Wiki143:Abuse response/70.49.111.121

Template:Abuse archived

Registry Information

70.49.111.121

Registered to: Sympatico Bell Canada
WHOIS report

Contact information:

Sympatico HSE
21 Canniff
Toronto, ON K1P-5M7
CA
Tel: 1-877-877-2426
E-mail: abuse@sympatico.ca

Initial Report

2006-05-05 16:25:00 (= 12:25 Eastern Daylight Time)

Sympatico (largest ISP in Canada): [1]

NOTE: contribs show nothing, the edit was already purged from the history. It goes without saying that edits aren't ever completely purged, so if you're an admin and want to verify that this edit took place, contact User:Freakofnurture by e-mail and he can show you where to find it.

Synopsis: Massive vandalism spree, posting User:Alkivar's personal information (phone numbers) in edit summaries, particularly to main-page-linked articles, also to some warez-related articles. Probably the "Dicky Robert" vandal of a few months ago, possibly GNAA-related. Nearly always uses a throwaway sockpuppet, but on this occasion seems to have screwed up and used an IP. I can supply dates and timestamps of dozens of other recent edits if necessary (nearly all purged from the database already), but since those are all sockpuppets someone would have to be willing to plow through checkuser on all those.

Because the actions of this vandal are particularly reprehensible (privacy and implicit invitation to real-life harassment), I would suggest contacting the Wikimedia Foundation and getting authorization to file a complaint in the name of Wikipedia, rather than simply on your own authority as private individuals. Or contact Brad Patrick and have him make the phone call (I'll leave a message on his talk page). -- Curps 19:57, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

For reference, here are Sympatico's terms of service, which include the usual clause forbidding harassment. He's still at it: latest sockpuppet was User:Stencils at 08:31 UTC. -- Curps 08:37, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Abuse Summary

Investigated by Script error: No such module "user"..

70.49.111.121

Template:User-multi

First post of Alkivar's telephone number was at 07:50, January 24, 2006, by User:The mordock. Spree began at 00:57, May 4, 2006 with an edit by User:Angst McLow to Albatross. Over sixty sockpuppets were created in the next five days to post the number; an incomplete list of socks may be seen below. The flagrant abuse has been discussed on the administrators' noticeboards here, here, and here. Unfortunately, it's difficult to compile a list of the vandalism as the majority of it has been erased from the history, however, there have been at least 80 incidents spread all across the wiki, and probably more.

Discussion from main abuse reports page:

Waiting to hear from Freakofnurture. Snoutwood (talk) 05:21, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
- Accepting due to the seriousness of the vandalism. Had Brad Patrick replied? I couldn't see any reply to your query. Snoutwood (talk) 17:54, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
  - His only reply was a reminder that any efforts to contact ISPs are purely unofficial. So it's basically a dead end. -- Curps 22:44, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

See /Checkuser for Checkuser authentication and information. Snoutwood (talk) 03:57, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets

Evidence: Special:Undelete/Wikipedia:Abuse reports/70.49.111.121/Evidence.

Contact Summary

Assigned to Script error: No such module "user"..

May 19, 2006

Sent message at 21:00 UTC explaining the situation. Mentioning that these actions are directly in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy, I requested that they attempt to find the perpetrator and require him to cease these actions. Snoutwood (talk) 21:00, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

May 21, 2006

Recieved message at 19:20 UTC, asking for verification of the IP address. Snoutwood (talk) 01:26, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

May 22, 2006

At 1:20 UTC, I replied, undeleting some of the edits and providing a link to them. In addition, I asked if they wanted CheckUser verification that the logged-in edits were made by the IP. Snoutwood (talk) 01:26, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
Made CheckUser request at 16:38 UTC (diff). Snoutwood (talk) 16:40, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

May 24, 2006

Recieved a reply at 18:30 UTC asking for the text of the logs in plain text. Snoutwood (talk) 06:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

May 27, 2006

CheckUser completed. Results may be found here. Snoutwood (talk) 07:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

June 2, 2006

Replied at 5:00 UTC with a complete bulleted list version of /Checkuser, complete with diffs. As I consider this information to be potentially helpful later, I have posted it onto the talk page of /Checkuser. In addition to the list, I gave a brief explanation of our logs and the vandalism involved. Snoutwood (talk) 06:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Recieved a (form?) reply at 18:00 UTC, saying that the matter has been investigated and that the account holder has been informed of the investigation. The e-mail also states that Sympatico has a "strong anti-abuse policy" and that should we recieve further complaints (?) that we should bring the matter to their attention. Snoutwood (talk) 18:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Replied at 18:30 UTC asking for clarification: have any steps been taken to confront the account holder apart from letting him know of the investigation? Are any other preventative measures being taken? Snoutwood (talk) 18:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)