On August 31, 2015, 381 sockpuppet accounts on the English Wikipedia were discovered operating a secret paid editing ring. Its participants extorted money from mid-sized businesses who had articles about themselves rejected. Nicknamed "Orangemoody" after the first account uncovered, it was Wikipedia's biggest conflict-of-interest scandal at the time, 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 hundreds of English and non-English language news sources, including Komsomolskaya Pravda, Le Monde and Die Zeit. The editing was described by various media as "black hat" editors (Tech Crunch), "dishonest editing" (PC World), "extortion" (Wired), a "blackmail scam" (The Independent), and an "extensive cybercrime syndicate" (ThinkProgress).
History
In 2015, the English Wikipedia blocked 381 accounts, many of them suspected of being sockpuppets of the same people, after a two-month investigation launched by Wikipedia editors. More than 200 Wikipedia articles created from the accounts were deleted.
Wikipedia's resulting investigation, named "Orangemoody" after the first account uncovered, found that sockpuppets had searched the site for deleted or rejected articles about businesses. Many of the articles had been deleted for excessively promotional content. The editors, some posing as Wikipedia administrators, would then extort payment from the businesses to publish and protect the articles. Besides businesses, individual people were targeted, including Cuban musician Dayramir Gonzalez. The scammers themselves may have been involved in the deletion of some articles. Wikimedia Foundation members Ed Erhart and Juliet Barbara declared that "undisclosed paid advocacy editing may represent a serious conflict of interest and could compromise the quality of content on Wikipedia".