Questions tagged [sock-puppets]

A sockpuppet is an extra account created in addition to the user's normal account, especially those created for the purposes of abusing the system.

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Getting a vote up by someone on the same network considered "a sock puppet"?

I am an intern at a company where a colleague knows my Stack Overflow account and he just upvoted a question of mine. I was wondering whether this is considered a "sock puppet". I told him not to ...
Loko's user avatar
  • 770
7 votes
4 answers
273 views

Where is the "correct" location to store my Sock Puppet (hat)? [closed]

I recently obtained Socky and I have no idea what to do with him! He is is so rambunctious and volatile... He complains that he wants to be placed on my head... but that is just wrong, so wrong, ...
qwertynl's user avatar
  • 3,071
21 votes
1 answer
437 views

Is there a way to safely sock puppet a banned account?

I'd like to look into the user experience of being question/answer banned for a bit, but I'd like to do so without jeopardizing the standing of my main account. Knitting some socks for this is risky, ...
user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
105 views

How to report a potential rep-farming sock-puppet? [duplicate]

I've just found a pair of users, one who only asks questions, one who only answers. Both are low rep new users, and almost all the askers questions have accepted answers by the answerer. The answers ...
user avatar
40 votes
1 answer
596 views

Suspecting Sock Puppets - what now?

I stumbled over the following which made me a bit puzzled: A user (quite low rep) asked a question whose solution appeared immediately tricky, but unfortunately it was quite unclear, ambiguous and ...
CouchDeveloper's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
187 views

Is there a feasible way to invite flatmate to Stack Exchange? [duplicate]

I rent a room, I don't need a whole apartment for myself and I prefer to save some money to party ;) Same with internet connection, we are rarely at home at the same times, so no need to pay separate ...
Mołot's user avatar
  • 7,858
6 votes
2 answers
288 views

Can I use one account to up-vote an answer from another of my accounts?

Like many SE users, I have multiple accounts. I am wondering if I am allowed to write an answer with one, and vote for it with another? I suspect the answer is no, but not being one to pass on rep, I ...
tjons's user avatar
  • 877
30 votes
1 answer
247 views

A mod-only section of the help center

Most moderator tools and policies are public, and should be discussed in public for the sake of transparency. But there are a few aspect that cannot be discussed in public, this concerns mostly the ...
Mad Scientist's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
215 views

Sock puppet edit? [duplicate]

I just rejected this suggested edit from a user that seemed to be a sock puppet... although both accounts have 1 rep and were created 4 days apart, it just felt awkward to see the two user names ...
Mathieu Guindon's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
349 views

Curiosity fell over the cliff (aka what happened here??)

Once upon a time there was a user named Curiosity. That user got fair share of questions with what appears to be fair upvotes: Examples: one, two, three Then came this question where a user ...
Shadow Wizard Love Zelda's user avatar
47 votes
1 answer
851 views

Sock-puppet attack on GameDev Stack Exchange - Exploits!

We've been having a sock-puppet attack on the GameDev Stack Exchange site over the last few days. I am not fully aware of the details but there seem to be two exploits being used: First - the ...
Andrew Russell's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
660 views

Potential sockpuppets of a troll that don't seem to be trolling themselves. What should I do?

Background There is a known troll (Python Newbie aka Python Questions) who, along with his various sockpuppets, is very easy to identify, because: He always asks questions along the lines of "How do ...
Anubhav C's user avatar
  • 351
40 votes
1 answer
533 views

Could we have two types of account deletion?

Relevant TL thread: https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/9390241#9390241 Related dupe: Delete softly when using the big stick. You may want to read that first, Andrew's given a much more ...
Manishearth's user avatar
  • 79.2k
23 votes
1 answer
366 views

Suspicious voting + answering duo

There is some pretty bizarre voting going on over on this question. Normally, I'd just leave it alone, but there are a few things that are really weird about this case: this answer [10k only] is ...
nneonneo's user avatar
  • 3,631
8 votes
0 answers
156 views

Something weird going on with this question

I was browsing the New answers to Old Questions 10k queue, and came across an odd, new answer, so I went to the question: Wake app at regular intervals while using UIBackgroundModes=location While ...
Andrew Barber's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
54 views

Encouraging usage of SO within a large company - potential problems [duplicate]

A reference question: Using SO as a interoffice tool I'm exactly in the situation as the author of the question cited above. I work for a large sw company and I've been thinking of encouraging fellow ...
MaDa's user avatar
  • 480
45 votes
1 answer
717 views

Gaming the system? Or am I just paranoid

I had answered this question 2 days ago. The user had accepted the solution to my question. Today, he unaccepted it, and has marked a new answer (posted recently), which has some of the same wording ...
Anirudh Ramanathan's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
166 views

"HangBot" editing questions and answers

During reviewing, I came across multiple suggested edits by an account named "HangBot" *. A low reputation (13 at the time) made me curious, since first-timers don't usually rush into editing posts ...
Linus Kleen's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
101 views

What to do when a poster admits they are using a second account

In this question, the user admits to be using a newly create account because SO has somehow locked me out of my account and I apparently can't post images with this new one What's the best ...
Lynn Crumbling's user avatar
49 votes
1 answer
524 views

Provide explicit moderator tools to deal with sock puppets

Determining whether a specific user is a sock puppet is not an exact science. While many cases are clear-cut, the line can get a lot fuzzier when for example coworkers and friends are involved. So ...
Mad Scientist's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
462 views

Ok... I've been sock puppeting [closed]

Was having some laugh comparing my profile with my colleagues, were 20 points apart. So I created another account, etc etc. Then, I was told by this other guy that can lead to banning. But I can't "...
Sleeper Smith's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
858 views

Give moderators a tool to invalidate votes between users

Vote fraud happens on Stack Exchange sites, it is a natural consequence of the reputation system and one of the duties of a moderator is to deal with cases of suspected vote fraud. There are various ...
Mad Scientist's user avatar
63 votes
2 answers
528 views

Please add a notification for new accounts from an existing IP address of a suspended user

The title gets it mostly. On EE.SE we have recently given out a few suspensions and in almost every case they attempted to make a sock puppet and continue with their previous behavior. If a flag had ...
Kortuk's user avatar
  • 1,127
19 votes
3 answers
436 views

Isn't this a serial voteup? [closed]

A profile I visited yesterday clearly had 14 serial votes ( 8 vote up on question and 6 vote up on answer ) in two minutes. I have very good flag history of finding such false voting. However ...
Lucifer's user avatar
  • 8,391
5 votes
3 answers
115 views

Advice on investigation of possible abuse [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Possible sockpuppet - What's the procedure? I am not sure if it fits in here, but today I have encountered 2 UserAccounts on SO which seem to be connected somehow. Most ...
SvenG's user avatar
  • 161
23 votes
1 answer
662 views

Term for vote cartels

What's a widely used term for a (small) group of users voting up each other's questions / answers/ comments? Does Stack Overflow have any tools/rules in place to prevent this? Say for instance ...
Sridhar's user avatar
  • 333
2 votes
0 answers
67 views

Merged accounts don't show correct post count on network profile?

Not a big issue, but it seems the network profile counts might be off when accounts are merged. Example: for some time (about a week, possibly longer), a merged account has been showing only 1 ...
Arjan's user avatar
  • 28.2k
9 votes
1 answer
277 views

Suspected suspended user posting under a new account

In answering a question, I noticed a related question with a very similar name and similar content, from another user. The question I answered was from an account created three days ago (RKP); the ...
Kara Potts's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
467 views

What should I do when an unknown user keeps upvoting my answers? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What is serial voting and how does it affect me? First of all, I must say that I have no sock-puppet or any other similar ways to gain votes like telling my friends to upvote ...
Thiem Nguyen's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
886 views

Possible sockpuppet - What's the procedure?

I'm not certain, and it's certainly nothing as blatant as in this question. But... I've just come across these two questions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9929815/error-ora-01461-can-bind-a-...
ben is uĒq backwards's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
434 views

How to deal with downvoting sock puppets?

This question offers an answer to "How to report Sock puppets who upvote their own posts". This question describes revenge voting. Recently, I've downvoted an answer and added a comment. ...
Rob W's user avatar
  • 10.4k
31 votes
0 answers
305 views

Extend the Voter Fraud Script to invalidate excessive cross-voting

The Voter Fraud script that runs overnight automatically removes votes from users who serially downvote another specific user. My idea is a simple one: extend this functionality to cross-voters. We ...
user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
479 views

Possible sockpuppet - need some opinions

I know I can flag one of the relevant posts as "Other" as explain to moderator but before doing this prefer to get some fresh sets of eyes look into it and prevent embarrassing flag if it's legit. ...
Shadow Wizard Love Zelda's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
321 views

Is it possible to make a new account and use it to vote on the old account?

Is it possible for me to make a new account and get it 15 reputation and after that vote on my old account?
Ahmadali Shafiee's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
235 views

Merge Accounts and Ban

This user and this user are one and the same. See chat here: https://chat.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/2288401#2288401 Basically this user created a new account because with their original ...
Naftali's user avatar
  • 21.6k
32 votes
6 answers
586 views

Limit the maximum percentage of upvotes an account can cast against a single user

I know we already have a fraud-detection script that removes serial downvotes (and maybe serial upvotes). This script is a temporal script; it is based on a number of votes occurring against a ...
user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
3k views

Implement some form of browser fingerprinting to help suss out socks

There isn't any good way to definitively identify puppets. Quite often, it takes a lot of effort to bring your certainty up above 80%, and IMHO even that's not good enough to merge accounts. I'd ...
user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
205 views

Area 51 Movie proposal - over the line by a sock puppet (or two)

I noticed that the movie proposal is now at 100% and I thought "that's nice", considering they managed to do it with only 201 commitments which is a reasonable achievement. However, when I looked at ...
going's user avatar
  • 5,444
0 votes
2 answers
345 views

People using a common IP address can be miscategorized as sockpuppets

I'm currently banned on Stack Overflow because multiple people in my office use Stack Overflow, and we share an IP address, so I was suspected of being a sockpuppet. Won't this also happen if ...
user avatar
57 votes
2 answers
842 views

A sock with 28 rep points just deleted my comment?

K, so I left a quick comment on this question to a user who didn't seem to understand how moderator flags worked. Moderators are janitors. You flag us when someone throws up in the hallway. We are ...
user avatar
-20 votes
4 answers
1k views

How does a Stack Overflow moderator know about sockpuppets? [duplicate]

How does a Stack Overflow moderator know about sock puppet accounts? How do they trap the user?
Harsh's user avatar
  • 139
6 votes
1 answer
401 views

Anti-Sock Puppet Strike Force Needs to Examine Badge Artifacts

Yesterday a sock puppet upvoted a bunch of my answers, artificially increasing my rep. I was pleased to see that the Anti-Sock Puppet Strike Force detected and canceled this within a few hours. Of ...
George Freeman's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
615 views

Sock Puppet Voting on SO?

Take a look at this user's reputation for March 24, 2011. He got 12 upvotes in one day, on 12 separate questions (Well above his daily average). The entire collection of votes took only 9 minutes. ...
Awesome Poodles's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
438 views

Is there anyway to declare another user at the same ip address to avoid a sock puppet claim?

My Fiance and I both use the stack exchange system from our homes where we work. We have many of the same interests, so she occasionally upvotes some of my questions or answers and sometimes I do the ...
Mark Rogers's user avatar
  • 1,867
4 votes
1 answer
192 views

Sock puppets on area 51

These two users appear to be a sock puppet combo (both following the same proposal). Just not sure how to report this type of activity as there is no flag link from a user profile page. Is there a way ...
going's user avatar
  • 5,444
26 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why are people allowed to have multiple user accounts?

According to the now-defunct query Users with more than 10 duplicate accounts on Stack Exchange Data Explorer, there are many people that have multiple user accounts for each e-mail address. Why is ...
Jonas's user avatar
  • 2,546
7 votes
2 answers
355 views

Are these the same users (future sock puppets?)?

User Maosud joined 2 days ago and asked this question about placing a div over an iframe "from Photosynth.net". A few hours later Rashid (who joined 7 days ago) asked this question about putting a div ...
Phrogz's user avatar
  • 2,582
19 votes
2 answers
875 views

Possible cheating via sock-puppet account

I've discovered what I think is a false account being used to send free rep to a user on Stack Overflow. Yesterday user nuclearpro posted an answer (now deleted) which was voted down to -10 over the ...
user229044's user avatar
  • 11.2k
95 votes
1 answer
3k views

I am a sockpuppet; may I exist if I have a real purpose? [duplicate]

I am a sockpuppet account of Josh, AKA The Unhandled Exception. I am going to help him test the XMPP chat integration system he's building. Am I allowed to exist? I promise to behave, and never leave ...
Josh's Socks's user avatar
  • 1,532
-7 votes
1 answer
302 views

Judging/Justifying a Sock Puppets Account

I am not happy with the way the sock puppets account are judged in this community. I have been targeted many times. The place where I work, I try to encourage everyone to use stackoverflow, and post ...
Starx's user avatar
  • 1,022