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WOW hacking

My account was hacked recently, and the hacker not only changed the password (natch) but associated HIS authenticator with my account. I was able to reset the password through my account e-mail address, but that didn't help as long as the hacker's authenticator was active. I had to call Blizzard and jump through some hoops to get it removed.

I have since downloaded the Battle.net authenticator for my iPhone and associated it with my account. Only one authenticator per account is allowed, so that can't possibly happen again.

ETA: I have no doubt a gold seller took my account, but I don't have any idea how he got my info. I have never bought gold or been phished, and a couple of malware scans failed to find a keylogger.
 
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JWideman said:
Getting an MMORPG account hacked is ALWAYS the result of interaction with gold sellers,
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Define "interaction"? If you mean "interaction" in terms of actively interacting with gold sellers in order to buy gold, then you are pointedly and most definitely wrong.

A person can get their account hacked simply by visiting a website with a compromised banner ad on it (if they haven't updated their browser and fixed that particular vulnerability, anyway). They can get their account hacked simply by innocently following a link on a forum. Or, as I mentioned earlier, downloading a leveling guide. None of these things are inherently wrong. None of them mean that someone is "buying gold" or getting power leveled.

Yes, phishing schemes are hugely popular with WoW hackers. No, they are not the only way to get your account hacked without doing something against the WoW ToU.
 
Yes mine got hacked from a trojan acquired from a website that had nothing to do with WoW exploiting or anything to do with WoW for that matter. I remember getting up the next morning and putting together the pieces of what I visited the night before and figured exactly where it came from. It was foolish but back in those days I was not running any antivirus software (mainly because it was interfering with games ironically enough). That ordeal changed my mind instantly.
 
Policenaut said:
Yes mine got hacked from a trojan acquired from a website that had nothing to do with WoW exploiting or anything to do with WoW for that matter. I remember getting up the next morning and putting together the pieces of what I visited the night before and figured exactly where it came from. It was foolish but back in those days I was not running any antivirus software (mainly because it was interfering with games ironically enough). That ordeal changed my mind instantly.
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Glad you're running appropriate software solutions now!

I'd just like to point out that the date and time of one's account being hacked does not necessarily correlate to the date and time of one acquiring the malware that allowed the hacking. In other words, you don't always get your account hacked immediately (within 24 hours) after acquiring the malware. Trojans and keyloggers can sit idle on your system for indefinite amounts of time. Hackers may take indefinite amounts of time to utilize the information collected by those trojans and/or keyloggers. I've seen people be hacked months after being compromised by a particular vulnerability because while they patched the vulnerability, they failed to clean their system after discovering it. Or even because while they reformatted their system after finding a virus, they failed to change their login information.
 
Just another reason for me never to have installed WoW to begin with. I think its a great market/business though for the game makers. The players get to not only pay for the game but for the servers to play on. Genius. :-D

I do play some computer games though such as left 4 dead 2 and modern warfare 2. I have always felt like WoW players in general have invested (generally speaking) a lot of time into the game, and into socializing while playing.

What is really awesome about the game? I'm curious why its so popular, so if you play it convince me why I should try it! (please?)
 
There really is no excuse in not getting the hardware authenticator. It's $7, half the price of one month of gameplay - no keylogger is any good with a token.
 
A viable alternative to an authenticator is a mac. :)

I hope your husband gets his WoW account back Bickerer, but if not I hope he spends his newfound free time doing nice things with you.
 
River said:
Just another reason for me never to have installed WoW to begin with. I think its a great market/business though for the game makers. The players get to not only pay for the game but for the servers to play on. Genius. :-D

I do play some computer games though such as left 4 dead 2 and modern warfare 2. I have always felt like WoW players in general have invested (generally speaking) a lot of time into the game, and into socializing while playing.

What is really awesome about the game? I'm curious why its so popular, so if you play it convince me why I should try it! (please?)
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It is not very expensive considering how much time many people put into it. I knew people a few years ago that had 2 years actual playtime on their account. I can only imagine what it is now. And if you are a serious player you are only paying $12 a month so $144 a year for a game you are going to play several hours just about every day indefinitely is not a bad deal. Maybe if you are very casual then it seems like a lot of money (but still not really considering new games are $60 each). I would recommend that the only way you are going to think it's worth the money is if you level up faster than a snail's pace and get into raiding (or pvp...or both) when you get to the endgame. Also you should be playing with friends who have the same goals as you. If you just do it solo you could get bored easily and frustrated by incompetent groups and quit. Obviously you make friends also as you play but most of the friends I gained were from creating guilds and raiding with those people. But before that point you might struggle if you aren't playing with your real friends while leveling up. Oh yeah, you also should be playing with vent. I remember the first 2 or so years of WoW when no one was using vent and I still don't know how we managed any raiding let alone BWL without it. But besides raiding it will also help break the monotony if you are talking to people while leveling up instead of typing in messages.
 
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River said:
What is really awesome about the game? I'm curious why its so popular, so if you play it convince me why I should try it! (please?)
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There is no 'should' involved, but here are some reasons why I enjoy it.

1. The action occurs on-screen, right in front of you.

2. My character can look as mean, as tough, and as ugly as I want it to, and it doesn't have to look at all like me.

3. No unicorns!

4. I get to beat the snot out of obnoxious noobs (but only in PvP).

5. There's action and adventure, with none of that crappy 'romance' nonsense to spoil the enjoyment.

6. There is just enough social interaction with real people to make it enjoyable when I don't feel like bashing balrogs.

7. No unicorns!
 
River said:
What is really awesome about the game? I'm curious why its so popular, so if you play it convince me why I should try it! (please?)
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I think the game has appeal for all kinds of different players. If you like to group and run dungeons, it has that. If you like to solo, it has that. If you like to fight against other players in PVP, it has that. Personally, I really enjoy levelling characters. I have this bad habit of levelling one to the highest level, and then starting all over again. I'm a "tick the box" type of person, which is why I also like the achievement system. Overall it doesn't really mean much, but hey I have a lot of cool pets and mounts and titles. I have been playing for five years and I still have a lot of the game to see.

I created a shaman on Madoran and she is still sitting in [Empirical] as far as I know. I am addicted to a mage right now, and she is on the Tortheldrin server (level 71... just about to ding 72).
 
Policenaut said:
It is not very expensive considering how much time many people put into it. I knew people a few years ago that had 2 years actual playtime on their account. I can only imagine what it is now. And if you are a serious player you are only paying $12 a month so $144 a year for a game you are going to play several hours just about every day indefinitely is not a bad deal. Maybe if you are very casual then it seems like a lot of money (but still not really considering new games are $60 each). I would recommend that the only way you are going to think it's worth the money is if you level up faster than a snail's pace and get into raiding (or pvp...or both) when you get to the endgame. Also you should be playing with friends who have the same goals as you. If you just do it solo you could get bored easily and frustrated by incompetent groups and quit. Obviously you make friends also as you play but most of the friends I gained were from creating guilds and raiding with those people. But before that point you might struggle if you aren't playing with your real friends while leveling up. Oh yeah, you also should be playing with vent. I remember the first 2 or so years of WoW when no one was using vent and I still don't know how we managed any raiding let alone BWL without it. But besides raiding it will also help break the monotony if you are talking to people while leveling up instead of typing in messages.
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I think its a great idea for the game makers. Brilliant even, and things like that will help keep the industry going. Its just unusual. Almost every other popular PC game has servers that arent pay to play. Some of them are hosted privately, or run by ads supporting them but once you buy the game you dont have to pay in order to play it. I can understand why people get warped about losing their goods in game when you're paying cash to have your stats remain reliable. I like to game some myself I've just never played WoW because of how time consuming it seems to be in comparison to other games I've played. (such as mw2, left 4 dead 2) Neither are pay to play.


I've used vent for scrims (like 5v5 team scrims) or for left 4 dead. Seems to be a little clearer than the in-game in most games.




Kel said:
I think the game has appeal for all kinds of different players. If you like to group and run dungeons, it has that. If you like to solo, it has that. If you like to fight against other players in PVP, it has that. Personally, I really enjoy levelling characters. I have this bad habit of levelling one to the highest level, and then starting all over again. I'm a "tick the box" type of person, which is why I also like the achievement system. Overall it doesn't really mean much, but hey I have a lot of cool pets and mounts and titles. I have been playing for five years and I still have a lot of the game to see.

I created a shaman on Madoran and she is still sitting in [Empirical] as far as I know. I am addicted to a mage right now, and she is on the Tortheldrin server (level 71... just about to ding 72).
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Thats pretty cool that you can still have stuff to see after playing for that length of time. I dont think I could say that about any of the games I play. I dont really spend a lot of time gaming though. For me it tends to be more of 30 mins here and there and then I get burnt out. The longest I ever play is doing versus games in left 4 dead 2. (zombie killing game basically, youtube it if you havent seen it) How much do you think you've spent collectively on WoW since you've started playing?
 
I played from 2005 till 2007. I sold my account (against the rules, but heck, I really loved my characters and it felt like such a total waste to let them gain virtual dust, and somebody became really happy taking them over. Oh and the $450 didn't hurt either.) I gave all my account info, all the original packaging and DVDs and codes . The buyer transfered the main character to another server unknown to me, changed the name of the character and changed the email contact and billing info etc. All traces of me were lost, except the login name I guess, you cannot change that, can you? A good deal for both parties.

The strange thing is, since about 6 weeks ago I get 2 scam emails each week. Telling me that I should check my password. 'World of Warcraft - Account Change Notice' A lot of blahblah and some foney URL faking a blizzard site.

HOW did those scammers find me? I never got such mail in 2008 and 2009 until december and I never played the game since late 2007
 
River said:
I think its a great idea for the game makers. Brilliant even, and things like that will help keep the industry going. Its just unusual. Almost every other popular PC game has servers that arent pay to play. Some of them are hosted privately, or run by ads supporting them but once you buy the game you dont have to pay in order to play it. I can understand why people get warped about losing their goods in game when you're paying cash to have your stats remain reliable. I like to game some myself I've just never played WoW because of how time consuming it seems to be in comparison to other games I've played. (such as mw2, left 4 dead 2) Neither are pay to play.


I've used vent for scrims (like 5v5 team scrims) or for left 4 dead. Seems to be a little clearer than the in-game in most games.
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There is also a lot of stuff that monthly charge is going towards. Weekly maintenance so servers are very stable (unlike they were in the first 6 months of the game) and also the patches. Some WoW patches have more content than expansions for other games. I think with WoW you get what you pay for. Also it doesn't need to be time consuming. You aren't forced to sit around playing for hours at a time unless you're raiding. Leveling up can be done as casually as playing a single game of CS. Do a quest or two then log off. But you will be leveling up slow as hell if you don't put at least a few solid hours of leveling in a week.
 
Blackadder said:
All traces of me were lost, except the login name I guess, you cannot change that, can you?
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You cannot change the login name, the secret question and answer, or (except under specific circumstances) the real name registered to the account.

The strange thing is, since about 6 weeks ago I get 2 scam emails each week. Telling me that I should check my password. 'World of Warcraft - Account Change Notice' A lot of blahblah and some foney URL faking a blizzard site.

HOW did those scammers find me? I never got such mail in 2008 and 2009 until december and I never played the game since late 2007
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Phishing emails are sent out to random addresses in the hopes that some idiot will reply. Think about it. Why would a hacker have access to Blizzard's records to see who does and does not actually play WoW? Easy, they wouldn't. It's just random emails. I've been playing WoW for a good 4 years, and I've never received a single phishing email for it. Random, is random :)
 
River said:
I think its a great idea for the game makers. Brilliant even, and things like that will help keep the industry going. Its just unusual. Almost every other popular PC game has servers that arent pay to play. Some of them are hosted privately, or run by ads supporting them but once you buy the game you dont have to pay in order to play it. I can understand why people get warped about losing their goods in game when you're paying cash to have your stats remain reliable. I like to game some myself I've just never played WoW because of how time consuming it seems to be in comparison to other games I've played. (such as mw2, left 4 dead 2) Neither are pay to play.


I've used vent for scrims (like 5v5 team scrims) or for left 4 dead. Seems to be a little clearer than the in-game in most games.

Thats pretty cool that you can still have stuff to see after playing for that length of time. I dont think I could say that about any of the games I play. I dont really spend a lot of time gaming though. For me it tends to be more of 30 mins here and there and then I get burnt out. The longest I ever play is doing versus games in left 4 dead 2. (zombie killing game basically, youtube it if you havent seen it) How much do you think you've spent collectively on WoW since you've started playing?
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Here's the thing about WoW. You aren't paying for the game when you buy the game box. You're paying an activation fee and receiving an activation code for a new account. The game software is actually free. You can download it for free from Blizzard's website.

The service fee that you pay ($15 a month if you pay monthly, $13 if you pay in 6 month chunks) is to access the servers, and goes towards many MANY things.

Customer support -- What other MMORPG has 24/7 in-game customer support that will even go to the lengths of restoring your account if it gets hacked? Square just laughs at you and tells you to start over.

Regular updates of in-game content -- What WoW puts out in regular service patches, for free, other games put out as expansions you have to pay for. Not too long ago, we had a patch come out that introduced a whole new instance hub. That's a lot of content we didn't have to pay a cent extra for.

Cost -- $15 is less than 2 movie tickets. So, if you play the game for 4 hours a month, you've recouped your expenditure.

Social aspect -- Yes, other games have a social aspect too. You can play them online with your friends, blah, blah, blah. But WoW has 11 million subscribers (heck, might be more now since the last press release I saw was ages ago), world wide. That's 11 million other people you could socialize with, instead of just being stuck playing with people you already know. With WoW, you can start brand new on a server you know no one on, and within a week have a guild, and friends, and be on your way to handling end-game content.

Size of the game -- The game world is GIGANTIC. I've been playing for 4 years, and there are still huge chunks of the game that I've not yet experienced. The game is so gigantic that each "server" isn't really just one server at all. It's a cluster of servers, each supporting different areas and aspects of game play. It has to be, as "servers" support as much as 30k people each, across 4 game continents, and 77 zones (not including instances or battlegrounds).

Variety of content -- that's already been mentioned, but there really is something in the game for just about everyone. Questing, dungeons, exploration, professions, battle grounds, arenas, world PvP... The list goes on really.

I will put out one caveat -- Play at your own risk! WoW is highly addictive =D
 
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