Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam/2014 Archive Mar 1

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educorporatebridge.com

Your standard EL spam.

Spammers

-SFK2 (talk) 00:51, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Blocked. MER-C 11:47, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

User DrOzUSA keeps removing factual content about Manjakani from reference below and inserting false info into page

DrOzUSA (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)

Regarding this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manjakani

User DrOzUSA keeps removing facts from reference below about usage of Manjakani and inserting his own made up info about Manjakani for financial gains spam purposes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Researcher1122 (talk • contribs) 19:09, 4 March 2014‎

This isn't a spam problem, though there was some very minor linkspam elsewhere in the article. --Ronz (talk) 19:09, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Amazon Comment

If these Amazon links [1] are spam, then it would be good to revert and tell the user. see also article talk pageAlanscottwalker (talk) 22:12, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Reverted and joined discussion on talk. --Ronz (talk) 20:07, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

moretamil.com

Adsense google_ad_client = pub-2948529860566269 (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • meta: Track - Report)
Google Analytics ID: UA-44986885 - (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • Meta: Track - Report)

Spammers

MER-C 13:08, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

serenetrips.com

Spammers

Blocked. MER-C 10:29, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

whereiswhere.info

Google Analytics ID: UA-38876826 - (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • Meta: Track - Report)

Spammers

MER-C 10:14, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Blacklisted. MER-C 10:58, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

mangalamvarika.com

Adsense google_ad_client = pub-3228357041386320 (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • meta: Track - Report)

mangalamvarika.com: Linksearch en - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • MER-C Cross-wiki • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced • COIBot-Local - COIBot-XWiki - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.org • Live link: http://www.mangalamvarika.com

Spammers

MER-C 11:22, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

*.Russian(dash)Women(dot)Net and User:Messir azazello

Over a period of several years Messir azazello (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) has been publishing links to subdomains of Russian(dash)Women(dot)Net. I have to write the domain that way and cant publish a Link summary because it is blacklisted via a regular expression (russian(dash)?|\bru-)(bride|girls|ladies|lady|single|wife|wives|wom[ae]n). The domain is a link farm. From what I can tell the Wiki article links are being used in a misguided attempt to drive traffic and PageRank. Almost all edited articles are on Ukraine and Crimean region-related topics. The domain's WHOIS is anonymized using "Domain Discreet Privacy Service". Heres the AdSense data:

Adsense google_ad_client = pub-4336000227240401 (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • meta: Track - Report)

Here are examples with Page name, date, context and diff. I have already removed all of these. Please note the spelling of the domain is deliberately broken to make it publishable here through the blacklist.

Article Name:Novyi Svit (winery) User:Messir azazello Date:26 May 2008

lived. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Novyi_Svit_(winery)&diff=next&oldid=207974144

Article Name:Sudak User:Messir azazello Date:30 June 2007

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sudak&diff=prev&oldid=141535998

Article Name:Vera Kholodnaya User:Messir azazello Date:10 February 2007

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vera_Kholodnaya&diff=prev&oldid=107034426

Article Name:Nikitsky Botanical Garden User:Messir azazello Date:2 December 2006

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikitsky_Botanical_Garden&diff=prev&oldid=91558491

Several pictures uploaded point to an original source using this domain. They are labeled as self-published under the name Andrew Karpov.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CSteven.jpg http://nikita.Russian(dash)Women(dot)Net/images/photoalbum/nikita/medium/mv_Nic50333.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sh_Nic47979.jpg http://livadia.Russian(-)Women(.)Net/images/photoalbum/livadia/medium/mh_Nic47992.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mh_Dsc14683.jpg http://alupka.Russian(dash)Women(dot)Net/images/photoalbum/alupka/medium/mh_Dsc14683.jpg

Here is a link to a wiki article edited using one of those images by the user Rumlin (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). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christian_von_Steven&diff=next&oldid=336010382

I found only one article with an External Link to this domain not placed by User:Messir azazello. That article was edited much earlier than the others, by the user Akashiiii (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). Info here:

Article Name:Svetlana Savitskaya User:Akashiiii Date:14 August 2005

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Svetlana_Savitskaya&diff=prev&oldid=20991595

In conclusion, and based on the information provided, I believe that the link farm domain Russian(dash)Women(dot)Net is using Wikipedia as a marketing platform. This domain appears to be maintained by someone named or using the alias Andrew Karpov and the user names Messir azazello, Akashiiii and Rumlin. While these examples are somewhat dated and the domain itself has since been blacklisted non-specifically using a regular expression, I believe user-specific blacklisting is appropriate in order to help avoid further spam efforts involving alternate domains and user names in the future. I am happy to provide further information and assistance as required to assist with any investigation. Thank you. Jaydubya93 (talk) 17:22, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

I have placed four subst:uw-spam notifications on Messir azazello's user talk page for each of the offenses listed above directly related to that user. I have also placed one on Akashiiii's talk page. Jaydubya93 (talk) 17:28, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

New kind of spam

I've just reverted this edit, which is a kind of spam I've not seen before, and one which anti-spam bots might need to know about (we might also need to look for other examples already on Wikipedia). It broke the HTML list into several one-item lists, contrary to WP:LIST and web accessibility guidelines. That's not to say we shouldn't consider some, better, use of Schema.org microdata, in templates like {{Official website}}. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:42, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

As far as I can see, it had no effect on the outcome of the page - the source does not contain the links or anything (and m:User:LiWa3 did not notice anything). What would this accomplish? --Dirk Beetstra T C 13:48, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
It looks as though mediawiki might strip out the markup (which in is interesting itself, as we might legitimately want to use it elsewhere), but it's an attempt to forge a stronger association between our page and the target page, in the eyes of Google and other search engines, and to promote their site in search engine results. Like I said, the concern is that it makes our markup less accessible. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:47, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

@Beetstra: I'm not sure what you're using to look at the outcome of the page, but the EL section with the spam looks like this: 

<div>
  <div>
    <ul>
      <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.faside-estate.com">Faside Estate web site</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div>
    <ul>
      <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.faside-estate.com/accommodation">Faside Estate accommodation web site</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>
<ul>
  <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/exhibitions/tranent/big/Ai1948.htm">Fa'side Castle</a>, East Lothian Museum Service</li>
</ul>

Whereas after reverting the spam it looks like this: 

<ul>
  <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.faside-estate.com">Faside Estate web site</a></li>
  <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.faside-estate.com/accommodation">Faside Estate accommodation web site</a></li>
  <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/exhibitions/tranent/big/Ai1948.htm">Fa'side Castle</a>, East Lothian Museum Service</li>
</ul>

We don't break up a single list with three items into a three lists of one item each because it causes chaos for many screen readers. That's a sufficient issue in itself for us to be concerned about it. --RexxS (talk) 16:20, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Ah, that I missed, RexxS - I was looking for the occurrence of the links, which I did not see.
Andy Mabbett - the MediaWiki software is stripping some code during parsing from wikicode, many html-tags don't work in that way (and could be used maliciously, as was done at some point with the case with the transparent gif which was overlaid over a wikipage, and clicking anywhere on the 'image' (attempting to click on the underlying wikilinks, e.g.) forwarded you to malicious websites). I think there are still some things that are not malicious possible (here, part of the div-structure was affecting the page, but the external links were removed).
I am not sure if it is a spam-issue (maybe an attempt at spam, what would be the effect if the code would not be stripped by the mediawiki software?). I do however think that this might need an edit-filter if it re-occurs. --Dirk Beetstra T C 09:12, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
I agree with Dirk Beetstra that I see no indication of spam in the diff provided. All I can see is a non-successful attempt to parse a schema from outside that made a list look crappy (also you could make the list look crappy manually). I would be more concerned if the schema was actually parsed. Jaydubya93 (talk) 18:01, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

Getinstantloans

getinstantloans.co.uk: 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

Spammers

-SFK2 (talk) 11:14, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Promotion of private companies

Dappleblood (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) The account appears to be for the promotion of two companies in southern Ontario, Canada. In the past week, the account created an article about a home building company in Ontario, Geranium Homes, and about an architectural firm in Toronto, Solares Architecture Inc.. Then, an external spam link [2] was placed onto the Port Hope, Ontario article, leading to the Geranium Homes website. Thanks. Magnolia677 (talk) 12:43, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Agreed. I speedied one of the articles yesterday. This may be more suited for WP:COIN though.-SFK2 (talk) 12:51, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

standardmarketingltd.co.uk

Spammers

There has been an effort to include this link in several different articles. They generally claim that a person works/worked for the company, even though this is sometimes demonstrably false. For example, in this edit, they claimed the subject worked for Standard Marketing before joining NeXT in 1992, despite the fact that Standard Marketing's website states that they weren't established until 1996. Apparition11 Complaints/Mistakes 17:33, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Media queries was semi-protected for a month. Let's see if that works. MER-C 10:24, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
A few more IPs. Apparition11 Complaints/Mistakes 22:50, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
Blacklisted. MER-C 03:42, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

prose-insertions related to Myriam Chalek and/or Creative Business House

This person teaches ESL in NYC, but also now owns a fashion-incubator startup called CBH, where individuals can sign up to get help trademarking/promoting their own fashion business.[3] Recently-created BLP on the founder is currently at AfD, with many SPA comments.

  However, the reason I'm here is that problems with WP:SPIP in other articles have been going on for several years now, since at least 2011. See list at User_talk:WikiDan61#Myriam_Chalek for what has been noticed so far. Note that the prose-insertions are not always specific to the founder, and thus might be clients of the company doing the insertions.[4]

  Also, the BLP does have some amount of legitimate-seeming press, for work related to the charity of which she has been VP since 2011. Prolly not quite enough for a dedicated BLP article at this time, but then, the BLP is in their early 30's at the moment. Point being, since some of the organizations with which the BLP is involved seem WP:NOTEWORTHY in an article about e.g. clothing-for-kids-charities or somesuch, please tread carefully. This isn't a slash and burn, methinks.  :-)   Thanks for reading, and thanks for improving wikipedia, folks. p.s. Please ping my talkpage if you need any further info; I didn't use the summary-templates, because I wasn't sure which of all the commenting-folks was 100% SPA, and which have been warned, and so on. 74.192.84.101 (talk) 01:21, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

{{IP masked company to create positive PR for Udemy.com| 98.172.56.170}}

This user and it looks like a few others are changing reality on the ground by deleting information on the company and adding irrelevant information and information that just isn't true in an attempt to make Udemy look better then it really is in reality.

I hope the community will monitor this page against the company employees and PR company that are working hard to keep vital information out of the pages and using Wikipedia as a platform for there own agenda instead of it being a community based page. Udemy - if you look at the history you will notice the edits that are done by here PR company to try and change and remove any sight of actual information on the site (they just want PR copy on there page) - so news on changes in there fee structure and that the top 100 teachers of last year - most have left the platform or stopped selling on it, the leaving of Jack Welsh and other major figures form the site - is critical information that the public has a right to know about. including there change of fees from 15% to up to 75% of fees. it's understandable that there aggressive in trying to keep the truth away but I hope the community as a whole will help keep this page honest. I will be more then happy to provide as much proof and information as needed to show this is all true - but this information is publically available online as well and is critical for any person that wants to know if they should engaged with the company or not.

--69.117.88.162 (talk) 16:42, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

aulix.com

aulix.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

Spammers

.-SFK2 (talk) 10:54, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

VR_Otley.co.uk

http://www.vrotley.co.uk/map-of-otley-west-yorks.html: 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 Commercial website designed specifically to promote local hotel accommodation, as evidenced by design of website header with hotel booking, requirement selectors. Page is combined with a Google Earth aerial image link to make it appear to be a virtual tour of the town, but only shows selected static image markers Clicking on a marker then shows advertisements for nearby accommodation. Richard Harvey (talk) 16:35, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Topstylemart

topstylemart.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

Spammers

.-SFK2 (talk) 23:01, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Revescom chat site

revescom.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

Repeated IP morphing spam from Tunisia. I'm mostly seeing it on web-related articles (watchlisted), but it could be anywhere. It's persistent, morphy and the domain has nothing to offer here, so I see blacklist as appropriate rather than blocks or page protection. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:10, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

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