetry, which in these cases is blockable.
 * I've blocked all the listed accounts indefinitely, and the IPs for a week. The only sticking point was that the listed IPs geolocated to different countries (Taiwan and Japan), but the difference in editing time and similarity of edits leads me to conclude that they're related.
 * I have deliberately avoided tagging the IPs, as they're dynamic. Won't make much difference anyway. Peter Symonds ( talk ) 13:21, 19 May 2009 (UTC)