Metablogging

Sockpuppet attack

John Quiggin20 Comments

I’ve just edited several comments from sockpuppets ‘Julia’ and ‘Colin’ posting Liberal Party talking points. Both posted using IP 114.78.24.168, then ‘Julia’ switched to another one, also in the range 114.78.2x.xxx. Spurious email addresses jules77@hotmail.com and col.TRE67@hotmail.com. Anothe commenter advises ‘Julia’ has been seen at LP.

If anyone can out these pests, I’ll happily publicise the results.

20 thoughts on “Sockpuppet attack”

  1. Looks like a Queensland disease to me. It comes out of:

    qld.optusnet.com.au

  4. It is listed on the SORBS database which is suggestive of it being a compromised machine. I imaging that most sock puppets are people who are just having a go rather than by those that use compromised machines. So it could be being done by somebody with some above average skill. Just speculating though.

  5. For sock puppets they picked some pretty boring names didnt they? They have to be Qldslanders. They are also baby boomer gen names – my guess older than you think is this person. Has anyone checked Tony G’s alibis?

  6. I think Julia is actually quite a nice name, Alice.
    But “Colin”?
    One tends towards an evocation of obstructions and tumours.
    Hence, we can assume that the Prof has instituted a procedure amounting to “Colinoscopy” .
    Back in the old days, the meat puppet problem often came from Young Lib Flying Squads.
    Perhaps these are League of Rights people, if they are older.

  7. The Julia on LP had a different email address, but with the same format — usernameYY. Two other sock puppets within an hour and a half. Their IP address was 58.110.61.105.

  8. Actually scrap what I said about SORBS. These addresses are only listed because they are dynamic addresses.

  10. It’s my experience from usenet that a very substantial of the most persistent trolling posters have IP addresses in SE QLD … This area is a hotbed of delusionist trolling on AGW.

  11. Hey Alice, Paul – there’s nothing wrong with the name “Colin”! (But it isn’t me.)

  13. Without help from their ISP they might be a bit hard to track down. And besides switching your modem on and off, there are other ways to get around the checking of IP addresses. For example thanks to some software that I just installed, this site currently shows me at an address in Germany… sigh.

  15. @paul walter
    League of rights is right Paul…I think you are on to something. They have a hot bed in SE QLD as well…they are some dim distant inbred relatives of Howards and the De Groot clan. Of course they are posting LP talking points. Some half bright LP had to write them first though for the lackeys to do the posting. They just follo orders. They dont make the orders. If we looked hard enough we could probably get a link through to Barnaby himself.

  17. Sorry Colin!

    Lets take a look at the popularity of babies names. Maybe they are not boomers after all…

    http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/decades/names2000s.html

    In the 2000s Colin comes in at number 109. Julia is number 31.

    In the 1990s
    Colin comes in at number 126 and Juliana at number 55.

    The 1980s – Julia was number 88.
    Colin was number 158.

    1970s Colin comes in at 266.
    Julianne at number 131.

    Julia in the 1960s – number 118.
    Colin – number 389.

    On these numbers they are a couple of wet behind the ears new recruit liberal rug rats.

  19. @Chris Warren
    Put these three organisations in the list of who doesnt respond to complaints Chris…not only that they are torture to even phone about any accounts at all…you know “please hold while I transfer you”…get transferred and tell story again to operator number two…”please hold while I transfer you”….more music….more holding….finally someone answers…for the third time. You start to tell your sorry tale again about overcharging…get halfway through the story…beeeeeep…..beeeeeep…beeeeeep. You are cut off.

    You cant stand the queue and transfers one more time so you just pay to make them go away.

    They love it. Their systems are designed to be that way. Ill name and shame them right here, right now.

    Telstra
    Optus
    Cabcharge

    My advice? Dont ring. Inundate them with paperwork and letters and just refuse to pay. Its the only way. Everyone that answers the phone hasnt got the authority and cant escalate your problem. Its designed that way.

  20. Internet Service Providers have better things to do than respond to reports of people trolling on web fora.

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