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Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Crount

Spammers

Big haul of UPE sockpuppets that also did some sneaky REFSPAM. MER-C 19:28, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Blacklisted. MER-C 20:15, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Nothing more found, although I am absolutely sure there is. MER-C 13:30, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

The Current

thecurrent-online.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot- Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

The student newspaper The Current at University of Missouri–St. Louis used to have the url thecurrent-online.com. At some point in 2020/21, they stopped using that domain, and it was taken over by someone else, a "news" site that is just a content scraper with clickbait headlines:

  • web.archive.org/web/20200125145937/ thecurrent-online.com/ in January 2020 it was still the student newspaper
  • web.archive.org/web/20211102132822/ thecurrent-online.com/ in November 2021 it was parked at GoDaddy
  • web.archive.org/web/20211208041020/ thecurrent-online.com/ in December 2021 the content scraper had taken over

The real The Current has a new domain, https://thecurrent-online.net, and a few weeks ago I updated the half-dozen instances where the .com url was used in sources to an archived version of the url, e.g. here.

Problem is, the content scraper pretends to be the student newspaper, and there is a link to "our Wikipedia page" from their "About us" page, thecurrent-online.com/about-us-and-our-team/ . (The photos of "our team" are stock photos, I did an image search.) In January, when I updated the official link in the Wikipedia article and fixed the references, their contact address and "About us" web.archive.org/web/20230121000301/ thecurrent-online.com/ looked like this (bottom of page). Now, they have changed both their "About" information and their (alleged) contact addresses, as seen at the bottom of thecurrent-online.com/ . I noticed this when I saw that a user, Manishdhanda, had edited The Current (newspaper) today in order to restore the .com urls.

It really looks like thecurrent-online.com are making an effort to spam Wikipedia with their links, and I see no reason why we'd ever want to link to that website. -- bonadea contributions talk 20:53, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Ugh. I've run across this about a dozen times in the last six months. A high-volume reputable paper or source goes defunct, and a scam site picks up the domain, replicates the historical articles, and then floods it with spam/SEO articles. It makes it incredibly hard to screen for as I have to look at when the links were added (can't rely on the dates on the site). Will add that one to my list. Sam Kuru (talk) 22:32, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
Gngh. I was hoping it wasn't a thing, but it doesn't surprise me that it is. -- bonadea contributions talk 11:18, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Bonadea any reason why we should not just blacklist the .com, and for the legit links that need to remain (archives) we whitelist those specific links? Dirk Beetstra T C 07:57, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Beetstra: Blacklist it, I'd say. I added "url-status=usurped" to the archived refs, so there is no link to the non-archived version from the Wikipedia articles – but I think the individual links do need to be whitelisted anyway since the citation template requires a "url", not just "archive-url". Right? These are the urls in question:
  • thecurrent-online.com/opinions/why-your-vote-matters-this-year/ (web.archive.org/web/20190712142349/ thecurrent-online.com/opinions/why-your-vote-matters-this-year/ archived) and thecurrent-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MediaKit_red_2014-2015_OFF_campus.pdf (web.archive.org/web/20150920165529/ thecurrent-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MediaKit_red_2014-2015_OFF_campus.pdf archived) used in Newspaper endorsements in the 2016 United States presidential election
  • thecurrent-online.com/sports/umsl-baseball-field-to-host-some-glvc-tournament-games/ (web.archive.org/web/20160304025259/ thecurrent-online.com/sports/umsl-baseball-field-to-host-some-glvc-tournament-games/ archived) used in Lou Brock Sports Complex
  • thecurrent-online.com/ae/feed-soul-christian-songwriter-crista-wells-contrast-previous-material/ (web.archive.org/web/20180117031038/ thecurrent-online.com/ae/feed-soul-christian-songwriter-crista-wells-contrast-previous-material/ archived) in Christa Wells
  • thecurrent-online.com/ae/still-adjusting-gallery-210-explores-artist-zlatko-cosics-experiences-yugoslavia/ web.archive.org/web/20160305224317/ thecurrent-online.com/ae/still-adjusting-gallery-210-explores-artist-zlatko-cosics-experiences-yugoslavia/ archived) in Zlatko Ćosić
Thanks! -- bonadea contributions talk 11:18, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Bonadea: plus Added to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist, the links need to be posted at WT:SWL so we can whitelist them. -- Dirk Beetstra T C 03:55, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
Thanks! I'll do that. -- bonadea contributions talk 08:45, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

https://kathaanakahee.today/episodes/

persistent spamming despite warnings, Atlantic306 ( talk) 23:28, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

aihcp.net, mstransportuae.com, and cartechtrends.com

Due to overlaps, I'm pretty sure these 3 links are being spammed by the same person/company. Apparition11 Complaints/ Mistakes 15:59, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

I culled a few more aihcp.net links and spammers today - see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Chordya
Hope that helps. Any reason why the domain is not already blacklisted? 10mmsocket ( talk) 18:22, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2023_Archive_Feb&oldid=1148751467"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Crount

Spammers

Big haul of UPE sockpuppets that also did some sneaky REFSPAM. MER-C 19:28, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Blacklisted. MER-C 20:15, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Nothing more found, although I am absolutely sure there is. MER-C 13:30, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

The Current

thecurrent-online.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot- Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

The student newspaper The Current at University of Missouri–St. Louis used to have the url thecurrent-online.com. At some point in 2020/21, they stopped using that domain, and it was taken over by someone else, a "news" site that is just a content scraper with clickbait headlines:

  • web.archive.org/web/20200125145937/ thecurrent-online.com/ in January 2020 it was still the student newspaper
  • web.archive.org/web/20211102132822/ thecurrent-online.com/ in November 2021 it was parked at GoDaddy
  • web.archive.org/web/20211208041020/ thecurrent-online.com/ in December 2021 the content scraper had taken over

The real The Current has a new domain, https://thecurrent-online.net, and a few weeks ago I updated the half-dozen instances where the .com url was used in sources to an archived version of the url, e.g. here.

Problem is, the content scraper pretends to be the student newspaper, and there is a link to "our Wikipedia page" from their "About us" page, thecurrent-online.com/about-us-and-our-team/ . (The photos of "our team" are stock photos, I did an image search.) In January, when I updated the official link in the Wikipedia article and fixed the references, their contact address and "About us" web.archive.org/web/20230121000301/ thecurrent-online.com/ looked like this (bottom of page). Now, they have changed both their "About" information and their (alleged) contact addresses, as seen at the bottom of thecurrent-online.com/ . I noticed this when I saw that a user, Manishdhanda, had edited The Current (newspaper) today in order to restore the .com urls.

It really looks like thecurrent-online.com are making an effort to spam Wikipedia with their links, and I see no reason why we'd ever want to link to that website. -- bonadea contributions talk 20:53, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Ugh. I've run across this about a dozen times in the last six months. A high-volume reputable paper or source goes defunct, and a scam site picks up the domain, replicates the historical articles, and then floods it with spam/SEO articles. It makes it incredibly hard to screen for as I have to look at when the links were added (can't rely on the dates on the site). Will add that one to my list. Sam Kuru (talk) 22:32, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
Gngh. I was hoping it wasn't a thing, but it doesn't surprise me that it is. -- bonadea contributions talk 11:18, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Bonadea any reason why we should not just blacklist the .com, and for the legit links that need to remain (archives) we whitelist those specific links? Dirk Beetstra T C 07:57, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Beetstra: Blacklist it, I'd say. I added "url-status=usurped" to the archived refs, so there is no link to the non-archived version from the Wikipedia articles – but I think the individual links do need to be whitelisted anyway since the citation template requires a "url", not just "archive-url". Right? These are the urls in question:
  • thecurrent-online.com/opinions/why-your-vote-matters-this-year/ (web.archive.org/web/20190712142349/ thecurrent-online.com/opinions/why-your-vote-matters-this-year/ archived) and thecurrent-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MediaKit_red_2014-2015_OFF_campus.pdf (web.archive.org/web/20150920165529/ thecurrent-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MediaKit_red_2014-2015_OFF_campus.pdf archived) used in Newspaper endorsements in the 2016 United States presidential election
  • thecurrent-online.com/sports/umsl-baseball-field-to-host-some-glvc-tournament-games/ (web.archive.org/web/20160304025259/ thecurrent-online.com/sports/umsl-baseball-field-to-host-some-glvc-tournament-games/ archived) used in Lou Brock Sports Complex
  • thecurrent-online.com/ae/feed-soul-christian-songwriter-crista-wells-contrast-previous-material/ (web.archive.org/web/20180117031038/ thecurrent-online.com/ae/feed-soul-christian-songwriter-crista-wells-contrast-previous-material/ archived) in Christa Wells
  • thecurrent-online.com/ae/still-adjusting-gallery-210-explores-artist-zlatko-cosics-experiences-yugoslavia/ web.archive.org/web/20160305224317/ thecurrent-online.com/ae/still-adjusting-gallery-210-explores-artist-zlatko-cosics-experiences-yugoslavia/ archived) in Zlatko Ćosić
Thanks! -- bonadea contributions talk 11:18, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
@ Bonadea: plus Added to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist, the links need to be posted at WT:SWL so we can whitelist them. -- Dirk Beetstra T C 03:55, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
Thanks! I'll do that. -- bonadea contributions talk 08:45, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

https://kathaanakahee.today/episodes/

persistent spamming despite warnings, Atlantic306 ( talk) 23:28, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

aihcp.net, mstransportuae.com, and cartechtrends.com

Due to overlaps, I'm pretty sure these 3 links are being spammed by the same person/company. Apparition11 Complaints/ Mistakes 15:59, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

I culled a few more aihcp.net links and spammers today - see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Chordya
Hope that helps. Any reason why the domain is not already blacklisted? 10mmsocket ( talk) 18:22, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2023_Archive_Feb&oldid=1148751467"

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