Wow, my turn. I've never had this happen before. I received this email today. I find it funny because not only have I never bought gold, items, characters... but my account has been cancelled since around October. Of couse I emailed blizzard, not using the link on the bottom, but actually went to their site (Just in case this was some phishing or keylogging then. And no I have never given my account or password to anyone, and the only mods I had were Auctioneer and hmm Titan I think it was? (It let me see how many bag spots I had left, my gold, and armor dmg on the main window).
I was thinking about trying it again when Cataclysm comes out.
English speaking customers: Please refer to the start of this mail
Para los clientes españoles: Por favor vayan hasta el fin de este correo electrónico
***Notice of Account Closure***
Account Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX;
Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy
This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.
Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.
We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/antigold.html
The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html. Any recurring subscriptions on this account have been suspended to prevent further monetary charges.
Wow, my turn. I've never had this happen before. I received this email today. I find it funny because not only have I never bought gold, items, characters... but my account has been cancelled since around October. I was thinking about trying it again when Cataclysm comes out.
Exactly the same month I quit (on the 20th), oddly enough. There's got to be a popular site out there that's been compromised through Ad's, I run NoScript and ABP and only allow sites that I fully trust - even those have their ad's blocked though.
Either that or there was some windows vulnerability they've taken advantage of. Honestly, what more can I do to keep my computer safe? Firefox with NoScript and ABP, and Avast for an anti-virus. I don't browse any random sites, I use this PC for mostly gaming... no porn has even touched this HDD. I know every process that runs, I've even gone to such measures as going through every process with tasklist to see if any of them were running an unknown file - it's all clean.
To clear up anything else (and I've said all this in other posts, I know) I've never had any phishing e-mails for any of my e-mail accounts, not even spam. I have never bought any gold for any game, nor used any kind of service, nor would I ever even think to visit such sites - I treat my computer like an over-possessive mother treats her baby!
For my case (I'm computer literate, but not coder of any kind) I couldn't guarantee I didn't have keylogging or whatever on my system in October, I can be reasonably sure I don't have it now.
Last month I was having irritating comp problems, so I scrubbed everything, reformated my hard drive (twice actually). Then changed from vista to 07. And I haven't been back to any wow sites since October, so in the last month anyway they couldnt' have gotten any WoW information.
While this doesn't really affect me, since my account is cancelled and if I go to Cataclysm I would start with a new character, buying all the expansions and things would be a real pain.
Venge Sunsoar
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
For my case (I'm computer literate, but not coder of any kind) I couldn't guarantee I didn't have keylogging or whatever on my system in October, I can be reasonably sure I don't have it now. Last month I was having irritating comp problems, so I scrubbed everything, reformated my hard drive (twice actually). Then changed from vista to 07. And I haven't been back to any wow sites since October, so in the last month anyway they couldnt' have gotten any WoW information. While this doesn't really affect me, since my account is cancelled and if I go to Cataclysm I would start with a new character, buying all the expansions and things would be a real pain. Venge Sunsoar
Just give them a ring and you'll get all your stuff back. One thing I can't knock about Blizzard is there support... though their phone lines are jammed with all these hacking issues atm.
I love a good conspiracy theory, even when that theory makes less sense than the CIA being responsible for the death of Jesus....
1. Warcraft is a very popular game, in fact probably the most popular P2P game in the world
2. Ever wondered why there are more viruses for Windows than Linux? It's not just that Linux is more secure, it's because more people use Windows and the reward for hacking Windows is greater than for hacking Linux.
3. Phishing is easy, talk to spammers, send spam, people read mail, panic and follow link - that's often enough for keystroke logger installation
4. In an ideal world Blizzard wouldn't care if you got hacked, after all it's not their fault you did something daft, they didn't give away your password etc.
5. In the real world Blizzard care about their customers (because they pay the bills) so they give back accounts (which is expensive in terms of admin) and try and make accounts more secure (verification tools which are much cheaper than the admin of restoring hacked accounts)
I don't know where they got their emails, but surely somewhere a "good amount" were leaked. While I was playing WoW a long time ago, I never recieved any fishing mails. But suddendly since a few weeks I received quite many of them in short order.
The strange thing is the email used is a relative old email-adress and I didn't use it on websites or Account's since more than a year. I only sometimes check the inbox, if there is something interesting in it. I don't remember where I used this email adress at those times, but I guess it's somewhere from WoW related sites, could be Blizzard or websites like wowinterface or something like that.
ps. This WoW-Account wasn't active since I don't know how long.
Here's another example of such an Email supposedly from "wowaccountadmin"at"admin-blizzard.com" (lol)
An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard's EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here:
WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here:
WoW -> Legal -> Terms of Use
The investigation will be continued by Blizzard administration to determine the action to be taken against your account. If your account is found violating the EULA and Terms of Use, your account can, and will be suspended/closed/or terminated.
In order to keep this from occurring, you should immediately verify that you are the original owner of the account.
To verify your identity please visit the following webpage:
"some fake adress"
Only Account Administration will be able to assist with account retrieval issues. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.
---------------------------------------- Evil UO has doomed my poor soul and now I'm wandering restlessly through all MMORPG's, desperately searching for a place to rest in peace.....
The story about Blizzard hacking their own accounts is good, but doesn't make any sense. If that would ever in any way come to public, the damage to their image would be irrepairable.
Anyway, so some days ago I thought "let's see what's new about WoW on YouTube", I go there, and have the most recently uploaded wow videos displayed. Right the first one on the list was a fishing video, using tricks to make people send their account data to some email adress. And I'm 100% some people will do so.
Same with Aion. Lots of the recent videos are like "how to hack in Aion: go to this and this website and download that program" or "send your data to this and this adress".
And some people will do so, and then they will complain afterwards.
The problem is, imho, that WoW and Aion target a large casual crowd, and lots of these people, especially in WoW, have had not much of an online gaming experience before these games, or are young. As such they believe lots of stuff they see and read. If they see a speed hack or damage hack, they click on links and download random programs, or send their account information to random email adresses.
I mean seriously: if someone creates a hack that would actually work, then that person obviously doesn't care much about copyrights or what is right or wrong in general. Would you really want to install programs created by such a person? Many people on YouTube want that. You can see lots of videos where people ask, if they dont see the link "please where can I download the hack".
Comments
Wow, my turn. I've never had this happen before. I received this email today. I find it funny because not only have I never bought gold, items, characters... but my account has been cancelled since around October. Of couse I emailed blizzard, not using the link on the bottom, but actually went to their site (Just in case this was some phishing or keylogging then. And no I have never given my account or password to anyone, and the only mods I had were Auctioneer and hmm Titan I think it was? (It let me see how many bag spots I had left, my gold, and armor dmg on the main window).
I was thinking about trying it again when Cataclysm comes out.
English speaking customers: Please refer to the start of this mail
Para los clientes españoles: Por favor vayan hasta el fin de este correo electrónico
***Notice of Account Closure***
Account Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX;
Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy
This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.
Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.
We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/antigold.html
The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html. Any recurring subscriptions on this account have been suspended to prevent further monetary charges.
For any disputes of this action, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and Contact page here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/exploitfaq
Regards,
Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com
Exactly the same month I quit (on the 20th), oddly enough. There's got to be a popular site out there that's been compromised through Ad's, I run NoScript and ABP and only allow sites that I fully trust - even those have their ad's blocked though.
Either that or there was some windows vulnerability they've taken advantage of. Honestly, what more can I do to keep my computer safe? Firefox with NoScript and ABP, and Avast for an anti-virus. I don't browse any random sites, I use this PC for mostly gaming... no porn has even touched this HDD. I know every process that runs, I've even gone to such measures as going through every process with tasklist to see if any of them were running an unknown file - it's all clean.
To clear up anything else (and I've said all this in other posts, I know) I've never had any phishing e-mails for any of my e-mail accounts, not even spam. I have never bought any gold for any game, nor used any kind of service, nor would I ever even think to visit such sites - I treat my computer like an over-possessive mother treats her baby!
-iCeh
For my case (I'm computer literate, but not coder of any kind) I couldn't guarantee I didn't have keylogging or whatever on my system in October, I can be reasonably sure I don't have it now.
Last month I was having irritating comp problems, so I scrubbed everything, reformated my hard drive (twice actually). Then changed from vista to 07. And I haven't been back to any wow sites since October, so in the last month anyway they couldnt' have gotten any WoW information.
While this doesn't really affect me, since my account is cancelled and if I go to Cataclysm I would start with a new character, buying all the expansions and things would be a real pain.
Venge Sunsoar
Just give them a ring and you'll get all your stuff back. One thing I can't knock about Blizzard is there support... though their phone lines are jammed with all these hacking issues atm.
-iCeh
I love a good conspiracy theory, even when that theory makes less sense than the CIA being responsible for the death of Jesus....
1. Warcraft is a very popular game, in fact probably the most popular P2P game in the world
2. Ever wondered why there are more viruses for Windows than Linux? It's not just that Linux is more secure, it's because more people use Windows and the reward for hacking Windows is greater than for hacking Linux.
3. Phishing is easy, talk to spammers, send spam, people read mail, panic and follow link - that's often enough for keystroke logger installation
4. In an ideal world Blizzard wouldn't care if you got hacked, after all it's not their fault you did something daft, they didn't give away your password etc.
5. In the real world Blizzard care about their customers (because they pay the bills) so they give back accounts (which is expensive in terms of admin) and try and make accounts more secure (verification tools which are much cheaper than the admin of restoring hacked accounts)
Simple isn't it?
I don't know where they got their emails, but surely somewhere a "good amount" were leaked. While I was playing WoW a long time ago, I never recieved any fishing mails. But suddendly since a few weeks I received quite many of them in short order.
The strange thing is the email used is a relative old email-adress and I didn't use it on websites or Account's since more than a year. I only sometimes check the inbox, if there is something interesting in it. I don't remember where I used this email adress at those times, but I guess it's somewhere from WoW related sites, could be Blizzard or websites like wowinterface or something like that.
ps. This WoW-Account wasn't active since I don't know how long.
Here's another example of such an Email supposedly from "wowaccountadmin"at"admin-blizzard.com" (lol)
theser are both mailed trough a "Hotmail-Adress"
----------------------------------------------------
Greetings!
It was reported that you are trying to sell your personal World of Warcraft account(s).
As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with the EULA and Terms of Agreement.
If this proves to be true, your account can and will be disabled.
We will gather more information through further investigation.
If you wish to not get your account suspended you should immediately verify your account ownership.
You can confirm that you are the original owner of the account by providing the following information:
* First and Surname
* Date of birth
* Address
* Zip code
* Phone number
* Country
* Account e-mail
* Account name
* Account password
* Secret Question and Answer Or WoW CD-Key
Show * Please enter the correct information
If you ignore this mail your account can be closed permanently.
Once we verify your account, we will reply to your e-mail informing you that we have dropped the investigation.
Regards,
Account Administration Team
Blizzard Entertainment
-------------------------------------------------------
and another one for those who are interested:
-------------------------------------------------------
Worldofwarcraft Account SeaechGreetings,
An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard's EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here:
WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here:
WoW -> Legal -> Terms of Use
The investigation will be continued by Blizzard administration to determine the action to be taken against your account. If your account is found violating the EULA and Terms of Use, your account can, and will be suspended/closed/or terminated.
In order to keep this from occurring, you should immediately verify that you are the original owner of the account.
To verify your identity please visit the following webpage:
"some fake adress"
Only Account Administration will be able to assist with account retrieval issues. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.
Sincerely,
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Evil UO has doomed my poor soul and now I'm wandering restlessly through all MMORPG's, desperately searching for a place to rest in peace.....
The story about Blizzard hacking their own accounts is good, but doesn't make any sense. If that would ever in any way come to public, the damage to their image would be irrepairable.
Anyway, so some days ago I thought "let's see what's new about WoW on YouTube", I go there, and have the most recently uploaded wow videos displayed. Right the first one on the list was a fishing video, using tricks to make people send their account data to some email adress. And I'm 100% some people will do so.
Same with Aion. Lots of the recent videos are like "how to hack in Aion: go to this and this website and download that program" or "send your data to this and this adress".
And some people will do so, and then they will complain afterwards.
The problem is, imho, that WoW and Aion target a large casual crowd, and lots of these people, especially in WoW, have had not much of an online gaming experience before these games, or are young. As such they believe lots of stuff they see and read. If they see a speed hack or damage hack, they click on links and download random programs, or send their account information to random email adresses.
I mean seriously: if someone creates a hack that would actually work, then that person obviously doesn't care much about copyrights or what is right or wrong in general. Would you really want to install programs created by such a person? Many people on YouTube want that. You can see lots of videos where people ask, if they dont see the link "please where can I download the hack".
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Haven't had any issues with my accounts as of yet.
I have about 5 accounts and I've been playing the game since close to launch.
I've played from multiple locations, multiple systems, multiple OS's, etc.,..
I haven't been 'without sin' on those systems. I've surfed for porn on most of those systems, used iTunes, used Facebook, Myspace, etc.,...
I also haven't purchased gold or attempted to DL movies, music, software from 'black' sites (ie: for free).
I keep my antivirus clients up to date, make sure my firewall is up, keep my systems up to date/patched, etc.,..
I don't let friends play on my accounts, don't share my account information, or any of that business.
About 6 months ago, I purchased an authenticator. Still no issues.