Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations
- WP:RFCU redirects here. You may be looking for Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User conduct (WP:RFC/U), CheckUser policy (Wikipedia:CheckUser), or Wikipedia:Changing username (WP:CHU).
 Skip to: Submitting an SPI case • open cases • cases awaiting CheckUser |
Welcome to Sockpuppet investigations (SPI), a centralized forum regarding suspicions of sock puppetry amongst users as well as any additional CheckUser requests.
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If the evidence is sensitive, privacy is needed, or if it involves sock puppetry by an administrator, seek advice by email from a Checkuser or the Arbitration Committee first. Private information, emails, logs, etc, may not be posted on Wikipedia; if they are important evidence, you must also seek advice by email first. |
Important notes
- Before submitting a case, check that there isn't one already in progress using the search button at the bottom of this page.
- Please provide evidence (preferably with diffs and any reasonable deductions and impressions as a result) that show disruption or deception via IPs or accounts via sock puppetry. Cases without any evidence or with solely vague beliefs or assumptions will likely be rejected.
- Remember to assume good faith when possible.
- Consider notifying the suspected accounts by adding
{{subst:socksuspectnotice|PUPPETMASTER}} ~~~~to the bottom of their talk pages. Notification is not mandatory, and may, in some instances, lead to further disruption or provide a sockpuppeteer with guidance on how to avoid detection. - Keep it simple. Simple, concisely presented evidence leads to a quickly resolved case.
- Do I need to request CheckUser?
- CheckUser is a tool used by a small number of trusted users. It allows them to access evidence from Wikipedia's server logs to help resolve the case. For most cases, behavioral evidence is enough, with no need for CheckUser.
- To request CheckUser, there must be credible evidence supporting the suspicion of sockpuppetry or abuse, and good cause why CheckUser is required. Requests for checkuser without evidence will be declined, because
CheckUser is not for fishing. CheckUser is also not 
magic pixie dust, and should not be requested to investigate canvassing or meatpuppetry, 
Stale account(s) that have not edited for many months, or cases where behavioral evidence is sufficient to decide the matter (see also the 
duck test). Finally, while CheckUser will not be used to confirm that a user is editing from a specific IP address; quick requests may be made for the purpose of getting an underlying IP address or range blocked, however a CheckUser will not disclose what that IP address is. - If you see a purported suicide note or threat of harm (try IRC first in an emergency, at #wikipedia-en-spi connect).
Stale account(s) that have not edited for many months, or cases where behavioral evidence is sufficient to decide the matter (see also the 
| Requesting checkuser work for an existing case |
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Anyone can request CheckUser at any time on an open case if it is necessary. If you wish to request CheckUser to any existing open case, then do the following:
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- Quick CheckUser requests
If you need a CheckUser to review something, but it does not fall into the above categories, please see here for instructions.
- Administrator's instructions
If any administrator wants to help out at SPI, but is unsure how to get started, please read Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Administrators instructions. If you need help with anything, please ask one of the active SPI clerks.
Submitting an SPI case
Create the case by replacing "SOCKMASTER" in the white box below with the user name of the oldest account (the "sockmaster"), or the previous case name, and then clicking the button under the box. For example, if the case name is about User:John Doe or a prior case is at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/John Doe, then you should enter Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/John Doe in the white box, and then click the button under the box. You will be taken to the next page, where there is a form to fill out giving the details of your report. Note that this form should be used for both opening a case for the first time, as well as opening a new case for a previous sockmaster.
If CheckUser might be needed, change |checkuser=no to |checkuser=yes in the edit box.
| Start or continue an SPI case here |
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See also
- SPI clerks and clerking
- List of indicator icons used at SPI
- Suspected sock puppets and Requests for checkuser – predecessors to SPI which both ceased as of January 2009
- The SPI bot's edits.
Case status summary
Case status summary |
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Open cases
Cases
Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma |
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Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma
08 February 2012
User:Halo laser plasma (new account: Feb. 8) has made no edits outside of the deletion discussions of User:Plasma laser may have been a mistake account per the edit summary here so is not a purposefully subversive account but should be redirect to the sockmaster's page. Curb Chain (talk) 05:37, 8 February 2012 (UTC) The halo plasma is my brothers account that I told him about my articles about to be deleted and he commented on his own will. Is this where I comment to back my case up.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 06:01, 8 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin commentsYes, there are a few accounts here, but I don't see any abuse of them. Shawn -you need to pick an account and stick to it. Any old accounts should be redirected to your main account. If your brother is also editing Wikipedia, you should both note that in order to avoid any confusion. TNXMan 14:56, 8 February 2012 (UTC) |
ElPilotoDi |
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ElPilotoDi
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/ElPilotoDi/Archive.
09 February 2012
(entry on behalf of User:Legolas2186) Berbah continuously uploads images without any summaries (see the user talk page), mainly for articles about Madonna and replaces completely valid images with those (unsourced and unlicensed) files uploaded by him. The user was once blocked for 48 hours for ignoring image upload warnings. The new account appears to also edit other music articles, but still edits and uploads Madonna files. —WP:PENGUIN · [ TALK ] 18:40, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin commentsBerbah appears
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Relisted - What about
Dolenutrition |
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Dolenutrition
10 February 2012
A set of WP:SPAs all focusing on creating/maintaining a promotional article for Jennifer Grossman - none have edited any other articles, and the later socks constantly remove maintenance templates without actually addressing the underlying issues. MikeWazowski (talk) 18:22, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin commentsThe following accounts are either a) the same person or b) co-workers (perhaps in marketing):
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Bertrand101 |
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Bertrand101
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Bertrand101/Archive. A long-term abuse case exists at Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Bertrand101.
07 February 2012
A very obvious sockpuppet of User:Bertrand101. Username is very similar to the one that was blocked two days ago. (see User:Leo Gonzales 2 and User:Leo Gonzales 6). Sockpuppet has also a similar editing pattern with the rest of the blocked socks. Sock recreated articles previously posted by User:Leo Gonzales 6 (see Buhay Ngayon (TV program) and Balita sa IBC) for evidence). Also, please check the LTA created for this vandal for additional reference. - WayKurat (talk) 05:17, 7 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
09 February 2012
Another very obvious sockpuppet account of User:Bertrand101. Username is very similar to the previous blocked socks, namely User:Leo Gonzales 6 and User:Leo Gonzales 7. The previous SPI has not yet been archived but this person created another sock with the same name convention. I am also requesting to check IP address 112.198.128.115 for this SPI since the contributions of this anon is very similar on what Bertrand101 and all of his previous sock accounts are doing. See 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for evidences. - WayKurat (talk) 01:45, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
10 February 2012
Another very obvious sockpuppet account of User:Bertrand101. Username is very similar to the recently blocked socks, namely User:Leo Gonzales 6, User:Leo Gonzales 7 and User:Leo Gonzales 8. The previous 2 SPI cases has not yet been archived but this person created another sock with the same name convention. Sockpuppet also created this article, an obvious trait of Bertrand101. - WayKurat (talk) 05:41, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Confirmed as being the same as Leo Gonzales 6, 
IP blocked. 
Mbhiii |
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Mbhiii
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mbhiii/Archive.
08 February 2012
Please see my talk page, "Mbhiii sockpuppets (including probably User:Dawakin and User:Trift)". An IP has once or twice now alerted me to such edits/editors, and I think they're probably right about these (caveat: I am not so sure about Somedifferentstuff, but there are thematic similarities). Might as well check them out (the ones that are still up and running): they do all edit the same things (articles like Money trail and Redistribution of wealth) in the same left-wing anti-establishment vein with, unfortunately, a bit too much OR and synthesis and way too much socking (I am convinced they can't help it anymore--it's a disorder). Drmies (talk) 04:22, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
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7arazred |
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7arazred
08 February 2012
Basically, block evasion, previous sockpuppetry. User's IP where they make it pretty obvious: [1] (tagged as suspected, user points to new account). Rename request on Simple English Wiki: [2]. Same edit pattern: [3]. (Although not directly relevant to SPI, I'd like to point out the user appears to be editing constructively now in the same topics, but that is no excuse for evading a block.) — HELLKNOWZ ▎TALK 11:52, 8 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Cowback23451 |
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Cowback23451
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cowback23451/Archive.
08 February 2012
Larfers and Chris Jalled apparently attempted to create the page Bel Air, North Dakota as a prank. No such town exists. Larfers has a similar name to Lirfers who has vandalized several common pages to the other socks including Ray Reid ([4], [5], [6], as well as two by the IP, [7] and [8] which appear to replace vandalism with other vandalism). Other common pages include Bruce Marshall (ice hockey) and other UConn atheltics articles. Finally, CommunistPaqqq, BigPileofFun, LittlePileofBuns, Cowback23451, JohnnyJorringer, the 198 IP and Elmoknowski have a long history of vandalizing Style Invitational including [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18] and [19]. Edit: the 198 IP also has other vandlalsim including [20] The 137 IP traces back to UConn, where several members claim they are from. The 198 IP links to another college. Disclosure: I am also a UConn student. I don't know who is/are doing this, but it isn't me. If I catch anyone in the act, I will yell at them. Smartyllama (talk) 15:14, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Jonathan Yip |
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Jonathan Yip
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Jonathan Yip/Archive.
09 February 2012
I ran across this editor while they were making numerous small edits to various Disney theme park articles, such as two dozen in a row at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, as indicated in this string. Editor never leaves an edit summary explaining their contents, and while some are good-faith, most are extraneous and some are unsourced. Editor's most recent edit here at Disneyland is downright false. Soon after this account appeared in November 2011, it was tagged as a possible sock by User:HkCaGu here. Almost immediately, the editor begins composing a Wikipedia-like article on a fictional airport here. HkCaGu reverts, but user recreates here. Pattern repeats itself three more times. This is almost identical to edits seen at User:Alec Skywalker, a previously-banned sock of User:Jonathan Yip, as indicated here. This proclivity for fictional airports, combined with name similarity, gets me hearing quacking. -- McDoobAU93 04:20, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Update: Editor returned to editing, making similar false edits to Disneyland here. While editing, it appears they logged out yet continued editing, as evidenced by the IP added above. IP was previously blocked for 3 months by User:Rschen7754 as a probable sock of Jonathan Yip; that block has expired within the last week. --McDoobAU93 05:18, 11 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. I'd recommend blocking per WP:DUCK; no need for CheckUser unless you're looking for an underlying IP or something like that. --Rschen7754 04:28, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Just to pile onto the WP:DUCK determination, Alec Skywalker (talk · contribs) and Diarmuid Skywalker (talk · contribs) may be derived from Alec Guinness and Ian McDiarmid, both actors from the Star Wars films. —KuyaBriBriTalk 15:39, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin commentsI know checkuser has not been officially requested, but just a note that the accounts in the archive are from August and thus
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Mackemfixer |
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Mackemfixer
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mackemfixer/Archive.
09 February 2012
This IP began to edit on February 1, but it seems clear that it is an experimented user. He knows how to add references in his very first edit (here), how to undo other's editors edits (here) and even how to tag-bomb several articles (here, here, here, here, here). All concerned about the national organization of Argentina, but as pointed here it is a case trying to influence the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute (by the way, there is an ongoing political dispute on the topic, with heated accusations from David Cameron and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at each other). And then, I find something that led me here: here this IP adds a map to an article, at 12:36. The map, File:Uniedprovinces3.jpeg, was uploaded the same day at 12:20 (just 15 minutes before), so clearly it's the same user. The user in Commons is named "Argentium", and when I checked the local User:Argentium I found he was blocked as a sock puppet of User:Mackemfixer (investigation at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mackemfixer/Archive). Plus, the IP geolocation locate him at Reigate, United Kingdom, and before being blocked Mackemfixer had a userbox of the British Sunderland A.F.C. (here). Thus, I suspect this IP may be a new sock puppet of Mackemfixer, a user already blocked for the use of sock puppets. Cambalachero (talk) 23:11, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Kalaua |
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Kalaua
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Kalaua/Archive.
09 February 2012
Miniotx has already been blocked in the Commons, as an obvious copyright violator and sockpuppet of Kalaua and Scheno. Its editing habits are also extremely similar over here in en.wiki, with a particular obsession with Opel, VXRacing, and OPC. ⊂| Mr.choppers |⊃ (talk) 23:41, 9 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Even if this editor is not blocked for sock puppetry, WIkipedia would be better off without him/her. I find the persistent ignoring of rules/advice particularly annoying. This is not a good Wikipedian. --Biker Biker (talk) 08:59, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Malapterus |
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Malapterus
10 February 2012
I believe this person has been using alternate accounts to further their bias and attack remarks against the organization American Family Association and one of its creations, One Million Moms. Malapterus has shown overzealousness in negatively labeling the groups, keeping their version of the article on their userpage and re-adding their remarks when they are removed or reverted. The first IP has made only one edit, on the AFA article ([23]) and only after the short time when the OMM article was redirected to it. Aaauut also only has one heavily biased edit to the OMM article ([24]) after other editors believed the article deserved a second chance. The second IP similarly only has one edit to the OMM article ([25]) which I believe to be the same person as it is their only edit. The third is another random vandal IP making a single biased edit on the OMM article. ([26]) ☆ Antoshi ☆ T | C 04:03, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments |
Crazy1980 |
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Crazy1980
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Crazy1980/Archive.
10 February 2012
And the beat goes on. Reporting for the record. The Bushranger One ping only 09:34, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
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Clerk note: All of the recent IPs have been blocked. I'd like to block that guy's talk page, but we don't really do talk page blocks. If he wants it we can, though. —
Instantnood |
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Instantnood
This page's archived case(s) is/are at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Instantnood/Archive.
09 February 2012
There are about a dozen other templates/categories where this IP has made identical edits to previously identified socks. The IP should be blocked ASAP (they've made hundreds of bot like edits in 24 hours, another very Instantnood behavior, and very difficult to clean up) and then checked for user name creation. SchmuckyTheCat (talk) 05:47, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. The links which SchmuckyTheCat put forward are effectively taking things out of context. I edited a number of geography categories, stub categories, and other categories unrelated to HK too, but he didn't mention them at all. Regarding the Macanese categories, I only noticed those inconsistencies very recently when I noticed the Hong Kong people of Macanese descent category. I didn't actually read into the edit history of the article and those categories. 218.250.159.25 (talk) 11:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC) I don't know the history here with Instantnood; but the IP account Special:Contributions/202.189.108.245 (which has only 7 edits, all within the same hour), raised my suspicions with these comments, whose first edit to the talk page "agreed" with 218.250.159.25. Both IP addresses are registered in Hong Kong. One could also notice the single-purpose accounts weighing in at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Taiwan_island_group; in particular the last 5 to comment (in an apparent attempt to save the article), consisted of the IP addresses above, together with 202.64.29.231, 1.65.157.174 and 59.188.42.63 (all of which are from Hong Kong). It seems likely some or all of these IP's are the same person, posing as different people. Of those, the IP address 218.* is by far the most active. Mlm42 (talk) 22:44, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
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Clerk declined - CU won't connect an IP with an account. —
Deen maxwell |
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Deen maxwell
10 February 2012
Users insert and persistently restore identical WP:OR opinions and translations at Liber Linteus. Both refer to the same non-scholarly source. Both mark all their edits as minor and neither uses edit summaries. I've given both a friendly warning and have now notified Deen maxwell of this SPI. Haploidavey (talk) 00:27, 10 February 2012 (UTC) Sample of diffs Comments by other usersAccused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
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Cases: Administrator Action Needed
Open cases: awaiting Checkuser processing
Cases in this section have an open request for Checkuser that is being processed. Any user may update or act on this case, and any patroller or clerk may decide the case. However it will not be closed if the Clerks believe any further action is needed.
- Endorsement or decline of Checkuser request may only be made by a Clerk or Checkuser.
- If your case is not showing up here, or this section seems out of date, please click the .
Awaiting clerk approval
Awaiting Checkuser
Quick Checkuser requests
This section is for CheckUser requests unrelated to sockpuppetry, such as:
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- Underlying IPs – identification and blocking for a longer term than autoblock.
- Collateral damage checks – before hardblocking IPs and ranges.
- Threats of harm (to self or others) – where the location and other details may be needed for law enforcement or medical authorities.
- IP block exemption checks – before granting IPBE or to confirm proper use.
Requests to investigate and confirm sockpuppetry should be listed in the sockpuppet section above. If posted here, they will be delisted by a clerk without being actioned.
Copy the following template and paste it to the end of this page (quick link to edit) with a useful header and details, then sign using "~~~~" and click "save".
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==== HEADER ====
{{SPIquick}}
Archived cases
The following are old SPI cases, separated by month. This archival system was deprecated in February 2010.
| 2009 | |||
| January | February | March | April |
| May | June | July | August |
| September | October | November | December |
| 2010 | ||
| January | February | March |
| April | May | June |
| July | August | September |
| October | November | December |
(For help, see Wikipedia:Purge) |
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