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Amir.Hossein.7055

Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log· investigate · cuwiki)
18 July 2010
Suspected sockpuppets
Evidence submitted by Nsk92

User:Sduty, a self-admitted sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055, was indef-blocked on July 2. User:Amir.Hossein.7055 is currently blocked for a year and his edits (as well as that of User:Sduty) are almost exclusively on Iran-related articles, with a persistent history of uploading Iran-related images with blatantly false licensing tag info. User:Thatspeed started editing on July 5, 2010 and quickly demonstrated the same pattern - see his talk page and the current deletion discussions at Wikipedia:Files for deletion/2010 July 18 for examples of such behavior. In particular, both Sduty [1] and Thatspeed [2] attempted to add images with fraudulent tags to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, all three (Amir.Hossein.7055, Sduty, Thatspeed) have edited Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, see the page's history log [3]. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:22, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
I am also adding User:80.191.41.236 as a possible sockpuppet. User:Thatspeed is currently blocked for 48 hours. Earlier he uploaded File:Kamal Kharazi in UN.jpg with obviously false copyright info, and then added it [4] to the Kamal Kharazi article. Now that Thatspeed is blocked, User:80.191.41.236 tried to re-add a link to this file file to the same article [5]. In the next edit [6], the IP edited Ali Akbar Velayati, an article edited earlier in the day by Thatspeed. Nsk92 ( talk) 20:09, 20 July 2010 (UTC) reply
I have also added User:Sduty as a suspected sock, primarily for record-keeping purposes; the user is already indef-blocked as a block-evading sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055. The behavioral evidence for Sduty is also pretty clear, but more importantly Sduty also self-identified as User:Amir.Hossein.7055. Sduty had uploaded a file (now deleted) File:Iranian City and Village Councils elections, 2006.png, where he stated: "I (Amir.Hossein.7055) created this work entirely by myself" and specified the author as User:Amir.Hossein.7055. So the Sduty case is clear-cut. I have added him to the suspected socks list primarily for record-keeping and also because it may be useful for analyzing the Checkuser data. Nsk92 ( talk) 08:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users

I was about to open this myself. There's no question about User:Sduty, whom I blocked on clear behavioral evidence on July 2nd. User:Thatspeed created his account several days thereafter and has continued the same rampant disregard for copyright policy for which User:Amir.Hossein.7055 has been blocked for a year. I'm not sure if a checkuser is necessary, but was going to request one myself in case there are sleepers, since this copyright problem is serious. I also believe that if this socking is confirmed, the primary account should be indefinitely blocked/banned, as it will be quite obvious in that case that this user has no intention of complying with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:02, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I much agree with the last point. If this socking is confirmed, the master account needs to be indeffed. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:19, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

I'm satisfied that this is sockpuppetry and have blocked the main account and sock indefinitely, and the IP for 48 hours. However, a checkuser may still be useful to weed out any sleepers. Rodhull andemu 20:26, 20 July 2010 (UTC) reply

 Possible (based purely on technical evidence) that the following accounts are operated by the same person:

-- Deskana (talk) 23:40, 24 July 2010 (UTC) reply

  • The technical evidence combined with behavioral evidence returns fairly conclusively that all the accounts are operated by the same person. They are all blocked indef. ( X! ·  talk)  ·  @230  ·  04:31, 25 July 2010 (UTC) reply

08 August 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Nsk92

The last batch of socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 were blocked on July 24, 2010. User:Mahshidnadimi started editing a day later, on July 25, with the same pattern - primarily Iran-related articles, uploading multiple images with copyright violations and adding images with clearly invalid fair use claims (see User talk:Mahshidnadimi for examples) E.g. to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President of Iran articles, where User:Mahshidnadimi attempted adding non-free images replacing free images, in clear violation of WP:NFCC#1. Note that, User:Thatspeed, the immediately preceding sock of Amir.Hossein.7055, made similar edits to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President of Iran shortly before being blocked. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:51, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply

I have tagged File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg as RFU (there is an free Commons image currently used in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article), but I want to quote here the following, rather brilliant, passage from the fair use rationale provided by User:Mahshidnadimi when uploading File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg :"Now that he has been kidnapped or defected, likelihood of future images becoming available is near zero". Nsk92 ( talk) 10:34, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply
I am also adding User:80.191.41.229 to this report, since this IP has just attempted to remove [7] the RFU tag from File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg. Nsk92 ( talk) 10:58, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply
I have also added User:Ninatehran - a new account that has just been opened and who has just attempted to remove the RFU tag from File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg and to re-add that image to President of Iran. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:31, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users
FleetCommand

Won't this guy ever learn a lesson? Perhaps, Nsk92, you should remain on patrol and communicate personally with a specific checkuser person to speed the blocking of any further attending of this guy to Wikipedia. I'll assist if you tell me where to patrol? Or maybe we should give him a warning in his own tongue? I know a bit Persian but not enough to do that... —Preceding unsigned comment added by FleetCommand ( talkcontribs) 19:51, 8 August 2010

I'd be happy to avoid having to file new SPI reports and to communicate directly with specific CU/SPI admin(s). But which ones? I am away from home until mid-December, working on a temporary project in Europe, and I'll have pretty lousy internet access until I get back. So I am not sure how much patrolling I'll be able to do. The only reason I keep noticing this guy is that I have the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article watchlisted, and he keeps trying to add non-free images of Ahmadinejad to the article. Nsk92 ( talk) 07:25, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
Hmmm... I see. Never mind, then. Just do what you can and do bother overdoing it. I'll see if I can do anything at all but I won't probably be able to tell him apart as quickly as you do. But this whole dedicated patrol matter is to be abandoned for now, unless another volunteer step up. Never mind, though. Fleet Command ( talk) 18:29, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
information Administrator note Named accounts blocked, autoblock should (hopefully) catch the IP. TN X Man 16:34, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
The two listed accounts are  Confirmed as being related to each other. J.delanoy gabs adds 03:51, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

24 August 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Tnxman307

(I am copying this from my talk page -Tnxman307) I am leaving you a note since you were involved in doing the CU on the last (Aug 8) report on this case. It looks like a new sockpuppet of Amir.Hossein.7055 has popped up, User:DemocraticIranWeneed. The user started editing on Aug 14, a few days after the last batch of socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 were blocked. The editing pattern is similar: mostly Iran-related articles, many image uploads, many soccer-related articles (including some of the same articles as the previous socks of Amir.Hossein.7055). I have not checked uploaded files too closely but it is clear that there are problems with copyright tags/claims there too. E.g. for File:Khatami 2010.jpg, uploaded by DemocraticIranWeneed, the tag specifies "own work" but the author is given as a different user, namely User:Mardetanha. I am pretty sure that DemocraticIranWeneed is a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. - Nsk92 ( talk) TN X Man 14:32, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

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Comments by other users

information Administrator note I think a sleeper check would be a good idea here. TN X Man 14:33, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

information Administrator note I've had a chance to review this and the similarities are pretty striking. Blocked and tagged. TN X Man 17:55, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

 Clerk endorsed per the lengthy history of socking and likelihood of additional socks out there. – MuZemike 05:20, 26 August 2010 (UTC) reply


 Confirmed that

are

which were previously blocked as socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk · contribs).
User is not really the type to create sleepers, and he has no new account yet. Amalthea 13:02, 28 August 2010 (UTC) reply

information Administrator note Blocked and tagged. Marking for close. TN X Man 15:18, 28 August 2010 (UTC) reply

04 September 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

This account started editing of Sept 1, 2010, about a week after User:DemocraticIranWeneed the previous confirmed sock of Amir.Hossein.7055 got blocked. The pattern of editing by Verysomenotes is consistent with that of Amir.Hossein.7055 and his other socks: mostly Iran-related articles and some soccer-related articles. I have looked at a few random articles edited by Verysomenotes and many of them have been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his other socks. E.g. [8] [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], etc. In several of these cases the immediately preceding edit to that of Verysomenotes was by DemocraticIranWeneed. I feel that the behavioral evidence here strongly indicates that this is the same user. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:40, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

@TNXMan: The articles whose histories I linked above, Ali Soheili, Fazlollah Zahedi, Ardeshir Zahedi, Hossein Fatemi, Ahmad Vahidi, Sadeq Larijani are all about Iranian politicians (and, as I said, they have all been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks). It is true that User:Verysomenotes has not yet started uploading images, but I believe that this is because this time the account was spotted early, just 4 days after starting editing. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:01, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Here are a few more, from several consecutive edits of Verysomenotes today: Mohammad Sa'ed, Ahmad Matin-Daftari, Mahmoud Jam, Mostowfi ol-Mamalek, Mohammad-Ali Foroughi, Shapour Bakhtiar. All six have also been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks and in the first 4 of these six, the immediately preceding edits to that of Verysomenotes were by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:10, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Here are even more articles edited by Verysomenotes that have previously been edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks: Nasrollah Entezam (by User:Mahshidnadimi), Abbas Amir-Entezam (by User:Sduty), Behzad Nabavi (by Amir.Hossein.7055), Mohammad-Ali Rajai (by User:DemocraticIranWeneed), Vosough od-Dowleh (by User:Mahshidnadimi and by Amir.Hossein.7055 ), Saad ad-Daula (by Amir.Hossein.7055). I just don't believe that such a significant overlap in editing is explainable by anything other than sockpuppetry. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:20, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Just saw that a CU has been already completed while I was doing the above edit. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:22, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users
  • I am not familiar enough with the edits of Amir.Hossein.7055 to tell whether sockpuppetry is the problem, but I do find this editor's editing pattern problematic. He appears to have taken upon himself the ownership of Portal:Iran, changing selected images and articles with no discussion. If this had been a more experienced editor with a history of involvement with the Iran portal, I would not have thought twice about it, but as a new user, this appears to be an effort to take ownership of Wikipedia's coverage of Iran. I have attempted to engage the user in dialog, both on his talk page and on the Iran Portal talk page and the WikiProject Iran talk page, to no avail. WikiDan61 ChatMe! ReadMe!! 14:07, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

Hmm. I'd like another user to review this. I don't see a lot of commonalities with Amir (although the ones pointed out by Nsk92 are certainly compelling). The previous socks uploaded a lot of problem images (copyright, etc.), but I don't see any of that here. The previous socks also edited a lot of Iranian political articles, again, this seems to be absent. TN X Man 13:53, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

@Nsk92 - thanks for the clarification.
Unfortunately, this seems to be a decently busy range, so there's not much to do on that end. TN X Man 14:17, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

12 September 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

In the last few days User:Amir.Hossein.7055 had tried a different tactic - he tried to edit as an IP rather than as a registered user, see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive216#IP block evasion by User:Amir.Hossein.7055 - is rangeblock an option?. After a few rangeblocks, he is back to his regular sock practice as User: Nimatehran2010. This account has been systematically going through the list of articles previously edited by the socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 and restoring edits of those socks, see e.g. Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, List of Presidents of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini etc. I don't know that another CU would be of any use here, but the new sock account needs to be blocked. Also, I am thinking that maybe one should just semi-protect for a few weeks the bunch of articles that he has edited recently, to give him extra discouragement for continuing to sockpuppet. Nsk92 ( talk) 11:38, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply

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Comments by other users
  • Strong enough quacking here for me to block, but this is a very persistent sock puppeteer now working across multiple projects. I think a check for sleepers might be helpful, although his geolocation may interfere with that. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:41, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

I dug up one sleeper - Amir.omidi ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log· investigate · cuwiki). I also hardened the rangeblocks Moonriddengirl put in place, which should hopefully quiet things down. TN X Man 14:18, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply

information Administrator note Sleeper blocked. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:52, 14 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Marking for close. TN X Man 18:27, 14 September 2010 (UTC) reply

10 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

Relatively new account, edits mostly Iran-related articles as did Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. User:I'm free has most recently tried to add an image to Afshin Ghotbi, an article that has been extensively edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. The image, File:Afshin Ghotbi 2.jpg, has a clearly invalid fair use rationale and is specified as having been uploaded to fa-wiki by DemocraticIranWeneed, who is one of the confirmed socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 here at en-wiki and at the Commons. User:I'm free has also edited several other articles that were previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks, including: Abdullah Gül (edited earlier by Nima.afroozi and Verysomenote), Abulhassan Banisadr (edited earlier by DemocraticIranWeneed), and Kamran Daneshjoo, edited earlier by Amir.Hossein.7055 himself. File:Daneshjoo.jpg, uploaded by User:I'm free also has a licensing tag that is unlikely to be true. Overall, I feel that the behavioural evidence here strongly indicates sockpuppetry. Nsk92 ( talk) 19:37, 10 October 2010 (UTC) reply

Note that the master account User:Amir.Hossein.7055 made some edits to his user talk page about a month ago (e.g. here [15]) which may provide non-stale CU data. Nsk92 ( talk) 19:49, 10 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Also, User:I'm free has edited the page Shirin Ebadi, which is another page that had also been edited by the User:Amir.Hossein.7055 account. Nsk92 ( talk) 12:54, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Another such page is Mohammad-Reza Rahimi that has just been edited by User:I'm free and previously was edited by User:DemocraticIranWeneed - another sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055. User:I'm free has added to this page the image File:Rahimi.jpg that he has just uploaded to en-wiki. The licensing info given for this image is extremely dubious and most likely false: "I (I'm free (talk)) created this work entirely by myself. (transfered from fa.wikipedia.org)". It is unlikely that the user would have really been able to take a photo of an Iran's VP himself. Most likely he just copied the file from fa-wiki and transferred it here - of course that does not mean that he " created this work entirely" by himself. The source data from fa-wiki is not included in the image data, but it could well be that the photo was uploaded there by the same user after he found it somewhere on the internet. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:04, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
By the way, there is a user with the same name "I'm free" at Commons who is indef-blocked there, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:I%27m_free and that Commons account is tagged as a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:40, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
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Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

 Confirmed that

are all the same. No other socks, at the moment. Amalthea 15:43, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply


15 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets
Evidence submitted by Nsk92

The last confirmed sock, User:I'm free, was blocked on Oct 11. This new account started editing on October 15, going over several articles previously edited by User:Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks, including Masoud Mir Kazemi (edited by User:Verysomenotes and User:DemocraticIranWeneed), Mohammad-Reza Rahimi (edited on Oct 11 by User:I'm free) and Vice President of Iran (also edited on Oct 11 by User:I'm free). In particular, this new account tried to add the image File:Rahimi.jpg uploaded to Commons on Oct 15 with the license tag specifying the author as User:I'm free. So basically a self-admitted sock. A CU may still be useful to find out how he opened this new account and if there are any related sleepers. Nsk92 ( talk) 08:50, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply

I see that he has just switched to editing as an IP, User:85.198.7.146, which is reinstating the edits made by User:Shariatitehranpars. The IP also needs to be blocked and maybe rangeblocks that are in place need to be updated. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:42, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

 Confirmed that

is the same person as I'm free ( talk · contribs) and friends. Tagged and blocked, everything's already been reverted.
Amalthea 13:02, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply


22 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Nsk92

These IPs have been editing articles recently edited by confirmed socks of User:Amir.Hossein.7055, including pages like Afshin Ghotbi, Masoud Mir Kazemi, List of Secretaries General of OPEC. In particular, they have been trying to add to Afshin Ghotbi an immage uploaded today to Commons with an obviously bogus licensing info, see Commons:Deletion requests/File:Afshin Ghotbi 1980.jpg. The article Afshin Ghotbi has been the target of particularly persistent socking by User:Amir.Hossein.7055. The IPs are still actively editing, so they need to be blocked and probably the existing rangeblocks need to be updated. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:16, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, User:What's ur name? has just popped up and tried to re-add [16] the same image. Note that the user who uploaded the image to Commons today has the same username there, "User:What's ur name?" Under the circumstances, a CU may be appropriate. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:21, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

What's ur name? ( talk · contribs) was SULed over from commons, and blocked there a few minutes ago as a sock of Amir Hossein (see commons:Commons:Administrators' noticeboard/User problems#Returning sock). Indefed here as well.
Amalthea 16:32, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

OK, thanks, but what about the IPs/rangeblocks? Nsk92 ( talk) 16:34, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Heh, I notice now that you brought it up there in the first place. :)
Anyway, I'll look at the IPs, but won't be commenting on them either way. Amalthea 16:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

14 November 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

A fairly recent account (started editing on Nov 5, 2010), with the same pattern of editing as Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co.: mostly Iran- and soccer-related articles. Many articles edited by Ninasport have been previously edited by other socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, e.g. Mansour Ebrahimzadeh, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ardeshir Zahedi, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, and many others. Ninasport has also uploaded a number of Iran-related images with obviously inadequate and in some cases obviously bogus licensing info. E.g. the images File:Sanjabi.jpg and File:Ardeshir Zahedi.jpg are "sourced" to google.com. File:Ebrahimzadeh 2010.jpg is a photo of a living subject while the license info provided by the uploader claims that it is a logo. And so on. Quite clearly we are dealing with a new sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:14, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

This edit by Ninasport [17] appears to be a self-admission that Ninasport is a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:33, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

Auto-generated every six hours.

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Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
 Confirmed, but no sleepers. TN X Man 14:53, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

01 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

User:MahdiKarimi is, evidently, the newest sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. As before, edits mostly Iran- and soccer-related articles, with quite a few articles that had been edited earlier by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. These articles include Afshin Ghotbi, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Hassan Habibi, Mahmoud Bahmani, etc. Particularly illustrative is the image File:Ghotbi at UCLA Bruins Men's.jpg‎ uploaded by MahdiKarimi today. This is the same very image that various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 have persistently tried numerous times before to upload both at en-wiki and at Commons. The licensing tag is blatantly false. It states that the image was made in 1980 and that the photo is of Ghotbi "as a teenager", yet the image obviously shows a man in his 40s. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:26, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, after I filed this SPI report and reverted several edits of MahdiKarimi, an IP, User:85.198.7.178, has popped up and started restoring those edits. I suggest blocking the IP and/or revisiting the rangeblocks that are in place. Also, maybe a long-term of permanent semi-protection of the Afshin Ghotbi article could be in order, since the article has been a particularly persistent target of sockpuppeteering by Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:52, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply
Yet another sock has just popped up, User:Ilovesport. The guy just does not know when to quit. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:28, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply
Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed this account is the same as Ninasport ( talk · contribs), a previously blocked sock. No sleepers, though. TN X Man 14:12, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply

12 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

The user TariqMahdi has edit a number of articles that have been recently edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. This includes Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Vice President of Iran, Nasrin Soltankhah. The editing pattern is similar - mostly Iran and soccer related articles. TariqMahdi has also added an image [18] to Mohammad-Reza Rahimi that appears to be the same image that was previously uploaded by one of the socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, see Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files/2010 October 11#File:Rahimi.jpg. Today this image was re-uploaded to the Commons, but with the same dubious licensing claim - it is unlikely that the uploader has personal access to the V.P. of Iran to take that kind of a picture. I think a CU is advisable here, also to flush out possible additional socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:05, 12 December 2010 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 13:05, 12 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

24 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

User:QATS.1001 started editing on Dec 19, a few days after the last batch of socks were blocked. The editing pattern is similar to Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co.: mostly Iran and soccer-related articles. In particular, User:QATS.1001 has extensively edited the article Afshin Ghotbi, which has been a particularly obsessive target of sockpuppetry by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. User:QATS.1001 has uploaded an image of Ghotbi to the Commons with a clearly invalid licensing info, File:Qatar Friendship Cup 2010.jpg and added it to the Afshin Ghotbi and Iran national football team articles - both of which have been recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. Other articles edited by those socks and by QATS.1001 include 2011 AFC Asian Cup (edited by User:TariqMahdi on Dec 12) and Ali Daei. A CU is advisable to ferret out possible additional socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:55, 24 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following:


26 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

Neavymade started editing right after the previous batch of socks have been blocked, concentrating once again on Iran and soccer related articles. He quickly re-added an image to Vice President of Iran that has been added by Roleclerk2, the latest sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Also edited List of kings of Persia, an article previously edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including User:MahdiKarimi on Dec 1. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:47, 26 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed TN X Man 17:08, 26 December 2010 (UTC) reply


30 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

The account, Samet107, started editing shortly after the last batch of socks were blocked. The same editing pattern - mostly Iran and soccer related articles. Has edited a significant number of pages in common with Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co, including: Javad Nekounam, Human Afazeli, Iran national football team, Ali Akbar Salehi, Vice President of Iran, and others. A CU is advisable to ferret out other possible socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:07, 30 December 2010 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed and blocked. – MuZemike 22:58, 30 December 2010 (UTC) reply


31 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

Another day, another sock. The new account, Ninatehran2011, has just popped up and started restoring the edits of Samet107, the sock blocked yesterday. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:19, 31 December 2010 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 16:19, 31 December 2010 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed - also given the level of abuse, I'm disclosing this IP range per privacy policy; 84.47.200.0/22. Recommending short-term softblock w/ACB - very low collateral damage on that range - Alison 07:26, 1 January 2011 (UTC) reply

02 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

A new account, IranRussia, has started editing shortly after the last sock was blocked. The same ammo as before: mostly Iran and soccer related articles. Despite a short editing history, has already edited a number of pages in common with various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including List of kings of Persia, Ahmad Qavam, Hossein Saffar Harandi, National Front (Iran), Vice President of Iran. Also, the same account, IranRussia, has just uploaded to Commons a photo of Afshin Ghotbi (namely File:S. A. Ghotbi.jpg) - a particularly obsessive target of sockpuppetry by Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co in the past. Recommend a CU, just in case there are more accounts. Nsk92 ( talk) 21:11, 2 January 2011 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

03 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

The usual: a new sock for the day, User:International Uploader, is going through a bunch of articles recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 and adding images (in some cases yet non-existent images, but he seems to be adding some at Commons as well). Nsk92 ( talk) 13:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed, small range blocked as a test. TN X Man 14:12, 3 January 2011 (UTC) reply

05 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

New.Iran2011 started editing today, 2 days after the last sock was blocked. With a short editing history has already edited several pages previously edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Ali Akbar Salehi, Abol-Ghasem Kashani, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mirza Nasrullah Khan, Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran, and uploaded a bunch of Iran-related images to Commons. Recommend a CU. Nsk92 ( talk) 17:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 17:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

10 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets

Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

It has been a few days since the last report, and a new sock appears to have popped up. The new account, Hamid.Vahedi, has edited only a few pages, but all of them are the ones previously edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055: Javad Nekounam, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi. Moreover, the same account has uploaded to Commons the same image, File:Javad Nekounam 2006.jpg that was previously uploaded by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, and an image File:Dastjerdi.jpg, to replace a recently deleted image of the same subject uploaded by a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Also, note that the file description for File:Javad Nekounam 2006.jpg states that "This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Mahshidnadimi". User:Mahshidnadimi is one of the previously blocked socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. Recommend a CU, just in case, to flash out possible other socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:15, 10 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 14:15, 10 January 2011 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following are the same:


11 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

Angerlistss, a new account that started editing today, Iran/soccer related articles, goes through articles recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Iman Mobali, 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Gholamreza Rezaei, Jalal Hosseini, Andranik Teymourian, etc. Recommend a customary CU. Nsk92 ( talk) 18:49, 11 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 18:49, 11 January 2011 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
  •  Confirmed the following are the same:

13 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

A new account, HesamKopoul, has started editing today with a familiar pattern. Has edited several pages previously edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Iran national football team, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, List of Prime Ministers of Qatar, Anifah Aman. The same account has uploaded a bunch of images to Commons today - I did not have time to look at them but I see that they have already been deleted there as creations of a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Recommend a customary CU, to check for additional accounts. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:58, 13 January 2011 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following are the same:

15 April 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

FromEast ( talk · contribs) was blocked for serial bad image uploads here on en-wiki, while they are also blocked on Commons ( commons:User:FromEast) as a suspected sock of serial sockpuppeter commons:User:Amir.Hossein.7055 ( Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk · contribs)). Persian.Saeed ( talk · contribs), while created and briefly active earlier in February, became systematically active just a few days after FromEast was blocked here, and has developed a very similar pattern of suspicious image uploads: focussing on Iranian political figures; some legitimate PD ones but in many cases playing fast and loose with unsubstantiated PD claims. Fut.Perf. 15:18, 15 April 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

Well, there's certainly something going on. The following are  Confirmed matches:


19 May 2012
Suspected sockpuppets

The above are all already blocked, but could we have a sleeper check please, and consider possibilities of a range block? He's been quite active again lately. Fut.Perf. 08:42, 19 May 2012 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
He's a serial sockpuppeter doing persistent copyvio image uploads. His other edits are typically to minor Iranian football articles, especially football managers of Iranian clubs, updating scores, often re-creating the same minor (unsourced) player bios and so on. His socks rarely come up on this board because I mostly block them on Duck criteria, but only after each of them has been active for a while. commons:User:Martin H. often checkusers them on Commons. Experience shows that he creates sleeper socks in batches, so I thought it would be useful to check the above known socks, which are the latest non-stale ones, to see if he has unused ones in store. Fut.Perf. 14:14, 19 May 2012 (UTC) reply

27 June 2012

Archive section moved to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Spacemen2050/Archive. Fut.Perf. 13:44, 6 July 2012 (UTC) reply

Suspected sockpuppets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Amir.Hossein.7055

Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log· investigate · cuwiki)
18 July 2010
Suspected sockpuppets
Evidence submitted by Nsk92

User:Sduty, a self-admitted sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055, was indef-blocked on July 2. User:Amir.Hossein.7055 is currently blocked for a year and his edits (as well as that of User:Sduty) are almost exclusively on Iran-related articles, with a persistent history of uploading Iran-related images with blatantly false licensing tag info. User:Thatspeed started editing on July 5, 2010 and quickly demonstrated the same pattern - see his talk page and the current deletion discussions at Wikipedia:Files for deletion/2010 July 18 for examples of such behavior. In particular, both Sduty [1] and Thatspeed [2] attempted to add images with fraudulent tags to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, all three (Amir.Hossein.7055, Sduty, Thatspeed) have edited Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, see the page's history log [3]. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:22, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
I am also adding User:80.191.41.236 as a possible sockpuppet. User:Thatspeed is currently blocked for 48 hours. Earlier he uploaded File:Kamal Kharazi in UN.jpg with obviously false copyright info, and then added it [4] to the Kamal Kharazi article. Now that Thatspeed is blocked, User:80.191.41.236 tried to re-add a link to this file file to the same article [5]. In the next edit [6], the IP edited Ali Akbar Velayati, an article edited earlier in the day by Thatspeed. Nsk92 ( talk) 20:09, 20 July 2010 (UTC) reply
I have also added User:Sduty as a suspected sock, primarily for record-keeping purposes; the user is already indef-blocked as a block-evading sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055. The behavioral evidence for Sduty is also pretty clear, but more importantly Sduty also self-identified as User:Amir.Hossein.7055. Sduty had uploaded a file (now deleted) File:Iranian City and Village Councils elections, 2006.png, where he stated: "I (Amir.Hossein.7055) created this work entirely by myself" and specified the author as User:Amir.Hossein.7055. So the Sduty case is clear-cut. I have added him to the suspected socks list primarily for record-keeping and also because it may be useful for analyzing the Checkuser data. Nsk92 ( talk) 08:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users

I was about to open this myself. There's no question about User:Sduty, whom I blocked on clear behavioral evidence on July 2nd. User:Thatspeed created his account several days thereafter and has continued the same rampant disregard for copyright policy for which User:Amir.Hossein.7055 has been blocked for a year. I'm not sure if a checkuser is necessary, but was going to request one myself in case there are sleepers, since this copyright problem is serious. I also believe that if this socking is confirmed, the primary account should be indefinitely blocked/banned, as it will be quite obvious in that case that this user has no intention of complying with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:02, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply

I much agree with the last point. If this socking is confirmed, the master account needs to be indeffed. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:19, 18 July 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

I'm satisfied that this is sockpuppetry and have blocked the main account and sock indefinitely, and the IP for 48 hours. However, a checkuser may still be useful to weed out any sleepers. Rodhull andemu 20:26, 20 July 2010 (UTC) reply

 Possible (based purely on technical evidence) that the following accounts are operated by the same person:

-- Deskana (talk) 23:40, 24 July 2010 (UTC) reply

  • The technical evidence combined with behavioral evidence returns fairly conclusively that all the accounts are operated by the same person. They are all blocked indef. ( X! ·  talk)  ·  @230  ·  04:31, 25 July 2010 (UTC) reply

08 August 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Nsk92

The last batch of socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 were blocked on July 24, 2010. User:Mahshidnadimi started editing a day later, on July 25, with the same pattern - primarily Iran-related articles, uploading multiple images with copyright violations and adding images with clearly invalid fair use claims (see User talk:Mahshidnadimi for examples) E.g. to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President of Iran articles, where User:Mahshidnadimi attempted adding non-free images replacing free images, in clear violation of WP:NFCC#1. Note that, User:Thatspeed, the immediately preceding sock of Amir.Hossein.7055, made similar edits to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President of Iran shortly before being blocked. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:51, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply

I have tagged File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg as RFU (there is an free Commons image currently used in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article), but I want to quote here the following, rather brilliant, passage from the fair use rationale provided by User:Mahshidnadimi when uploading File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg :"Now that he has been kidnapped or defected, likelihood of future images becoming available is near zero". Nsk92 ( talk) 10:34, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply
I am also adding User:80.191.41.229 to this report, since this IP has just attempted to remove [7] the RFU tag from File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg. Nsk92 ( talk) 10:58, 8 August 2010 (UTC) reply
I have also added User:Ninatehran - a new account that has just been opened and who has just attempted to remove the RFU tag from File:President Ahmadinejad.jpg and to re-add that image to President of Iran. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:31, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users
FleetCommand

Won't this guy ever learn a lesson? Perhaps, Nsk92, you should remain on patrol and communicate personally with a specific checkuser person to speed the blocking of any further attending of this guy to Wikipedia. I'll assist if you tell me where to patrol? Or maybe we should give him a warning in his own tongue? I know a bit Persian but not enough to do that... —Preceding unsigned comment added by FleetCommand ( talkcontribs) 19:51, 8 August 2010

I'd be happy to avoid having to file new SPI reports and to communicate directly with specific CU/SPI admin(s). But which ones? I am away from home until mid-December, working on a temporary project in Europe, and I'll have pretty lousy internet access until I get back. So I am not sure how much patrolling I'll be able to do. The only reason I keep noticing this guy is that I have the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article watchlisted, and he keeps trying to add non-free images of Ahmadinejad to the article. Nsk92 ( talk) 07:25, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
Hmmm... I see. Never mind, then. Just do what you can and do bother overdoing it. I'll see if I can do anything at all but I won't probably be able to tell him apart as quickly as you do. But this whole dedicated patrol matter is to be abandoned for now, unless another volunteer step up. Never mind, though. Fleet Command ( talk) 18:29, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
information Administrator note Named accounts blocked, autoblock should (hopefully) catch the IP. TN X Man 16:34, 9 August 2010 (UTC) reply
The two listed accounts are  Confirmed as being related to each other. J.delanoy gabs adds 03:51, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

24 August 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Tnxman307

(I am copying this from my talk page -Tnxman307) I am leaving you a note since you were involved in doing the CU on the last (Aug 8) report on this case. It looks like a new sockpuppet of Amir.Hossein.7055 has popped up, User:DemocraticIranWeneed. The user started editing on Aug 14, a few days after the last batch of socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 were blocked. The editing pattern is similar: mostly Iran-related articles, many image uploads, many soccer-related articles (including some of the same articles as the previous socks of Amir.Hossein.7055). I have not checked uploaded files too closely but it is clear that there are problems with copyright tags/claims there too. E.g. for File:Khatami 2010.jpg, uploaded by DemocraticIranWeneed, the tag specifies "own work" but the author is given as a different user, namely User:Mardetanha. I am pretty sure that DemocraticIranWeneed is a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. - Nsk92 ( talk) TN X Man 14:32, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

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Comments by other users

information Administrator note I think a sleeper check would be a good idea here. TN X Man 14:33, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

information Administrator note I've had a chance to review this and the similarities are pretty striking. Blocked and tagged. TN X Man 17:55, 24 August 2010 (UTC) reply

 Clerk endorsed per the lengthy history of socking and likelihood of additional socks out there. – MuZemike 05:20, 26 August 2010 (UTC) reply


 Confirmed that

are

which were previously blocked as socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk · contribs).
User is not really the type to create sleepers, and he has no new account yet. Amalthea 13:02, 28 August 2010 (UTC) reply

information Administrator note Blocked and tagged. Marking for close. TN X Man 15:18, 28 August 2010 (UTC) reply

04 September 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

This account started editing of Sept 1, 2010, about a week after User:DemocraticIranWeneed the previous confirmed sock of Amir.Hossein.7055 got blocked. The pattern of editing by Verysomenotes is consistent with that of Amir.Hossein.7055 and his other socks: mostly Iran-related articles and some soccer-related articles. I have looked at a few random articles edited by Verysomenotes and many of them have been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his other socks. E.g. [8] [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], etc. In several of these cases the immediately preceding edit to that of Verysomenotes was by DemocraticIranWeneed. I feel that the behavioral evidence here strongly indicates that this is the same user. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:40, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

@TNXMan: The articles whose histories I linked above, Ali Soheili, Fazlollah Zahedi, Ardeshir Zahedi, Hossein Fatemi, Ahmad Vahidi, Sadeq Larijani are all about Iranian politicians (and, as I said, they have all been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks). It is true that User:Verysomenotes has not yet started uploading images, but I believe that this is because this time the account was spotted early, just 4 days after starting editing. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:01, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Here are a few more, from several consecutive edits of Verysomenotes today: Mohammad Sa'ed, Ahmad Matin-Daftari, Mahmoud Jam, Mostowfi ol-Mamalek, Mohammad-Ali Foroughi, Shapour Bakhtiar. All six have also been previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks and in the first 4 of these six, the immediately preceding edits to that of Verysomenotes were by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:10, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Here are even more articles edited by Verysomenotes that have previously been edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks: Nasrollah Entezam (by User:Mahshidnadimi), Abbas Amir-Entezam (by User:Sduty), Behzad Nabavi (by Amir.Hossein.7055), Mohammad-Ali Rajai (by User:DemocraticIranWeneed), Vosough od-Dowleh (by User:Mahshidnadimi and by Amir.Hossein.7055 ), Saad ad-Daula (by Amir.Hossein.7055). I just don't believe that such a significant overlap in editing is explainable by anything other than sockpuppetry. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:20, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Just saw that a CU has been already completed while I was doing the above edit. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:22, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users
  • I am not familiar enough with the edits of Amir.Hossein.7055 to tell whether sockpuppetry is the problem, but I do find this editor's editing pattern problematic. He appears to have taken upon himself the ownership of Portal:Iran, changing selected images and articles with no discussion. If this had been a more experienced editor with a history of involvement with the Iran portal, I would not have thought twice about it, but as a new user, this appears to be an effort to take ownership of Wikipedia's coverage of Iran. I have attempted to engage the user in dialog, both on his talk page and on the Iran Portal talk page and the WikiProject Iran talk page, to no avail. WikiDan61 ChatMe! ReadMe!! 14:07, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

Hmm. I'd like another user to review this. I don't see a lot of commonalities with Amir (although the ones pointed out by Nsk92 are certainly compelling). The previous socks uploaded a lot of problem images (copyright, etc.), but I don't see any of that here. The previous socks also edited a lot of Iranian political articles, again, this seems to be absent. TN X Man 13:53, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

@Nsk92 - thanks for the clarification.
Unfortunately, this seems to be a decently busy range, so there's not much to do on that end. TN X Man 14:17, 4 September 2010 (UTC) reply

12 September 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

In the last few days User:Amir.Hossein.7055 had tried a different tactic - he tried to edit as an IP rather than as a registered user, see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive216#IP block evasion by User:Amir.Hossein.7055 - is rangeblock an option?. After a few rangeblocks, he is back to his regular sock practice as User: Nimatehran2010. This account has been systematically going through the list of articles previously edited by the socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 and restoring edits of those socks, see e.g. Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, List of Presidents of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini etc. I don't know that another CU would be of any use here, but the new sock account needs to be blocked. Also, I am thinking that maybe one should just semi-protect for a few weeks the bunch of articles that he has edited recently, to give him extra discouragement for continuing to sockpuppet. Nsk92 ( talk) 11:38, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply

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Comments by other users
  • Strong enough quacking here for me to block, but this is a very persistent sock puppeteer now working across multiple projects. I think a check for sleepers might be helpful, although his geolocation may interfere with that. -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:41, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

I dug up one sleeper - Amir.omidi ( talk + · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log· investigate · cuwiki). I also hardened the rangeblocks Moonriddengirl put in place, which should hopefully quiet things down. TN X Man 14:18, 12 September 2010 (UTC) reply

information Administrator note Sleeper blocked. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:52, 14 September 2010 (UTC) reply
Marking for close. TN X Man 18:27, 14 September 2010 (UTC) reply

10 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

Relatively new account, edits mostly Iran-related articles as did Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. User:I'm free has most recently tried to add an image to Afshin Ghotbi, an article that has been extensively edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. The image, File:Afshin Ghotbi 2.jpg, has a clearly invalid fair use rationale and is specified as having been uploaded to fa-wiki by DemocraticIranWeneed, who is one of the confirmed socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 here at en-wiki and at the Commons. User:I'm free has also edited several other articles that were previously edited by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks, including: Abdullah Gül (edited earlier by Nima.afroozi and Verysomenote), Abulhassan Banisadr (edited earlier by DemocraticIranWeneed), and Kamran Daneshjoo, edited earlier by Amir.Hossein.7055 himself. File:Daneshjoo.jpg, uploaded by User:I'm free also has a licensing tag that is unlikely to be true. Overall, I feel that the behavioural evidence here strongly indicates sockpuppetry. Nsk92 ( talk) 19:37, 10 October 2010 (UTC) reply

Note that the master account User:Amir.Hossein.7055 made some edits to his user talk page about a month ago (e.g. here [15]) which may provide non-stale CU data. Nsk92 ( talk) 19:49, 10 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Also, User:I'm free has edited the page Shirin Ebadi, which is another page that had also been edited by the User:Amir.Hossein.7055 account. Nsk92 ( talk) 12:54, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Another such page is Mohammad-Reza Rahimi that has just been edited by User:I'm free and previously was edited by User:DemocraticIranWeneed - another sock of User:Amir.Hossein.7055. User:I'm free has added to this page the image File:Rahimi.jpg that he has just uploaded to en-wiki. The licensing info given for this image is extremely dubious and most likely false: "I (I'm free (talk)) created this work entirely by myself. (transfered from fa.wikipedia.org)". It is unlikely that the user would have really been able to take a photo of an Iran's VP himself. Most likely he just copied the file from fa-wiki and transferred it here - of course that does not mean that he " created this work entirely" by himself. The source data from fa-wiki is not included in the image data, but it could well be that the photo was uploaded there by the same user after he found it somewhere on the internet. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:04, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
By the way, there is a user with the same name "I'm free" at Commons who is indef-blocked there, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:I%27m_free and that Commons account is tagged as a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:40, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply
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Comments by other users
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

 Confirmed that

are all the same. No other socks, at the moment. Amalthea 15:43, 11 October 2010 (UTC) reply


15 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets
Evidence submitted by Nsk92

The last confirmed sock, User:I'm free, was blocked on Oct 11. This new account started editing on October 15, going over several articles previously edited by User:Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks, including Masoud Mir Kazemi (edited by User:Verysomenotes and User:DemocraticIranWeneed), Mohammad-Reza Rahimi (edited on Oct 11 by User:I'm free) and Vice President of Iran (also edited on Oct 11 by User:I'm free). In particular, this new account tried to add the image File:Rahimi.jpg uploaded to Commons on Oct 15 with the license tag specifying the author as User:I'm free. So basically a self-admitted sock. A CU may still be useful to find out how he opened this new account and if there are any related sleepers. Nsk92 ( talk) 08:50, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply

I see that he has just switched to editing as an IP, User:85.198.7.146, which is reinstating the edits made by User:Shariatitehranpars. The IP also needs to be blocked and maybe rangeblocks that are in place need to be updated. Nsk92 ( talk) 09:42, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

 Confirmed that

is the same person as I'm free ( talk · contribs) and friends. Tagged and blocked, everything's already been reverted.
Amalthea 13:02, 15 October 2010 (UTC) reply


22 October 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Nsk92

These IPs have been editing articles recently edited by confirmed socks of User:Amir.Hossein.7055, including pages like Afshin Ghotbi, Masoud Mir Kazemi, List of Secretaries General of OPEC. In particular, they have been trying to add to Afshin Ghotbi an immage uploaded today to Commons with an obviously bogus licensing info, see Commons:Deletion requests/File:Afshin Ghotbi 1980.jpg. The article Afshin Ghotbi has been the target of particularly persistent socking by User:Amir.Hossein.7055. The IPs are still actively editing, so they need to be blocked and probably the existing rangeblocks need to be updated. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:16, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, User:What's ur name? has just popped up and tried to re-add [16] the same image. Note that the user who uploaded the image to Commons today has the same username there, "User:What's ur name?" Under the circumstances, a CU may be appropriate. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:21, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

What's ur name? ( talk · contribs) was SULed over from commons, and blocked there a few minutes ago as a sock of Amir Hossein (see commons:Commons:Administrators' noticeboard/User problems#Returning sock). Indefed here as well.
Amalthea 16:32, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

OK, thanks, but what about the IPs/rangeblocks? Nsk92 ( talk) 16:34, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply
Heh, I notice now that you brought it up there in the first place. :)
Anyway, I'll look at the IPs, but won't be commenting on them either way. Amalthea 16:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC) reply

14 November 2010
Suspected sockpuppets



Evidence submitted by Nsk92

A fairly recent account (started editing on Nov 5, 2010), with the same pattern of editing as Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co.: mostly Iran- and soccer-related articles. Many articles edited by Ninasport have been previously edited by other socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, e.g. Mansour Ebrahimzadeh, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ardeshir Zahedi, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, and many others. Ninasport has also uploaded a number of Iran-related images with obviously inadequate and in some cases obviously bogus licensing info. E.g. the images File:Sanjabi.jpg and File:Ardeshir Zahedi.jpg are "sourced" to google.com. File:Ebrahimzadeh 2010.jpg is a photo of a living subject while the license info provided by the uploader claims that it is a logo. And so on. Quite clearly we are dealing with a new sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:14, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

This edit by Ninasport [17] appears to be a self-admission that Ninasport is a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:33, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

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Comments by other users
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
 Confirmed, but no sleepers. TN X Man 14:53, 14 November 2010 (UTC) reply

01 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

User:MahdiKarimi is, evidently, the newest sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. As before, edits mostly Iran- and soccer-related articles, with quite a few articles that had been edited earlier by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. These articles include Afshin Ghotbi, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Hassan Habibi, Mahmoud Bahmani, etc. Particularly illustrative is the image File:Ghotbi at UCLA Bruins Men's.jpg‎ uploaded by MahdiKarimi today. This is the same very image that various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 have persistently tried numerous times before to upload both at en-wiki and at Commons. The licensing tag is blatantly false. It states that the image was made in 1980 and that the photo is of Ghotbi "as a teenager", yet the image obviously shows a man in his 40s. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:26, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply

Also, after I filed this SPI report and reverted several edits of MahdiKarimi, an IP, User:85.198.7.178, has popped up and started restoring those edits. I suggest blocking the IP and/or revisiting the rangeblocks that are in place. Also, maybe a long-term of permanent semi-protection of the Afshin Ghotbi article could be in order, since the article has been a particularly persistent target of sockpuppeteering by Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:52, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply
Yet another sock has just popped up, User:Ilovesport. The guy just does not know when to quit. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:28, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed this account is the same as Ninasport ( talk · contribs), a previously blocked sock. No sleepers, though. TN X Man 14:12, 1 December 2010 (UTC) reply

12 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


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The user TariqMahdi has edit a number of articles that have been recently edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. This includes Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Vice President of Iran, Nasrin Soltankhah. The editing pattern is similar - mostly Iran and soccer related articles. TariqMahdi has also added an image [18] to Mohammad-Reza Rahimi that appears to be the same image that was previously uploaded by one of the socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, see Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files/2010 October 11#File:Rahimi.jpg. Today this image was re-uploaded to the Commons, but with the same dubious licensing claim - it is unlikely that the uploader has personal access to the V.P. of Iran to take that kind of a picture. I think a CU is advisable here, also to flush out possible additional socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:05, 12 December 2010 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 13:05, 12 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

24 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


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User:QATS.1001 started editing on Dec 19, a few days after the last batch of socks were blocked. The editing pattern is similar to Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co.: mostly Iran and soccer-related articles. In particular, User:QATS.1001 has extensively edited the article Afshin Ghotbi, which has been a particularly obsessive target of sockpuppetry by Amir.Hossein.7055 and his socks. User:QATS.1001 has uploaded an image of Ghotbi to the Commons with a clearly invalid licensing info, File:Qatar Friendship Cup 2010.jpg and added it to the Afshin Ghotbi and Iran national football team articles - both of which have been recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. Other articles edited by those socks and by QATS.1001 include 2011 AFC Asian Cup (edited by User:TariqMahdi on Dec 12) and Ali Daei. A CU is advisable to ferret out possible additional socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 15:55, 24 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following:


26 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


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Neavymade started editing right after the previous batch of socks have been blocked, concentrating once again on Iran and soccer related articles. He quickly re-added an image to Vice President of Iran that has been added by Roleclerk2, the latest sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Also edited List of kings of Persia, an article previously edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including User:MahdiKarimi on Dec 1. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:47, 26 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed TN X Man 17:08, 26 December 2010 (UTC) reply


30 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


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The account, Samet107, started editing shortly after the last batch of socks were blocked. The same editing pattern - mostly Iran and soccer related articles. Has edited a significant number of pages in common with Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co, including: Javad Nekounam, Human Afazeli, Iran national football team, Ali Akbar Salehi, Vice President of Iran, and others. A CU is advisable to ferret out other possible socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:07, 30 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed and blocked. – MuZemike 22:58, 30 December 2010 (UTC) reply


31 December 2010
Suspected sockpuppets


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Another day, another sock. The new account, Ninatehran2011, has just popped up and started restoring the edits of Samet107, the sock blocked yesterday. Nsk92 ( talk) 16:19, 31 December 2010 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 16:19, 31 December 2010 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed - also given the level of abuse, I'm disclosing this IP range per privacy policy; 84.47.200.0/22. Recommending short-term softblock w/ACB - very low collateral damage on that range - Alison 07:26, 1 January 2011 (UTC) reply

02 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


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A new account, IranRussia, has started editing shortly after the last sock was blocked. The same ammo as before: mostly Iran and soccer related articles. Despite a short editing history, has already edited a number of pages in common with various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including List of kings of Persia, Ahmad Qavam, Hossein Saffar Harandi, National Front (Iran), Vice President of Iran. Also, the same account, IranRussia, has just uploaded to Commons a photo of Afshin Ghotbi (namely File:S. A. Ghotbi.jpg) - a particularly obsessive target of sockpuppetry by Amir.Hossein.7055 and Co in the past. Recommend a CU, just in case there are more accounts. Nsk92 ( talk) 21:11, 2 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

03 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


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The usual: a new sock for the day, User:International Uploader, is going through a bunch of articles recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055 and adding images (in some cases yet non-existent images, but he seems to be adding some at Commons as well). Nsk92 ( talk) 13:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 Confirmed, small range blocked as a test. TN X Man 14:12, 3 January 2011 (UTC) reply

05 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


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New.Iran2011 started editing today, 2 days after the last sock was blocked. With a short editing history has already edited several pages previously edited by various socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Ali Akbar Salehi, Abol-Ghasem Kashani, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mirza Nasrullah Khan, Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran, and uploaded a bunch of Iran-related images to Commons. Recommend a CU. Nsk92 ( talk) 17:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 17:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

10 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets

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It has been a few days since the last report, and a new sock appears to have popped up. The new account, Hamid.Vahedi, has edited only a few pages, but all of them are the ones previously edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055: Javad Nekounam, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi. Moreover, the same account has uploaded to Commons the same image, File:Javad Nekounam 2006.jpg that was previously uploaded by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, and an image File:Dastjerdi.jpg, to replace a recently deleted image of the same subject uploaded by a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Also, note that the file description for File:Javad Nekounam 2006.jpg states that "This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Mahshidnadimi". User:Mahshidnadimi is one of the previously blocked socks of Amir.Hossein.7055. Recommend a CU, just in case, to flash out possible other socks. Nsk92 ( talk) 14:15, 10 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 14:15, 10 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following are the same:


11 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


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Angerlistss, a new account that started editing today, Iran/soccer related articles, goes through articles recently edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Iman Mobali, 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Gholamreza Rezaei, Jalal Hosseini, Andranik Teymourian, etc. Recommend a customary CU. Nsk92 ( talk) 18:49, 11 January 2011 (UTC) Nsk92 ( talk) 18:49, 11 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
  •  Confirmed the following are the same:

13 January 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

A new account, HesamKopoul, has started editing today with a familiar pattern. Has edited several pages previously edited by socks of Amir.Hossein.7055, including Iran national football team, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, List of Prime Ministers of Qatar, Anifah Aman. The same account has uploaded a bunch of images to Commons today - I did not have time to look at them but I see that they have already been deleted there as creations of a sock of Amir.Hossein.7055. Recommend a customary CU, to check for additional accounts. Nsk92 ( talk) 13:58, 13 January 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Confirmed the following are the same:

15 April 2011
Suspected sockpuppets


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FromEast ( talk · contribs) was blocked for serial bad image uploads here on en-wiki, while they are also blocked on Commons ( commons:User:FromEast) as a suspected sock of serial sockpuppeter commons:User:Amir.Hossein.7055 ( Amir.Hossein.7055 ( talk · contribs)). Persian.Saeed ( talk · contribs), while created and briefly active earlier in February, became systematically active just a few days after FromEast was blocked here, and has developed a very similar pattern of suspicious image uploads: focussing on Iranian political figures; some legitimate PD ones but in many cases playing fast and loose with unsubstantiated PD claims. Fut.Perf. 15:18, 15 April 2011 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

Well, there's certainly something going on. The following are  Confirmed matches:


19 May 2012
Suspected sockpuppets

The above are all already blocked, but could we have a sleeper check please, and consider possibilities of a range block? He's been quite active again lately. Fut.Perf. 08:42, 19 May 2012 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
He's a serial sockpuppeter doing persistent copyvio image uploads. His other edits are typically to minor Iranian football articles, especially football managers of Iranian clubs, updating scores, often re-creating the same minor (unsourced) player bios and so on. His socks rarely come up on this board because I mostly block them on Duck criteria, but only after each of them has been active for a while. commons:User:Martin H. often checkusers them on Commons. Experience shows that he creates sleeper socks in batches, so I thought it would be useful to check the above known socks, which are the latest non-stale ones, to see if he has unused ones in store. Fut.Perf. 14:14, 19 May 2012 (UTC) reply

27 June 2012

Archive section moved to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Spacemen2050/Archive. Fut.Perf. 13:44, 6 July 2012 (UTC) reply

Suspected sockpuppets

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