Operation Orangemoody

For more information on Wikipedia's response to this situation, see Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Orangemoody.

On August 31, 2015, the English Wikipedia community discovered 381 sockpuppet accounts operating an undisclosed paid editing ring. Participants in the ring extorted money from mid-sized businesses who had articles about themselves rejected by the encyclopedia's "Articles for Creation" process, in which drafts are submitted for approval to experienced editors. The ring was nicknamed "Operation Orangemoody" after the first account uncovered in the sockpuppet investigation and was Wikipedia's biggest conflict-of-interest scandal as of June 2021,[1][2] exceeding the scope of the Wiki-PR editing of Wikipedia incident in which approximately 250 sockpuppets were found and blocked in 2013.

The story was reported by many English language and non-English language news sources, including Komsomolskaya Pravda, Le Temps,[3] Le Monde and Die Zeit.[4][5][6] The editing was described by various media as "black hat" editors (TechCrunch),[7] "dishonest editing" (PC World),[8] "extortion"[9] (Wired),[10] a "blackmail scam" (The Independent),[11] and an "extensive cybercrime syndicate" (ThinkProgress).[12]

  1. ^ Moyer, Justin Wm. "Wikipedia sting snares hundreds of accounts used for paid editing". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Register2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Victime de fraude et d'extorsion, Wikipédia ferme 381 comptes de faux contributeurs". Le Temps (in French). Switzerland. September 1, 2015. Archived from the original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference komsprav2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference LeMonde2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference DieZeit2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference TechCrunch2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference pcworld2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Chiel, Ethan (September 1, 2015). "Wikipedia editors just banned 381 accounts over a huge fraud and extortion scandal". Fusion TV. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wired2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Merrill2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference ThinkProgress2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).