[wp-forums] Coded user for sock puppetry

[Otto]

IPs don't match. Not every single-first-review is always a sockpuppet. :)

-Otto


On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 4:42 PM, Stephen Edgar <stephen at netweb.com.au> wrote:

> G'day,
>
> A new plugin http://wordpress.org/plugins/super-socializer/ has two shiny
> new 5 star reviews, that's nice, oh wait...
>
> http://wordpress.org/support/profile/alleydozo <- Created ~5 hours ago
> and the review is this users only activity.
>
> http://wordpress.org/support/profile/kim1059 <- Created ~4 hours ago and
> the review is this users only activity.
>
> I'd suggest deleting the sock puppets.
>
> Not sure if moderators can or can't ( I'm not a mod, yet ) but maybe add
> the users I.P address in the review?  ( 'post_ip_link' )
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Stephen Edgar
> Melbourne, Australia
>
> Core commiter, contributor & moderator of #bbPress http://bbpress.org
> https://profiles.wordpress.org/netweb/   https://twiter.com/netweb
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wp-forums [mailto:wp-forums-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf
> Of Otto
> Sent: Thursday, 23 January 2014 12:35 AM
> To: For forum moderators. See also http://make.wordpress.org/support/
> Subject: Re: [wp-forums] Coded user for sock puppetry
>
> PROTIP: Monitor a few of the more "common" plugins reviews. Examples:
> Jetpack, the Tumblr Importer, anything "by WordPress.org".
>
> Frequently, I see a pattern of reviews to these plugins.
>
> 1. Worthless, 5 star, "worked great, every1 shuld use" type reviews.
> 2. New account making them has only 3-5 reviews, which are the only posts
> it has ever made.
> 3. One of these plugins it has reviewed is not like the others... one of
> these things just isn't the same...
>
> The idea is to hide the fake review in a tiny pool of seemingly legit
> reviews for plugins that get a lot of reviews already and which nobody
> would suspect as also being fake reviews..  I see it a lot on the Tumblr
> Importer, mostly, because those come up in my feed. But I've seen it on
> others as well. But the pattern continually repeats. The mail.ru domain
> seems to be common in those accounts as well.
>
> No pattern to the plugins that the faker is trying to build up though,
> that seems randomish.
>
> Recommendation: Block account, delete all those false reviews. I find it
> about once or twice a week.
>
> -Otto
>
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