Wikipedia:Scam warning

This is an information page. It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

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Scam warning: there are scammers who will actively target new Wikipedia editors and Articles for Creation participants.

They may pretend to be Wikipedia volunteers or a professional Wikipedia editing or public relations firm, and then ask you to pay them for "premium Wikipedia services" – to create an article for you, accept or publish a draft article, prioritize the review process of a draft article, protect an article from editing or deletion, restore a deleted article, or monitor an article for unfavorable changes. This is a scam.

• Help from real Wikipedia volunteers is always free.
• Real Wikipedia volunteers will never ask you for money or any other compensation.
• No one can guarantee that a draft will be accepted or an article will be kept in exchange for payment.

If someone contacts you with paid offers:

• Do not reply. Stop all contact.
• Do not share personal or account information.
• Do not click on any links they send.
• Do not follow their instructions or send any payment.

What to do instead:

• Forward the whole conversation, including email headers, to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org.
• Delete the messages. If you shared any account details, change your password immediately and consider enabling two-factor authentication.

• Because Wikipedia activity is public, a scammer might watch the New pages feed, or the Articles for creation or Articles for deletion pages.
• They'll typically look for draft articles that have been declined by a reviewer, articles that are tagged or nominated for deletion or that have been recently deleted, or new editors who are either asking for help with writing their first article, or trying to create an article in order to write about themselves or an article subject they have a conflict of interest with.
• After they locate a suitable target, they'll contact the editor and claim that – for a fee – they can create an article, accept or publish a draft article or speed up the review of a draft, protect an article from editing or deletion, restore a deleted article, or monitor an article for changes.
• Some scammers will even falsely claim to be a Wikipedia administrator, Articles for creation reviewer, or employees of the Wikimedia Foundation (or know one that will help).

If someone offers any kind of paid Wikipedia service, it is a scam.

• Using private or off-wiki methods of communication – such as LinkedIn, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp (or other social media services), Discord, or your email address.
  • This is done purposefully so that editors aware of the scam cannot step in and report or stop the activity, or warn the prospective victim.
• Promises or "guarantees" of getting a draft accepted or an article published, protection from changes or deletions, priority or fast-track services or turnaround time (such as getting a draft article reviewed and accepted immediately instead of having it wait in line).
• Claims of special authority, abilities, insider status, or user rights or privileges.

• Forward the entire conversation, including email headers, to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org.
• Do not reply or respond to the scammer – even if to tell them that you're aware of the scam or that you're reporting their activity.
• Keep a local copy of all messages only if you need it in order to supplement a report with your bank or with law enforcement. Otherwise, delete the messages.

Wikipedia cannot help you recover any money that was lost or stolen as a result of any scams, but reporting the activity will help to prevent future scams as well as protect others from becoming victims. If you believe that you were defrauded, consider reporting the incident to local authorities or a consumer protection agency in your jurisdiction.

Some people are paid to edit Wikipedia. Paid editors are:

• not employed by the Wikimedia Foundation or by the Wikipedia community; they have no authority beyond that of any other volunteer editor
• required to follow Wikipedia's paid editing process of disclosure and policy
• required to follow Wikipedia's conflict of interest process of disclosure and policy
• required to comply with Wikipedia's usual policies and guidelines, and their edits will be reviewed by the community like any other edits.

Some paid editors create "sockpuppets" for each client they work with to try to hide their paid editing. Edits by sockpuppets can be reverted without discussion.

No editor can "guarantee" any outcome or result will occur on Wikipedia: not that a draft will be accepted, an article kept or deleted, any content remain kept or be deleted, nor any tags remain or be removed.

If you receive a solicitation for paid editing services that contradicts any of the above, the paid editor is misleading you. Before employing a paid editor, you should read Wikipedia's paid editing disclosure and conflict of interest pages and verify that they are following these rules.

For volunteer help, see:

• The Teahouse: Q&A for new editors.
• The Help Desk: for questions relating to Wikipedia.
• Articles for Creation Help Desk: for questions about article submissions via the Articles for Creation process.
• Conflict of interest noticeboard: for concerns about paid and conflict of interest editing.

• Operation Orangemoody
• Template:Scam warning