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This is not a case of serial down voting.

This looks like a revenge kind of thing, at least it looks like that to me. What I am trying to do its to find out what can I do in this specific situation.

This account and that one seem to be owned by the same user - comments section on my down voted answer:

Comments that are now deleted

I can't be 100% sure but it looks very suspicious.

I have received 2 down votes almost within the same time then about 20 minutes ago I have got another one on a different answer - seconds after the question has been edited by mr S.

What can I do to prevent further down votes? I am aware of how the serial down voting system works but like I said this isn't the case specially that the user may have more than 2 accounts.

What does stackoverflow offer in terms of reporting suspicious down votes and multiple accounts users? I wouldn't want to stop contributing but if there is no way to report/stop such behavior from a pissed-off user then I am most likely going to reconsider the whole point of helping this community.

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  • 5
    If true this would be sockpuppeting, if you think someone is using sockpuppets for evil (this would be for evil) flag for moderator attention
    – Richard Tingle
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:21
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    That user looks like he needs a seven-day break or something. Flag the post for mod attention that contains the comments. Even if the author deletes them, they will still be visible to moderators.
    – Pekka
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:23
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    Hope you don't mind my edit, on the first look at the links I thought you were suggesting mehow, AKA you, were the puppet master. I've moved the link along a bit to avoid that confusion
    – Richard Tingle
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:28
  • flagged. hard to prove my suspicions without being a mod :/ we, users, seem to be very limited in tools available for identification. I'll leave it down to the mods then and I really hope the @user calms down a bit.
    – user221081
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:29
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    stackoverflow.com/users/2230817/user2230817 is already zapped. The other account suspended. Looks like you were right.
    – user213634
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:30
  • 2
    Yes, normal users are very limited in tools available for identifying other users. That is very much by design. Even moderators have very limited ability in digging into a user's information, and much of it is logged. Privacy is a big deal, but obviously it can be a double-edged sword.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:31
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    Those were costly downvotes for S....
    – Arjan
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:44
  • @Arjan That's proof that the puppet account was used to up-vote the main account (at least 14 times).
    – Dave Chen
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:45
  • 4
    Thanks everyone and hopefully I won't have to come back here in 7 days.
    – user221081
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:52
  • I am almost certain I saw that user before... also doing illegal voting.
    – Shadow Wizard Says No More War
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:54
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    For the record, he's currently downvoted 122 times; you can't say for certain, but if you start getting downvotes next week, double-check his profile and see what his downvote count is at then. In the meantime, enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling of breaking up a sock puppet ring. @ShaWizDowArd - I was thinking the same thing (hostile voting or something to that effect), but I can't find anything on it.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:55
  • Would reputation earned from accepted answers be kept? See here (and screenshot) for an accepted answer on a question of a zapped account.
    – Arjan
    Oct 15, 2013 at 14:05
  • @Arjan that's an ideal new question :)
    – user221081
    Oct 15, 2013 at 14:07
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    @mehow If you do need to come back in 7 days, you can at least rest assured you probably won't then have to come back for another 30 days after that ;)
    – Andrew Barber
    Oct 15, 2013 at 16:02
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    Not the first time for that user, @Sha; they already had the automatic reversal kick in a few weeks ago, but did not stop. So I guess they should feel lucky they have not been suspended. (Actually, I wonder why no suspension happened, but it doesn't matter either.) But the user went down from 6k to 5k, so indeed won't be happy. Tough luck for not playing fair.
    – Arjan
    Oct 15, 2013 at 22:07

1 Answer 1

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If a single person is coordinating voting from multiple accounts, that is sockpuppeting. That's not good in any scenario.

Your best bet is to flag the post and ask the moderator to see if the accounts are all coming from the same IP and controlled by the same person. Mods can also see if there is a pattern of similar votes. If they are, that alone would be reason to suspend the account.

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  • Thanks. Also, if you can prove your initial suspicions somehow, minutes of fame on meta will help sort out things quickly :)
    – user221081
    Oct 15, 2013 at 13:49
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    @mehow For the record, what you saw is enough for you to flag for us, then we can take a greater look into it and see if your suspicions are correct, as happened here. :)
    – Andrew Barber
    Oct 15, 2013 at 16:05