Talk:Wikiproject:Antispam

Latest comment: 10 days ago by MMonte97 in topic Valter Longo
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Report and discuss cross-wiki spam

Hi, welcome to the talk page of the antispam project!

Information we need to investigate promotional spam:

  • a list of the accounts involved in cross-wiki spam
  • the reasons you think there's cross-wiki spam, e.g. single-purpose accounts coordinating on closely related topics which don't meet notability guidelines and/or contain highly promotional content
  • have there been past community discussions on local projects? Have sockpuppet investigations been conducted?

We can investigate on other wikis, find new sockpuppets or suspicious edits and find new data to get the bigger picture. When a case is solved, we can inform local communities to ask for help with cleanup (e.g. by deleting pages or systematically removing promotional material).

We also keep an archive of past cases to keep track of and minor cases and internal matters.

Unknown multilingual UPE sockfarm

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I found en:Mikhail Valerievich Lifshitz in my fortnightly suspicious article list. This was created by Straycatgirl (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) who has 13k edits on uk.wp but their creations on en.wp are spewing red flags for UPE. Barvenkov (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) created uk:Лифшиц, Михаил Валерьевич.

The obvious publicity photo File:Mikhail Lifshitz.jpg in this article was uploaded by Jackrosse (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) and sourced to this Flickr profile hxxps://flickr.com/photos/187794352@N07/ engaged in obvious license laundering. The Flickr profile contains three images, the second File:Dr Amine Issa.jpg also being uploaded by Jackrosse for d:Q106809433 (Mobalytics).

The third image File:Michael Baczor.jpg was uploaded by Vladmedv (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report). They substantially edited d:Q89453053 (Michael Baczor).

This Wikidata item was created by Momarfish (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report). They uploaded File:Netskope Headquarters.jpg, sourced from another license laundering profile on Flickr hxxps://flickr.com/photos/187387549@N06/ (one image only), made en:Netskope a lot more spammy and created en:Nexthink, en:Lily Jay (both spam) and en:Martin Devergie.

Momarfish also substantially contributed to d:Q23672838 (Roobee). This yields three articles:

And this is where it starts to get complicated. MER-C (talk) 12:16, 4 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

This is getting old for this sock farm, so I will stop here. @DarwIn: please delete the images on Commons. MER-C 09:41, 5 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

This is still active: en:Vlad Panchenko created by Cahdigirl (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) (en:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ejikela), Wsjreporter2007 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report), Mindelinfo (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report). MER-C 04:08, 10 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

Ross kramerov

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Upwork freelance spammer (not their real name) that has polluted multiple wikis. Ongoing abuse. Falsely claims authorship of at least two articles on their Upwork profile.

Residual articles:

Cleanup is mostly complete but there is another sockpuppet investigation pending. MER-C 18:40, 17 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Linkspam online casinos et. al.

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Temporarily collapsing - resolved

We are currently investigating accounts in dewiki which are involved in cross-wiki spamming, there was an SPI on enwp uncovering lots of socks. The accounts usually make a few edits verifying wayback archive links and then they add valid content with a reference to an unsuitable commercial website (online gambling, hair replacement, etc.).

Completed/ongoing investigations:

Other affected wikis:

--Count Count (talk) 10:55, 19 September 2021 (UTC)Reply









Sites spammed on en.wp:



















Unblocked sockpuppets found:

SPI renewed. MER-C 14:18, 19 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

I endorsed a CU-check for sleepers on enwiki; I'm basically certain that – at least on en – these are all operated by the same person. I also had a go at a (private) abuse filter. Spam blacklist might be something to consider as well(?), though I have little experience with that. Blablubbs (talk) 18:03, 21 September 2021 (UTC)Reply
No new domains found on en.wp. Someone needs to gather up all of the domains and send them to Talk:Spam blacklist - but that can only be done once the German and Spanish investigations are completed. MER-C 19:11, 21 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Some more socks that we found on it.wiki and then xwiki:

They're probably related to these old accounts: Marcooo671 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report), Blixa8519berlin (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report), and Smith8519berlin (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) which edited w:it:LeoVegas the same way User:AnnaAmiar did. Sites spammed on it.wiki: sitiscommesse.com and migliorisitiscommesse.net--Sakretsu (炸裂) 19:47, 25 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Dewiki CU-results are in (w:de:Special:Diff/215891560). I requested locks for the unlocked accounts. Blablubbs (talk) 21:52, 25 September 2021 (UTC)Reply




















































































Additional accounts found:

MER-C 09:24, 26 September 2021 (UTC)Reply























More. MER-C 15:13, 26 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Domains mentioned here nominated for blacklisting. MER-C 10:47, 3 October 2021 (UTC)Reply
All blacklisted. Dirk Beetstra T C (en: U, T) 12:48, 3 October 2021 (UTC)Reply
LuchoCR: Some of the accounts listed in this case edit eswiki, maybe you can have a look? Thanks! MarioGom (talk) 07:55, 5 October 2021 (UTC)Reply
@MarioGom:: None of the accounts have activity in the last 90 days, son can't run a verification. --LuchoCR (talk) 18:51, 5 October 2021 (UTC)Reply
Next CU on dewiki: de:Wikipedia:Checkuser/Anfragen/Supercars08 --Itti (talk) 13:09, 22 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
























These links were used by recent sockpuppets related to this spam. --Johannnes89 (talk) 13:56, 22 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

+ enWP [1] --Johannnes89 (talk) 21:31, 22 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

WOWcube

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Hi, can we ping users from other wikis where there were no discussions about this article yet? This is related to Hrabarook and en:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Iexeru/Archive.

Illustrations:

--Anntinomy (talk) 20:39, 20 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

Multi-language Spam : creation of Luka Snoj in different languages by several accounts

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(in french, sorry)

Bonjour, j'ai la forte suspicion que Luka Snoj a spammé entre mai et octobre 2021 une dizaine de wikis, dont la wikipédia francophone, pour créer sous différents pseudonymes son propre article wikipédia.

Les utilisateurs, tous CAOU, sont inactifs maintenant que ces articles existent (en 9 langues à ce jour, tandis que 2 langues ont été supprimées) mais pourraient revenir si on faisait un gros nettoyage (admissibilité discutable et articles publicitaires bien entendu).

À ce jour 4 de ses présumés pseudonymes ont été exclus, mais de la wikipédia espagnole uniquement.

En déroulant le fil avec l'article français qui me paraissait louche, je me suis fait un petit pavé avec les notes que j'ai pu rassembler. Si l'on supprime les articles sans s'occuper de ces comptes le problème pourrait se poser de nouveau :

Basketball3x3 (nom du bouquin)

CAOU sur en.wiki

17 décembre 2015 à 14:02‎ création page en.wiki

2 imports sur commons effacés en 2015

Europe3x3basketball (variation sur le précédent)

CAOU sur en.wiki et jp.wiki

9 janvier 2021 à 21:15 modifications page en.wiki

17 mai 2021 à 21:15 création page ja.wiki

17 mai 2021 à 23:15 modification sur l'item wikidata

Stephenlentz

CAOU sur en.wiki

compte bloqué sur es.wiki pour abus de faux-nez

3 mai 2021 à 11:59 modifications page en.wiki

18 mai 2021 à 00:02 modifications sur l'item wikidata

213.172.247.30

CAOU sur sl.wiki

4 mai 2021 à 00:31 création page sl.wiki avec le diff "Ustvarjanje nove strani Luka Snoj (po vzoru Luka Snoj strani na amer. Wikipedii)" (google trad : "Création d'une nouvelle page Luka Snoj (sur le modèle de la page Luka Snoj sur Wikipedia américain) "). (NDLR : Ben voyons... si je créé moi-même ma page en anglais, je m'en sers comme modèle pour les autres ;) )

920aa

CAOU sur de.wiki, en.wiki et fr.wiki

compte bloqué sur es.wiki pour abus de faux-nez

18 octobre 2021 à 16:25 modifications page en.wiki

18 octobre 2021 à 20:33‎ création page fr.wiki

18 octobre 2021 à 23:06 une dizaine de modifications sur l'item wikidata jusqu'au 20 octobre

19 octobre 2021 à 00:16 modification page fr.wiki

19 octobre 2021 à 00:42 création page de.wiki

Jskii221

CAOU sur de.wiki, en.wiki, nl.wiki, pl.wiki, pt.wiki

compte bloqué sur es.wiki pour abus de faux-nez

18 octobre 2021 à 16:53 import d'une photo du sujet sur commons

une photo supprimée précédemment, date d'import inconnu

18 octobre 2021 à 22:25 modifications page en.wiki

19 octobre 2021 à 01:47 création page pl.wiki

19 octobre 2021 à 01:58 modifications page de.wiki

20 octobre 2021 à 12:55 création page pt.wiki

20 octobre 2021 à 21:25 création page nl.wiki

44oop12

CAOU sur fr.wiki et en.wiki

compte bloqué sur es.wiki pour abus de faux-nez

26 octobre 2021 à 14:57 modifications page en.wiki

26 octobre 2021 à 16:52 import de la photo du sujet sur commons

26 octobre 2021 à 18:28 modifications page fr.wiki (révoquées)

Track0922

1 seule modif, insuffisant mais même pattern de pseudo et ça peut être un compte dormant

20 octobre 2021 à 19:36 modification page en.wiki

Page es.wiki supprimée le 18 juin 2021 puis 18 novembre 2021

Page sr.wiki supprimée le 1er novembre 2021

(english summary)
Hi everyone, I suspect someone (Luka Snoj himself I presume, but who knows) creates the article Luka Snoj in several languages in order to promote himself and his book about basket-ball.
Some accounts :are blocked on es.wiki but he did it on 9 languages, included en.wiki and de.wiki.
If needed, I can answer in basic english. Feel free to format my message in a better way if you think so. --El Funcionario (talk) 04:53, 28 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
Update : the french article has be deleted today. --El Funcionario (talk) 09:11, 5 February 2022 (UTC)Reply
German de:Luka_Snoj was discussed and kept in 10/2021 due to the sportive successes. Today I deleted most of its content as blatand book advertising. --MBq (talk) 12:31, 12 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Clandestine task force actively promoting Eric Zemmour's presidential campaign at Wikipedia

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Hi, first of all: sorry about my broken English. I'll try and make it short.

  1. The whole story involved w:fr:Éric Zemmour, who is a candidate in the w:Presidential elections in France. The event is to be held in April 2022.
  2. In December 2021, the head advisor for Zemmour's online campaign said that several Wikipedians were monitoring and honing Zemmour's page, but he didn't give any hint to identify them. Le Parisien - paywall, sorry
  3. In December 2021 Jules* was asked, by a journalist whose name is Vincent Bresson, to help him with an enquiry about Z's supporters on fr-wp. Bresson went undercover and was admitted in the group of users who were POV-pushing about Zemmour. He kept all logs and also asked Jules* to check and support his own research. This secret group was directed by the head advisor for Zemmour's campaign. The members of the group were tasked with using several tactics to make POV-pushing, and also retaliate against anyone in their way, including cyberbullying. They called themselves WikiZedia.
  4. The data collected, both by Jules* and by journalist Vincent Bresson, was eventually released. Vincent Bresson published his research in a book Au coeur du Z, un journaliste a infiltré la campagne d'Éric Zemmour. The same day, that is on 2022-02-17, Jules* also released the information to the Frech community.

The members involved are:

They are currently in the process of being banned. The story made huge headlines in newspapers in France. The French community, as you might have guessed, is not really delighted about the WikiZedia team and their coordinated POV-pushing; also, they were involved with someone who threatened an opposing user with physical violence.

Cheep made changes on a lot of other wikis: https://guc.toolforge.org/?by=date&user=Cheep

Discussions about it on fr-wp:

Best regards, Bédévore (talk) 16:07, 19 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Discussions about it at en-wiki:
Users indeffed at fr-wiki, per this French ANI discussion (Bulletin des administrateurs):
Users indeffed at en-wiki (blocking proposal still going on as of 01:58, 20 February 2022 (UTC) at this ANI thread :
Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 01:58, 20 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Büşra Duran Gündüz

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I suspect spam. A same editor created this article on two Wikis. The ur-wiki article is a complete rubbish machine translation. Please see via Wikidata:Q111592126 and see what should be the best action. Celestina007, can you assisting digging this further? ─ The Aafī (talk) 23:22, 24 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

@AafiOnMobile: I had deleted the article and protect it from it being created again for now. Thanks for the alert. PeaceSeekers (talk) 08:33, 25 April 2022 (UTC)Reply
Should the article creator be warned/blocked? Because I suspect several other spam articles such as Wikidata:Q24579245, and this on Ms-wiki. ─ The Aafī (talk) 08:45, 25 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Blocked and quarantined on en.wp. MER-C 10:57, 17 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

M Natarajan

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Looks suspicious. This article has been created on several wikis just today. See via Wikidata:Q51885920. ─ The Aafī (talk) 10:04, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Reply

Tagged for CSD in idwiki, no indication no notability. --*Fehufangą✉ Talk page10:21, 9 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Muzeum Miniaturowej Sztuki Profesjonalnej Henryk Jan Dominiak w Tychach

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The same editor has created articles about the museum in 18 languages. I nominated the article in en for deletion at en:Wikipedia: Articles for deletion/Muzeum Miniaturowej Sztuki Profesjonalnej Henryk Jan Dominiak in Tychy as it was promotional and without independent references and it was deleted on 7 June. There is also a pl deletion discussion. I believe that all of the articles should be checked for notability and promotional language.

Deleted in June 13rd.--Got Your Back Everyday (talk) 19:55, 15 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Account

TSventon (talk) 10:21, 8 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Probably related: Muzeum Miniaturowej Sztuki Profesjonalnej Henryk Jan Dominiak w Tychach (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report), see commons uploads Johannnes89 (talk) 13:03, 8 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
I looked at the Korean article once more, and I think it is promoting the museum. I'm going to request deletion of it.--Got Your Back Everyday (talk) 08:03, 9 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
  Oppose It is not strange to have an article because it is a national museum that has an article in the Polish version for a long time. It may be an opportunity to visit this museum when visiting this town, but I don't think it will be as effective as a promotion for residents of Korea and Japan.--The Lizard's Tail (talk) 07:08, 19 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

  Comment I have a question. Isn't the discussion here announced in articles in each language? --The Lizard's Tail (talk) 03:19, 24 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sources

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Krzysiek2224, I have started a new section for sources for the article. The en:Wikipedia:notability guideline generally requires significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. Other projects will have different, but probably similar requirements. Please can you explain whether the sources you add offer significant coverage, what the source is, e.g. a local paper, and if it is independent. TSventon (talk) 13:48, 9 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Krzysiek2224, the en:prezi link looks like a presentation produced by the museum, which would not be independent. TSventon (talk) 13:48, 9 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
Szkoda, że jesteś takim słabym informatykiem i nie potrafisz w źródłach tej strony Prezi.com odnaleźć autorstwa - wszystkich tak podejrzewasz? poszukaj dokładnie i znajdziesz tam autora.
https://prezi.com/zxtvbjok3kgr/muzeum-miniaturowej-sztuki-profesjonalnej-henryk-jan-dominia/ Krzysiek2224 (talk) 18:07, 9 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
Krzysiek2224, my advice to you is to make it easy for other editors to understand why your references establish notability. TSventon (talk) 03:47, 10 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
I read about this museum in the Silesian Library in Katowice in the printed encyclopedia "Britiszpedia". On Commons wikipedia of this museum I saw interesting photos of the exhibits. I decided to make articles about this museum in other wikipedia in the world. I checked that this museum is on the Register of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and is therefore encyclopedic. Nobody has to prove with some articles that this museum can be included in Wikipedia in Poland and in other places in the world. This museum collects exhibits from different countries of the world. It is a Cultural Institution, not an actor, singer or anyone else to prove encyclopedic. Some Wikipediaist from Poland does not know the rules and makes a mess with all Wikipedia. Here is the Museum Register in the Ministry, which automatically proves the encyclopaedic record from this museum. Item 41:
https://bip.mkidn.gov.pl/media/download_gallery/20140319Muzea_utworzone_przez_osoby_fizyczne.pdf1397627824 Krzysiek2224 (talk) 04:44, 10 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
Krzysiek2224, my advice, which you are free to ignore, is to add a separate bullet point and explanation for each source. TSventon (talk) 11:13, 10 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
  Comment The standard of Notability differs depending on the language versions.
So it should be discussed locally in each language version.
It is a mistake to think Notability here according to en:Wikipedia:Notability in English version where user:TSventon is mainly active.
By the way, the reason for the request to delete by user:ネイ in Japanese version is not Notability but the quality of the Japanese used.--The Lizard's Tail (talk) 02:46, 24 June 2022 (UTC)(Fix user:TSvention to user:TSventon. Sorry.--The Lizard's Tail (talk) 02:50, 24 June 2022 (UTC))(Fix Nortability to Notability. Sorry.--The Lizard's Tail (talk) 02:55, 24 June 2022 (UTC))Reply
For everyone's awareness, The Lizard's Tail is blocked as w:ja:LTA:SUZU on jawiki. It is safe to ignore their comments. ネイ (talk) 08:27, 24 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
  Done Speedy deleted on fr-wp. — Jules* talk 14:07, 22 July 2022 (UTC)Reply

[EN/FR/AR] Asaidmanar — Worldwide01

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Hi @Blablubbs, Cabayi, Spiderone, and Nearlyevil665:

Regarding en:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Asaidmanar, there is at least one new account used on fr, en and ar-wp: Worldwide01 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en · fr · ar). He's not blocked yet. A checkuser request has been submitted on fr-wp.

Best, — Jules* talk 21:13, 8 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Worldwide01 is now blocked on enwp, as is QWXCC (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en · commons) who uploaded copyvio images to Commons. I've requested a lock for these accounts. Spicy (talk) 04:15, 10 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Prix Versailles 2022

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A group of single purpose editors had created articles about the prize in 16 languages by 2021. After various discussions in 2021, see links below, 8 articles were deleted. In 2022 3 more articles have been created by single purpose accounts. A check user request, link below, confirms that they are likely or maybe connected to the 2021 editors. I believe that all of the articles should be checked for notability and promotional language.

Accounts

Discussions

TSventon (talk) 07:53, 12 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

It's just about a prize that UNESCO gives. I don't think it is promoting anything.--Got Your Back Everyday (talk) 22:14, 21 June 2022 (UTC)Reply
Hi. @Got Your Back Everyday: there are evidence that there is cross-wiki spam promotion of this prix for years. Best, — Jules* talk 13:09, 22 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
To be exact, it's not a prize given by UNESCO, but a prize given in office hired to Unesco. --Pa2chant.bis (talk) 05:21, 6 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

Spam has returned on en.wp: en:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Darshak.parmar, en:Prix Versailles Award. MER-C 11:31, 15 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

Blocked Daughter Hadria (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) for en:Versailles Prize (this account also created pt:Prix Versailes). MER-C 11:46, 1 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Nicolas Micheletti - spam

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This user is creating this article in the context of a promotion on each Wiki.

  1. https://www.partitoanimalista.org/chi-siamo-1
  2. https://www.greenme.com.br/informarse/agricultura/92449-fim-da-era-dos-abates/
  3. https://www.endtheslaughterage.eu/

These links are promotional and are included in the article, that is, it does not have a neutral point but a partisan point to veganism. On en-Wiki, "This article was nominated for deletion on April 2, 2018. The result of the discussion was delete".

Account

--Anibal Maysonet (talk) 12:37, 12 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Anibal Maysonet, the same editor has created en:World Union of Deists in 7 wikipedias, that looks like spam as well. TSventon (talk) 13:39, 12 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Eva Hadashi - spam

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Not meeting encyclopedic notability.

Single-purpose account

--Anibal Maysonet (talk) 13:08, 19 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Avisa Partners

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Part 1

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Hi,

Mediapart, a french news outlet, published investigations about how Avisa Partners, a big competitive intelligence company, creates thousands of false sources on the web, and edit Wikipedia with UPE accounts; I helped the journalist for this last part, as explained on the fr-wp sysop noticeboard.

Most of the activity detected is on fr-wp, but there are at least two accounts who are socks, and very likely to be UPE used by Avisa Partners, who edited en-WP en:Draft:Alexandre Arnault (linked to a client of Avisa Partners, Bernard Arnault):

Both are blocked on fr-wp. Ping @Blablubbs, @MER-C. Best, — Jules* talk 13:18, 22 July 2022 (UTC)Reply

Nice find! I blocked both accounts on enwiki (they could probably use locks as well); I'll try to dig into this more when I have some more mental bandwidth available. Blablubbs (talk) 13:34, 22 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
I think SanSiro69200 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) is them too for heavy spamming on Xavier Niel in multiple languages. MER-C 10:40, 23 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
There seem to also be some additional candidates here, here and here. Blablubbs (talk) 11:16, 23 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
  I reported the user on eswiki and nominated the article for deletion. Nacaru   · Talk ✉ Nacaru   · Talk ✉ 21:42, 24 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
Hi @Blablubbs. You can block Louise12B (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) who created en:Steeve Khawly. See fr:Steeve Khawly history and fr:Discussion Projet:Antipub#ekonomico.fr.
Long story short (not only for Blablubbs): Ekonomico.fr is a false info website (among dozen like this one) edited by Nativiz, a company tied to Avisa Partners (which is also one of its client, but there are other ties); in this particular case, I believe those articles about Steeve Khawly have been created for another client of Nativiz, not Avisa Partners (not their methods).
You can also take a look to fr:Discussion Wikipédia:Observatoire des sources#Sites (d'infox) liés à Avisa Partners ou Nativiz, but to be fair, that's a lot to read and understand (moreover if you don't read french), and the investigation is not over. Anyway, I will let you know if I find other accounts/articles edited in other languages than French.
Best, — Jules* talk 21:38, 30 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
Following up fr:Discussion Projet:Antipub#Faux sites d'info liés à Avisa Partners, Nativiz, etc. led to this edit that seemed worth checking on a Kazakh dissident article, which showed that user TerryClarke (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en) was blocked in a major sockpuppet investigation on en-wiki exactly a year ago. Could be a coincidence, but people involved in that investigation might have useful experience for the current investigation. Boud (talk) 00:07, 4 August 2022 (UTC)Reply
The EU Transparency Register has a list of links to old versions (like 'history' in mediawiki), from 2012 to 2022, at the top: probably rid=organisation_ID; sid=date_ID. This link I gave here is for 2 April 2020 and lists about 50 or so of Avisa Partners' clients, like Airbus, Aquafil, Atlantia, ..., Vesuvius. If someone wanted to do heavy-duty searches for past abuses of xx.Wikipedia, these lists could serve as a basis for systematic analysis.
Here's just one tiny-scale random check by me: Cruiser2015 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en)'s only contributions were these in 2015 on en:Lanxess (client paid 300-399,000 EUR to Avisa for EU lobbying in 2019) and were cleaned up by Jytdog (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en) in 2017 (the advertising remained in place for two years); again, could be a coincidence: we don't have a match in years, and the one-purpose-editor hasn't come back to do any new editing. Jytdog him/herself, who cleaned up the advocacy, is indefinitely blocked, with an explanation on his/her talk page: "So... I made a very bad error in judgement, and called a person who had added raw advocacy content to WP, who is clearly deeply passionate about the topic. ... In the past, I violated the OUTING policy by posting off-WP information here. That was also a terrible error in judgement." From browsing the talk page, it sounds like Jytdog's contributions were overwhelmingly positive, especially against COI advocacy, whether or not it's all Avisa related. I'm not contesting the decision; my point is that if someone wants to (and knows how to) do a really heavy duty systematic search, it might be worth it for helping to retain Wikipedians to feel comfortable in remaining active (e.g. make people like Jytdog feel better, e.g. return to active editing, since the 12 month moratorium to request lifting the block has passed). Boud (talk) 21:13, 4 August 2022 (UTC) (clarified Boud (talk) 11:41, 5 August 2022 (UTC))Reply

Hi @Blablubbs, MER-C, Mathglot, and Boud:. Still on Avisa Partners/Nativiz, a lot of edits on en-wp from (about) 2010 to 2015: fr:Discussion Projet:Antipub#Michazzi, etc.

Starting point of investigation is Michazzi (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en · fr), who created fr:New York Forum with 3 links from false websites used by Nativiz/Avisa (lenergiedavancer.com, metropolitaine.fr, sharknews.fr) + a "fake" blog paper.

UPE users found from there:

I also found several SPA (such as Office98 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report)) I let you check. And I didn't dig into all en-wp articles (for ex. I didn't check en:Vivendi).

Best, — Jules* talk 20:19, 6 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

2eduarda2 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en · fr) is currently author of half of the text of en:Claudio Marzocco, creating it, but while extending it, included a brief sentence on a corruption legal case (and accidentally described the subject's achievements as "notorious", a mistranslation from « notoire » :), unintentionally violating BLP); if s/he is a paid editor, then it's with some subtlety. I added a UPE tag and the same links to encourage investigation. Boud (talk) 02:13, 7 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

En-wp articles with suspected UPE:

— Jules* talk 13:17, 12 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

Part 2

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Hi. We found (see there) another account related to Avisa Partners, Mujibvisa (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en · fr). They edited fr-wp articles related to clients of Avisa Partners (Tchad and Ivory Coast leaders) and other articles, using several "sources" created by Avisa Partners/Nativiz. I'm adding UPE template on some edited articles on en-wp, but all their edits should be reviewed, and Mujibvisa should be blocked.
Best, — Jules* talk 12:14, 12 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
And another one, with more significant edits: Soulman78 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en). The following en-wp articles about clients of Avisa Partners (or subjects known for having been edited by Avisa Partners) received significant edits; some edits are on innocuous subjects.
Some other edits may be UPE, for example those about en:Éric Besson.
— Jules* talk 14:04, 12 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
P.-S.: it seems that Soulman75 uploaded on Commons the logo of en:Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe (article that I guess they created?).
Another account: Count of Monte Wiki (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en). fr:Eranove has been edited in December 2019 by Paragonio (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · fr), an account used by 35°Nord agency, bought by Avisa Partners (see fr:Discussion Projet:Antipub#35° Nord). A few days after, Count of Monte Wiki creates en:Eranove by translating it from French.
Moreover, they removed POV-check template from en:Bouvier Affair after Soulman78 edited it. See also [6]. — Jules* talk 14:28, 12 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Another case, this time of cross-wiki spam, but linked to Avisa Partners.

— Jules* talk 18:00, 12 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Don't forget YaraHennaoui1 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report). MER-C 18:07, 12 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Another account, mostly fr-wp, but with a few old edits on en-wp: Beoptylk (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · fr · en). See fr:Discussion_Projet:Antipub#Beoptylk for details. On en-wp side, there is mostly en:Union for the Mediterranean that should be reviewed (cross-wiki spam, beyond en-wp and fr-wp). Best, — Jules* talk 11:55, 27 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sofia Talouni

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Does this look like spam to anyone? Have a look at this, this, this and this.... ─ The Aafī (talk) 20:15, 5 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

DIAO and Sergey Smirnov

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I think these may be cross-wiki promotion attempts:

DIAO
Sergey Smirnov

Both by the same account:

Both are notable, I can't find any significant coverage. --*Fehufangą✉ Talk page07:58, 20 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sergey Smirnov has been deleted everywhere. There are still several instances of DIAO that have not been cleaned up. MER-C 18:58, 31 May 2023 (UTC)Reply
  Done for HeWp. —מקף‎‏ (Hyphen) 22:01, 31 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

TOP MAG WORLD

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Sockfarm active on English, French, Spanish, and Haitian Creole Wikipedias, Wikidata, and Commons. @MarioGom and Jules*: spammers already blocked, but cleanup likely required. MER-C 16:59, 15 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

Tagged es:Fincy Pierre and es:Balistrad for speedy deletion. I'm not sure if I missed something else. MarioGom (talk) 18:55, 15 October 2022 (UTC)Reply
Clean-up already done by Bédévore for fr-wp. Best, — Jules* talk 22:08, 24 October 2022 (UTC)Reply
Tagged es:Balistrad (again) and es:Gilbert Bigio for speedy deletion. MarioGom (talk) 16:12, 18 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Torsten Haß

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When looking into some recent link spamming I found that there are more than 100 language versions of Torsten Haß, apparently mostly done by autmatic translation and created by SPA's. A number of them has been blocked globally. I found two unblocked accounts, एंटन and Arcaton. Although there are no recent edits done by them I think they should also be blocked.

Regarding relevance criteria of de:WP they could probably be considered as fulfilled for de:Torsten Haß, however this is definitely not the case for 100 additional versions that can be considered as spam.

The English article has been deleted en:wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Torsten_Haß after discussion of an AfD in which also user Th0815 participated who confirmed to be Torsten Haß when asked on his talk page. Barbasca (talk) 20:42, 9 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

Rinat Shakenov

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Bonjour @Jules* and Bédévore: Off-wiki evidence indicates that Rinat Shakenov is an undisclosed paid editor – I have blocked them on enwp; could one of you take a look at their frwiki activities? Best, Blablubbs (talk) 16:38, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Blablubbs. Fr-wp article history could indicate that SPA JodieCazau (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) is linked to Rinat Shakenov, FYI. Best, — Jules* talk 17:47, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Update: JodieCazau is the name of an employee of Asia Center. — Jules* talk 17:55, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for taking a look, Jules*. :) I noticed that account, but I figured I'd leave them alone since they haven't edited enwiki in a decade. On second thought, I've left them a templated warning. Best, Blablubbs (talk) 20:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

Any global policy?

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Shouldn't we have a global policy when it comes to cross-wiki abuse, vandalism or advertisement. There are wiki's that are more bureaucratic and want things go through long and unnecessary AfD's. This makes me think the global Anti-spam volunteers should develop a policy that overrides such bureaucratic behavior that's uncalled for. Opinions? ─ The Aafī (talk) 10:22, 20 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

That would be nice. In uk:wikipedia we don't have G5 rule and article created by sockpuppets can be deleted only after AfD. Good news is that updated rules for speedy deletion are discussed now but this is a long way. Anntinomy (talk) 12:05, 21 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
d:Q11454960 is a helpful resource. MER-C 17:29, 23 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Thanks, will try it. But it feels it is not helpful when subject is notable or arguable. Here we situation when the admin does not care on the background of the creator and voters because article seems to be fine. And wikibusiness article is left though the sock-puppet had been blocked by the moment of decision! "If the content is good we we are ok with it no matter what", the strange way some people think. But may be this is just lack of expertise in the case mentioned... Anntinomy (talk) 21:40, 23 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
another case when an article by sockpuppet survived discussion pl:Wikipedia:Poczekalnia/artykuły/2022:06:09:Intellias and not deleted when the sockpuppet was blocked Anntinomy (talk) 23:31, 3 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
reaction on Template:Db-g5 I added to Wikibusiness article in Ukrainian Wikipedia: template was canceled because article does not match SD criteria Anntinomy (talk) 17:47, 6 March 2023 (UTC)Reply
+1 for jawiki - we do not have G5 rule either. ネイ (talk) 00:25, 15 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
On fr-wp, we do have a G5 rule (there), but a cross-wiki policy would be great, @TheAafi: I guess each community is free to decide its deletion criterias, but a global policy would probably encourage a rule harmonization.
We should also think to an easier way (tool?) to request speedy deletion on all wikipedias. Currently, it's time consuming to go on all versions, to check there is a "speedy deletion" template, to use it... — Jules* talk 17:52, 3 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
You are right @Jules*. I definitely agree with whatever you have said. ─ The Aafī (talk) 18:00, 3 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
If there are local policies that are too bureaucratic, it's unlikely that a global policy overriding it would succeed. It would probably be better to try to convince these communities to improve their local policies. That being said, it would be interesting to have some global guidelines that local communities can voluntarily adhere too. MarioGom (talk) 16:05, 18 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
I agree with you @MarioGom. The WP Antispam volunteers can prepare a draft and share it with local communities to get their feedback? But we need the guidelines drafted first. I'd be glad to volunteer for that. ─ The Aafī (talk) 19:47, 8 March 2023 (UTC)Reply

Qatar PR

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In recent years, there's been a large Qatar PR campaign in English, French, Arabic and some other Wikipedias. You can find some context at fr:Discussion Projet:Antipub#Après Avisa Partners, UReputation et son travail de promotion du Qatar and en:Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard/Archive 178#Operation Red Card. I'm putting together a list of cross-wiki contributions connected to this campaign at Wikiproject:Antispam/Qatar tracker. MarioGom (talk) 23:42, 19 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Looks like a lot of spam has stopped working on ur-wiki. 😅😅 ─ The Aafī on Mobile (talk) 01:26, 20 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
A lot has been going on in this area (see Qatar tracker) and I would like to ask for your help with a recent batch that is primarily on French Wikipedia. This could use an investigation and checkuser there (cc Jules*). First, there are some Bennet43 accounts that are now on frwiki, possibly related to Pap090 (especially Matiasblues):
All of these user names look very similar to past Bennet43 socks. Note on 2022-07-21 how Ratransil and Vraosnal created their accounts sequentially and then created the same user page [8][9]. Then they moved to the usual pro-Qatar POV edits as past socks. Gulfsli also signed up on frwiki a few days later (2022-07-26), which leads me to another part of the sockfarm:
Latvia1 was recently blocked on English Wikipedia as a sock of Contributor00001 which seemed to be related to the other groups (Bennet43, Pap090). Latvia1 then continued editing on French Wikipedia. There is an interesting cross-wiki overlap between Latvia1 and Gulfsli [10][11].
And finally there is Morgan1811 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report · en) who has a similar modus operandi, but I have not figured out to which sockmaster it should be reported to.
Could someone help investigating the French side of this? I will follow up on English Wikipedia for the relevant bits. Thank you! MarioGom (talk) 15:59, 4 February 2024 (UTC)Reply
Hello @MarioGom and thanks for the ping. How did you find these accounts in the first place? Especially for Ratransil and Vraosnal.
Best, — Jules* talk 16:10, 5 February 2024 (UTC)Reply
Hey Jules*: Thanks for handling this. I think I found Gulfsli first by looking at Qatar edits on frwiki wiki. I found Ratransil and Vraosnal by looking through the list of signups on frwiki close in time to Gulfsli and looking for user names similar to past Bennet43 socks. Bennet43 tends to create many accounts in short periods, and very often with equal user pages. MarioGom (talk) 07:31, 6 February 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for info. I also blocked Ratransil and nominated fr:House of Spells for deletion. — Jules* talk 22:22, 6 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

Kazakhgate PR

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Hi,

En-wp article en:Belgium Penal Transaction Law has been created by UPE and is biased. It should be reworked or even deleted, imho. See fr:Wikipédia:Bulletin des administrateurs/2023/Semaine 16#Loi sur la transaction pénale (Belgique).

Best, — Jules* talk 12:38, 20 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

See also en:International Chodiev Foundation (ICF): advert, suspicion of UPE, bad quality sources/primary sources. And may not meet notability criterias.
ICF has been subject to cross-wiki promotion by Rastapeuplulos (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) (not yet blocked on fr-wp, investigation pending) and TheFrenchTraductor (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report). uz:Xalqaro Shodiyev Fondi should probably be deleted. — Jules* talk 19:36, 23 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Undisclosed paid editing

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The user is active across numerous projects and started to engage in edit warring on dewiki. Problems are inline external and interwiki links, lack of reliable sources and non-neutral writing style. Conflict of interest is obvious and violation of the TOS (declare paid editing) appears plausible. Please check other in other projects. Cheers --Millbart (talk) 13:26, 20 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hey, @Millbart! I am really suprised by your reaction to my contributions. If there is anything I did that doesn't comply with the Wiki Policies and guidelines, please let me know in my talkpage of the process I need to go through in order to bring info about Bitdefender up to date in an objective manner. I'm aware that there are guidelines about editing pages if there is a potential conflict of interest, so I would like to disclose here that these contributions are made on behalf of Bitdefender and in consultation with them, and I intend to follow all of Wikipedia's guidelines, including those on WP:COI, WP:RS, WP:V and WP:NPOV, very closely. My aim is to work with and seek advice from impartial editors to make positive contributions to Bitdefender's article, hopefully leading to a much improved article. All my recent contributions have been reverted, even though I have disclosed my contribution without hesitation. Thanks in advance for your help. ChristineBD (talk) 12:18, 12 May 2023 (UTC)Reply
@ChristineBD you do realize you have to follow not just enwiki rules but the specific rules of every language version you want to edit? Speaking for dewiki you will be blocked soon unless you don't start to comply with de:WP:BEZ and de:WP:VER (as you were told at de:User talk:ChristineBD last month) and properly disclose your conflict of interest at de:User:ChristineBD. Johannnes89 (talk) 14:14, 12 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

Telegram Open Network

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The company call their followers to update The Open Network’s Wikipedia page in any language. They require participants citing their official website and their social media channel. There may be cross-wiki inserting spam content by these participants. Just a reminder. Thanks. SCP-2000 03:02, 22 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

user:MeryAM7 : Enrique Cabrera

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Supertoff (talk) 15:53, 1 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

Odd detail: When looking at the deleted versions of the dewiki page, I noticed two sockpuppets which registered just for the purpose of requesting speedy deletion [12][13] – which occured at other projects as well [14][15][16][17]. Johannnes89 (talk) 16:26, 1 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
I agree, strange : I detected this spam because it was a puppet who reported it on frwiki [18]... Supertoff (talk) 04:55, 2 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

AvaTrade, Bitcasino, etc.

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Spammers
See also

Some of the AvaTrade creators have been locked on 1 April 2022 by Tks4Fish as a "Crosswiki spam farm, CU confirmed".

I'm sure we've seen these spammers before. MER-C 12:55, 3 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

Three websites nominated for blacklisting. MER-C 11:06, 4 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
looks a bit like #Linkspam online casinos et. al. to me with most accounts deliberately trying to throw in normal looking edits as well to disguise the spamming. Johannnes89 (talk) 06:08, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, it does. MER-C 09:56, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

@MarioGom, DarwIn, ネイ, and Salazarov: crypto spam needs your attention. MER-C 10:02, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

MER-C; Spam article was deleted from UzWiki! Thank you for reporting! Salazarov (talk) 10:47, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

Abdukarim Mirzayev

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Hello, dears! uz:Abdukarim Mirzayev this article is cross-wiki spam. The person has been mentioned in the article has no any notability. Please, help us to delete the article from other wikipedia projects. You can see this article in en:Abdukarim Mirzayev, tr:Abdukarim Mirzayev and uz:Abdukarim Mirzayev. Johannnes89. Please, you must take into consideration. Thanks by before. Salazarov (talk) 17:06, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

User's contribution

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This user contributions looks so suspicious. Please, look at and check it. Salazarov 12:46, 14 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

EaseUS Software

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Spinning this out of the large batch of cross-wiki spam above - this seems to be a distinct case.

en:EaseUS (ja:EaseUS)






Spamming over 15 years. MER-C 17:05, 1 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

@MarioGom, Jules*, DarwIn, and ネイ: - cleanup required. Please also check and purge all links to these domains, they are also cross-wiki spam. MER-C 17:08, 1 July 2023 (UTC)Reply
  Done for fr-wp. — Jules* talk 19:06, 3 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

Russian politicians spam

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I created an LTA case on en:WP:LTA/CONST following some spam and listed (most) some IPs that I fully reverted. Please recheck categories about Russian federal subjects and constellations on your homewikis. Yours sincerely, A09 (talk) 14:10, 23 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

w:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Crount

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Placeholder. Massive sockfarm on en.wp that is mildly cross-wiki. Sonatafy Technology (see #Sonatafy Technology) is one of their articles. MER-C 18:48, 24 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

I deleted fr:Shama Hyder, created by Shabi07 (CA · xwiki · sc · COIBot report) on several languages. — Jules* talk 12:10, 19 August 2023 (UTC)Reply