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VentureKit

VentureKit ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)

03 December 2020

Suspected sockpuppets

All of these accounts are (likely expensive) undiscosed paid editors, likely working for a major PR firm (I have a hunch as to which one). There are three main reasons I am reasonably certain that they are related: First, they have extremely strong timecard overlap – they are essentially identical Monday to Friday only, 9 to 5 EST, with only a couple accounts that have any outliers whatsoever. Second, they all show very strong behavioural similarities: Gnoming, updating and referencing company pages and BLPs (and only those). There is a reasonable amount of pairwise overlap, but not as significant as is the case for other sockfarms. The third and most convincing evidence is the edit summary usage: There are a couple extremely quacky similarities that all the accounts exhibit. I would prefer not sharing this publicly because I don't want to aggressively shove beans up people's noses, but I am happy to share any details via e-mail, Discord or IRC if it isn't clear. It seems likely that there are two or three individuals running these accounts, but I am confident that they are related to each other. Boothit and Marginofinterest seem to have switched owners beginning in 2020 – there's a significant break in edit summary patterns then. I suspect that there's proxy use involved or that people might be working from home because of the pandemic, but I'm still requesting CU in case two or more accounts (and potentially some undiscovered ones) are sharing an IP. I'm filing under the oldest non-stale account, but noting that these two

may be related as well. Blablubbs| talk 15:54, 3 December 2020 (UTC) reply

Also adding
who is generally consistent and does the same edit summary switch as Boothit and Marginofinterest. Blablubbs| talk 00:36, 4 December 2020 (UTC) reply
Adding upon further review that there are multiple edit summary pattern switches in some cases, which seem to hint at the fact that there have been different account operators at different points in time. Again, I'm happy to discuss any details more privately. Blablubbs| talk 03:09, 5 December 2020 (UTC) reply
and another one for the record: Sunline09 ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki) Blablubbs| talk 20:01, 5 December 2020 (UTC) reply
Thank you Oshwah. Can you say anything about whether we're dealing with multiple people? Also ping Bri, you may be interested in this. Blablubbs| talk 01:38, 7 December 2020 (UTC) reply
Blablubbs - I can't be sure, but there may be more than one person (there possibly might be two given the user agents I saw). However, don't quote me on this. ~Oshwah~ (talk) (contribs) 01:54, 7 December 2020 (UTC) reply
In case someone comes here from my UDP tagging spree: Noting for the record that almost all of these pages have (quite heavy) involvement by other UPE farms or suspicious SPAs too. Involvement by one of these accounts is not the only grounds for tagging in most cases. Blablubbs| talk 02:42, 7 December 2020 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

Also found and  Confirmed:
L0calh0$t ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
Balle010 ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
WonderfulWorld ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
All are indef'd and tagged. ~Oshwah~ (talk) (contribs) 01:15, 7 December 2020 (UTC) reply

07 December 2020

Suspected sockpuppets

Sorry to be reopening this so quickly, but I just found another one. Same edit summary switch and idiosyncrasies, same distinct timecard. I'm pretty confident this is them, but requesting CU again in the hope that checking this one may uncover more sleepers. Blablubbs| talk 13:48, 7 December 2020 (UTC) reply

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16 January 2021

Suspected sockpuppets


Similar overall behaviour with mostly superfluous edits to articles about companies. Edit times are very similar to the rest of the group. There is a large article overlap (e.g. with JP Miller1, Boothit11, Greente28). Comment style is particularly similar to Greente28 and Deadbolt44, with things like Reorganized [...] for clarity (MolehillMtn: [1], others: [2], [3]). A particularly idiosyncratic way of setting citation template parameters (see url-status=live with empty archive url, MolehillMtn: [4], others: [5]). MarioGom ( talk) 22:24, 16 January 2021 (UTC) reply

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23 January 2021

Suspected sockpuppets

I don't want to say much because I have increasingly strong BEANS concerns with regard to this SPI, but both of these accounts are behaviourally very consistent with VentureKit. If the link isn't clear based on the behaviour of past socks, please email me (IRC or Discord work too) so I can provide more detail. Requesting CU for comparison against both the initial cluster and MolehillMtn and a sleeper check (even if this turns out to not be VentureKit, I'm pretty confident it's UPE socking). Best, Blablubbs| talk 16:06, 23 January 2021 (UTC) reply

AmandaNP, does the {{ inconclusive}} result only apply to the group above or also to CatCar and Betanote? Blablubbs| talk 15:39, 4 February 2021 (UTC) reply

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14 February 2021

Suspected sockpuppets


Same timecard as the original cohort in the SPI. Article overlap with the original accounts (e.g. DoorDash). Strong behavioural match in terms of edit summaries and edit style (omitting diffs, but feel free to ping me for private clarification). MarioGom ( talk) 23:36, 14 February 2021 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

These three accounts are confirmed to each other, and for the record, differ slightly from CatCar28 from the previous report. -- zzuuzz (talk) 10:11, 5 April 2021 (UTC) reply

  • This case is being reviewed by Blablubbs as part of the clerk training process. Please allow him to process the entire case without interference, and pose any questions or concerns either on his talk page or on this page if more appropriate.
    Thanks; this is clearly UPE and hence clearly abusive socking. Pink clock Awaiting administrative action – please block all three indefinitely. Thanks and best, Blablubbs| talk 10:15, 5 April 2021 (UTC) reply
  •  Blocked and tagged. Closing. Cabayi ( talk) 14:14, 9 April 2021 (UTC) reply

06 April 2021

Suspected sockpuppets


Timecard consistent with the original group. Some overlap ( interaction report). The usual edit summary patterns. MarioGom ( talk) 21:56, 6 April 2021 (UTC) reply

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19 August 2021

Suspected sockpuppets


-- MarioGom ( talk) 22:55, 19 August 2021 (UTC) reply

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