It is probably one of the biggest scams in the history of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia: a housewife from China has been writing fictional contributions about Russian history for three years. The false information was drafted in such a credible way that it ended up in other language versions of the online encyclopedia.
The Wikipedia author, using the pseudonym Zhemao, pretended to be the daughter of a Chinese diplomat in Russia, claimed to have studied at a university in Moscow, and was married to a Russian. The best conditions to teach about Russian history in the Chinese Wikipedia, you might think. But the career was as fictitious as the encyclopedias, Vice reports.
Fakes were extremely sophisticated
In her forgeries – the Chinese have written more than 200 articles since 2019 – Zhemao was extremely subtle. She mixed fact with fiction and even quoted sources. At first, no one noticed that the pages cited in the cited sources often did not exist at all. Zhemao even tried to make her posts more credible with specially created secondary accounts: one of the accounts claimed to have met the alleged Russia expert.
The quality of the forgeries was so high that some fake articles about Russian history were even included in Wikipedia editions in other languages. John Yip, who contributed to the Chinese Wikipedia for many years: “The content she wrote was of high quality and the entries were linked together, creating a system that could exist on its own.”
There were always false entries in Wikipedia. The case from China is probably one of the biggest scams on the platform to date.
Author found incorrect references
Zhemao was exposed when a Chinese writer came across one of her articles while researching a book. The stories of an alleged silver mine in Kashin struck him Spanish and he discovered that the sources were wrong. A group of Wikipedia authors then looked at the numerous articles on Russian history – gradually discovering that most of them were fiction.
Messages came from bored housewife
The prisoner seems remorseful. In a message, Zhemao apologizes to the community. She admits that she is not married to a Russian, nor did she receive a PhD from Lomonosov University in Moscow. She also doesn’t speak Russian at all. She is a housewife with a high school diploma and forged the articles because she was bored and had no social contacts, Zhemao explained her motivation.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
