Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/RachelleLin/Archive

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RachelleLin

RachelleLin (talk+ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
31 January 2013
Suspected sockpuppets

The first edit was made on November 29th by RachelleLin, a new user who edits exclusively on Alexander Mirtchev—they have argued that they edit other articles as well and that they have no bias, but anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that the few minor edits they made are only there for show. The first edit RachelleLin made had the summary[1]:

Fixed grammar in intro section. Added references and fixed bad coding in ref section. Cleaned up Controversies section. Author misquotes WSJ article, which is about Deripaska.~~~~

I took it to the talk page with the hopes of having these issues resolved and I found another new user, RichardBr2, commented on December 3rd and agreed with RachelleLin. Curiously, his edit summary was[2]:

Agree with RachelleLin on this one.~~~~

Both usernames signed their edit summaries… If this doesn't pass WP:DUCK, I don't know what does.

Then RachelleLin stopped editing on December 28th. Coincidentally, another new user, Msgolightly212 shows up to pick up the slack on January 9th inserting the same sort of overly-positive information that RachelleLin was adding[3].

Then on the 28th of January, 4 edits were made by the IP address 12.108.42.175[4], which just so happens to be a law firm in Florida. I can only imagine it's the law firm representing Mirtchev. KazakhBT (talk) 21:32, 31 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

I think I have an answer for you: the PR firm Qorvis is editing his page. Qorvis is one of those PR firms that has no sense of morality and they regularly represent the world's worst dictatorships. To quote Qorvis's Wikipedia page:

"In early February 2011, three of Qorvis's partners left the firm disgruntled by compensation; however, they later attributed it to the company's controversial work with foreign governments. A former employee, Don Goldberg, who represented Saudi Arabia and Halliburton while at the firm, was reported as saying, 'I just have trouble working with despotic dictators killing their own people.'"

I'll go through each username to make the case.

  • RachelleLin edits exclusively Alexander Mirtchev, a man accused by the Wall Street Journal of laundering money for the dictator of Kazakhstan[5] and a man who directs the sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan — also, a known client of Qorvis[6]
  • RichardBr2 is just a weak attempt at sockpuppetry working for the Mirtchev page.
  • Msgolightly212 is another editor that adds puffery to Mirtchev's page and removes anything negative, no matter how well sourced.
  • Harriett888 edits exclusively Qorvis's page, removes all negative information, and hid the negative information he/she couldn't remove under the Bahrain section at the very end of the page.
  • Sacoca edits exclusively Tom Squitieri, an employee of Qorvis.

As for all the other users and their edits, I can only assume that they are editing for clients or employees of Qorvis. This looks to me like a juicy story for a journalist... KazakhBT (talk) 20:49, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
  •  Possible based on geographic location. T. Canens (talk) 21:50, 31 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Clerk note: At the very least, this is a pile of meatpuppets working for Mirtchev. Someguy1221 (talk) 08:18, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Confirmed Group 1:
  •  Confirmed Group 2:
  • RachelleLin does edit on the same IP as Group 2, but has a different user agent.
  • The connection between the groups and other users is still  Possible, though shared IPs make it difficult to make a true determination and I suspect there is some useragent spoofing preventing me from declaring all the socks. --
    (ʞlɐʇ) 16:02, 18 February 2013 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Since the case hasn't been touched, I went ahead and issued blocks as I saw fit. I blocked each group as individual sock groups, RichardBr2 as a sock of someone or a recruited meatpuppet. I have left RachelleLin alone. --
    (ʞlɐʇ) 21:39, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply
    ]
28 February 2013
Suspected sockpuppets


His only edits are to announce he is the official representative of Qorvis, and to disavow, on this very sockpuppet investigation, any connection to RachelLin or her accused socks. And those socks' only edits are to scrub clean the articles on Qorvis and one of their clients. Requesting CU to see if this is simply another sock. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:29, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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
  • CheckUser requested - Self-endorsed by clerk for checkuser attention - Per above. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:29, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

 Inconclusive. QorvisEditor is editing from an open proxy. I will leave a note on his talk page to ask him to explain. J.delanoygabsadds 01:13, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  • He's blocked, no need to keep this open here. --
    (ʞlɐʇ) 02:23, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply
    ]
30 June 2013
Suspected sockpuppets


The subject of this page is a client of Qorvis (the PR firm) and has been edited by Qorvis in the past[7]. The three users brought to your attention first added a bunch of PR fluff[8][9][10][11], then turned the page into an accusation of another BLP[12], then just removed it altogether [13]. Given that all the usernames involved are single purpose accounts and given their similarities to the alleged sockmaster, I think this qualifies under

WP:DUCK. KazakhBT (talk) 22:19, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply
]

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

Jack Molter and Antoni Nutini are  Confirmed matches with each other. Comparing Josephcarrion to them it is  Inconclusive, and it is  Inconclusive as to whether or not they are socks of RachelleLin, technically speaking. WilliamH (talk) 08:21, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  • This is a bit unusual in that the master hasn't edited in a while, but in this case, based on my experience with COI editors and the clear pattern in the edits, it looks like avoiding scrutiny by using throwaway accounts. In this slightly unusual case, I've indefed the socks and blocked the master one month. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | WER 00:31, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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