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IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation project

Hello all,

I’m writing to let you know about a new project, IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation, that the Wikimedia Foundation is starting.

Because people in general are increasingly technically advanced and privacy conscious, our users are now more aware of the collection and use of their personal information, and how its misuse may lead to harassment or abuse. The Foundation is starting a project to re-evaluate and enhance protections for user privacy through technical improvement to the projects. As part of this work, we will also be looking at our existing anti-vandalism and anti-abuse tools and making sure our wikis have access to the same (or better) tools to protect themselves.

The project page is on Meta. This project is currently in very early phases of discussions and we don’t have a concrete plan for it yet. We’d like your input. And please share with other people who you think would be interested. SPoore (WMF), Strategist, Community health initiative (talk) 18:10, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

hcaptcha.com, User:Andrewjchapin

Andrewjchapin (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)

46.61.53.128 (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • blacklist hits • AbuseLog • what links to user page • COIBot • Spamcheck • count • block log • x-wiki • Edit filter search • WHOIS • RDNS • tracert • robtex.com • StopForumSpam • Google • AboutUs • Project HoneyPot)

hackernoon.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

hcaptcha.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

There are two things I want to report:

  • User User:Andrewjchapin made 3 contributions in October 2018, adding additional content with refs to external links to hcaptcha.com to both the CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA articles. Additionally, links to (judging by the username, his own) blog hosted on Hackernoon.com, which also advertise hcaptcha. Furthermore, the linked blog states at the end of the article that he is part of the Intuition Machines team (which owns hcaptcha), so there is clearly a conflict of interest here.
  • IP User:46.61.53.128 made a single edit to Internet security. Again, a bit of content with a link to a Hackernoon blog, this time advertising a VPN provider.

I have taken no action yet, as I am unsure what the best course of action is. Thank you. --Chrki (talk) 18:53, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

I have now

Not sure if a note on their talk page is necessary, user is inactive since the three edits in October 2018. --Chrki (talk) 01:39, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Looking further into this, the COIBot entry for hcaptcha.com reveals the sockpuppet account User:Ajcajcajcajcajc (account name used on non-wiki websites too). Same tactics, hcaptcha & baseball related refs to 2nd hand/news aggregator blog spam. 4 of 5 edits were reverted by other people. --Chrki (talk) 11:43, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Ajcajcajcajcajc (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)

wgeh.org: 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

downloadbayarea.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

Both wgeh.org and downloadbayarea.com belong to the same parent, "Shampoo Bottle Corp.", according to shampoobottle.com. No company info or other information given on any of the domains, does not look like trustworthy sources to me. I have left a warning (uw-spam1) on the accounts. I'd consider this done for now, but if anyone sees the need to take further action with the accounts please do so (I'm not familiar with the processes). --Chrki (talk) 13:51, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

trollishly.com

All users appear to register, wait a minute and create a single-word spam user talk page linking to a seemingly randomly chosen page at trollishly.com . Edible Melon (talk) 11:20, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Blacklisted. MER-C 12:13, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Some more cu-confirmed. Any more of this, and a checkuser will be interested to hear about it:

and these are possible:

There's more links in amongst that lot, and probably some stuff to block (or g-lock) and delete. -- zzuuzz (talk) 12:26, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

I have gone through all existent user and user talk pages of them and nominated some for speedy deletion (but I give no guarantees that I haven't missed any, my mouse's middle button is malfunctioning and it's difficult for me to open tabs). User:Seokani is fairly unique in that they edited after being blocked (by adding more spam to their user talk page) and have a possibly related username, and User:Mippin US appears completely unrelated to me (UAA-eligible username, no userspace spam), but I may be wrong. User:Jamaaivijay is the only one whose username is not in pascal case with an optional number and doesn't seem to have any log entries. Edible Melon (talk) 12:35, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

From a CU perspective, I'm willing to overlook Jamaaivijay. It is technically indistinguishable, but there might be a small chance it's unrelated. -- zzuuzz (talk) 12:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
I would also accept that Mippin US and Seokani might be unrelated, though again they're technically indistinguishable. But if they're not mixed up in this somehow, I'd be amazed. -- zzuuzz (talk) 12:46, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
I've done all the relevant blocks, and all the spam is gone. They should probably be globally locked, but I haven't check for cross-wiki activity. I think we just need to dig out the additional websites to track any additional spam and/or blacklist it. -- zzuuzz (talk) 13:28, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
Sites spammed
Additional accounts (stale)

Blacklisted. MER-C 17:13, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

frontedilottanoausterity.org

Was recently spammed by a few addresses (22 July), leaving here in case it resumes. No extent use in mainspace. —PaleoNeonate – 22:58, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

atopy-pharmacy.com

There's some open proxies embarking on what appears to be a campaign of building wiki-links and adding pharma type spam. I expect this to possibly develop, but in the interm I'm just going to note these down here:

Sites
Open proxies

All IPs to date are blocked. -- zzuuzz (talk) 17:41, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

The fish one might be unrelated, but I personally think that's unclear at this time. -- zzuuzz (talk) 19:19, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
Blacklisted all of them. MER-C 19:44, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

As predicted, round 2:

currently still needs some cleanup. -- zzuuzz (talk) 03:49, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

youthkiawaaz.com - advocacy

Not exactly "spam" in the narrow sense of the term, but the site is repeatedly misused as source for topics about social justice issues, and related startups and initiatives. Youth Ki Awaaz is a user-generated content platform for such topics and doesn't meet WP:RS by a long shot (it may be occasionally of interest for an uncontroversial interview or the opinion of an involved expert).

I am not really asking for a blacklisting, but some advice on how to discourage further spreading of this site as source would be appreciated. Should such cases generally be added to User:XLinkBot revertlist or discussed at WP:RSN first? Any other ideas are welcome too of course :). GermanJoe (talk) 09:25, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Individual making changes on our wiki site to post falsehoods about our game's development

This individual is changing our page content to make it look like our development is stopping and we are no longer releasing on PS4. His actions cause a lot of discord in our gaming community as they believe what he posts. For example, he removed content showing we were planning a PS4 release. He added to our page that we were "not" planning a PS4 release and he is changing wording within our content descriptions, etc. He is an IP user and we would like him banned from making changes on our pages: 50.35.47.144

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-Hour:_World%27s_Elite

My email is [email protected] — Preceding unsigned comment added by RosieRascal (talk • contribs) 13:55, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

@RosieRascal: You'd be better off posting about this at WikiProject Video Games. At any rate, that unregistered user made some changes two weeks ago and hasn't made any edits since, so there's nothing for us to do. The edits have since been reverted by you and there's no indication further disruption will occur. Sam Walton (talk) 14:01, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
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