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So...I guess my account was hacked.
Blazeyer
Member UncommonPosts: 562
I checked my email today to find in my spam folder something from blizzard telling me my account (which has been inactive for 3-4 months) was under investigation for being sold/traded. I wasn't sure why this was so I decided to check my account on the WoW website. This is what i saw when trying to log in: "This account has been permanently disabled. For more information please contact wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com". Scary to say the least. My first thought was I had better check my checking account, nothing different so thats good. I don't know whats going on or why this is. I emailed the suggested email addy and am completely confused as to why/how this happened. I never have bought gold or even checked to see how much my account would even be worth.
I mean I was actually planning on resubbing. I didn't play WoW all that much, I resub every 3-4 months and play hardcore for a month then unsub. I had an 80 pally with capped mining and skinning (money crafts), 67 mage with very high cloth and enchanting, epic flyers and a pretty hefty purse of gold.
Anyone have similar stories or advice?
Comments
If I am reading what you said correctly, your account has been inactive and you wanted to resub eventually? If so, then it was most likely a scam email that you received with a link to a bogus website that most likely will take your account information and ruin your account. These emails usually provide help links that actually link to the blizzard website and they even copy and paste some of the EULA / TOS sections, but one of the links is always malicious.
You could copy/paste the email you received here and take out any sensitive information. I have received TONS of these even though my account has been inactive for over 6 months so I could probably identify it if I have seen something like it before.
TSW - Daemon Server
Waiting on Camelot Unchained!
Do exactly as I tell you. Delete all emails that even remotely appear to be from Blizzard, always. If something like this happens, go to the blizzard or wow site on your own (dont use any links, anywhere) and log on. You will find that your account is still fine.
If its not, then its probably your fault somehow.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Yes the website directed me to a site, no I did not go. It was from a legit @blizzard email addy but I know better anyway then to click email links. As soon as I recieved this email I opened another tab went to the offical WoW site and tried to log into the "My account" where I then recieved the said message.
Didn't click any links from emails. I never get anything from blizzard unless its about forum posts or telling me my account is deactivated/reactivated (when I do it). This is the first mail I've gotten in a long time. Like I said I did go to the offical site and only the offical site. That's where I got the message.
edit: I don't see any way at all it could be my fault.
It would be best to give their account management department a phone call to be sure.
TSW - Daemon Server
Waiting on Camelot Unchained!
I'm the exact same way, I only go on the Bliz/WoW site. How long did it take to recover your account?
Hey, I actually ran across your thread by coincidence looking for games while i wait for blizz patch updates and made a mmorpg account just to respond to you.. i just recently had 3 accounts hacked, at night of course when blizz phones are down, made a trial acct, watched the perps strip all my toons and got a hold of blizz the next day. took forever on the phone. they restored the accounts, i started playing again ( like a fool) and they were immediately re-hacked, i used antivirus/anti-spyware and no detections.... finally used "malwarebytes.com" on a blizz phone reps referral, and it found like 88 instances... it's mainly a keylogger finder i guess. i got authenticators and waited till they came in the mail ( about a week) to unlock accounts. blizz has re-restored the accounts and i changed all passwords and e-mails, but the main thing is to get a authenticator. they send a new code every 30 seconds and only cost 6 bucks!!! so even if they hack your e-mail they can't log into your blizz account without the physical authenticator in-hand. i hope this helped, call blizz and have accounts locked till authenticators arrive, it's WELL worth the wait
your the reason people send out fake emails like that.
I guess I should add that I'm waiting on the patch updates cause i had to get a new computer, something else was going on with my hardware and crashed the computer, i restored it but didn't have original disks (needed a new puter anyhow) and found a sweet deal on a new one.... so i just reinstaled wow and DAMN these patches take forever!!! I WANT MY WOW! hahahaha, play hard and suffer well brother!! The OTD
Dammit!!! ok, this is the last post, I didn't get the keyloggers from any e-mail or crud like that, i share the puter with 2 roomies and one of them liked to play online casinos, she was not happy to find out that was where EVERY logger and instance that malwarebytes.org found came from, NO where else but from the damn casino sites.!!! NOTE: she did win ( and just got $1,245 in the mail yesterday ) so they are not ALL scams, but it's still not a good place to go on a computer you care about
just wanted to validate that it didn't happen from the scam e-mails 
your the reason people send out fake emails like that.
that makes no sense.
Address can be faked. To be sure check the original message, it's simple to do this in gmail, just click the arrow on the upper right of the message that's next to "reply" and choose the option "show original" a new tab will open with a wall of text in it. Around the top there will be information on who sent it and received it, if you look for "Return-Path" it will show you who actually sent the message.
Example:
Delivered-To: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Received: by
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:39:56 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:39:55 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <minhanuria@hotmail.com>
So the message originated from minhanuria@hotmail.com and not Blizzard.
I get these messages every now and then, my suspicions were raised when I got an email about my trial account being sold, I've never subbed to the game. Once you find out the original sender, commence getting them spammed to hell.
I guess so. But like I said I did not click any links provided in emails. I checked my account on the worldofwarcraft.com website and that's where I got the message. The original message which I found in my spam folder was from noreply@blizzard which I'm 99% sure I've seen before.
I had messages like that about my wow acount being hacked, only problem is i never played wow or even signed up for a trial acount.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
I guess so. But like I said I did not click any links provided in emails. I checked my account on the worldofwarcraft.com website and that's where I got the message. The original message which I found in my spam folder was from noreply@blizzard which I'm 99% sure I've seen before.
All mine come from noreply@blizzard too, which is why I said addresses can be faked. You need to check where it's going too, not where it came from in these cases.
I guess so. But like I said I did not click any links provided in emails. I checked my account on the worldofwarcraft.com website and that's where I got the message. The original message which I found in my spam folder was from noreply@blizzard which I'm 99% sure I've seen before.
All mine come from noreply@blizzard too, which is why I said addresses can be faked. You need to check where it's going too, not where it came from in these cases.
Well I can understand if the message is being sent from a fake sender. Yeah I can get that. I just don't see how at all that would lead to me having my account compromised.
It could just be a random circumstance, or the guy who tried to scam you also tried getting into your account before he sent the email, but got the wrong password to many times, I don't know, but I would never trust an email in my spam folder, all the real emails I get from Blizzard are in my inbox.
Yeah I'm usually the same way though. F'n yahoo is weird. If I get a few emails from a company after awhile it puts them into the spam folder. I've been waiting to see if I get an invite into the ff14 beta, that's the only reason I even checked the spam to see the message. Sucks. I'm not really worried about it, I'm sure they'll fix it. It just sucks because that was my last resort for a game to play during my break from school.
Yeah I'm usually the same way though. F'n yahoo is weird. If I get a few emails from a company after awhile it puts them into the spam folder. I've been waiting to see if I get an invite into the ff14 beta, that's the only reason I even checked the spam to see the message. Sucks. I'm not really worried about it, I'm sure they'll fix it. It just sucks because that was my last resort for a game to play during my break from school.
I got an email from Square about how they selected all the testers for Closed Alpha, so it will be awhile before Beta I'm guessing. Send a message to Blizzard, it should get sorted. I've been playing DDO and League of Legends to pass my time during my break. I'd suggest finding one of the better F2P's to kill some time until you can get on WoW.
I believe it. I'm still baffled at how Blizzard could merge accounts with battlenet and your email becomes your login id. This just makes it easier for people to hack accounts.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
This is the truth of the matter.
People have been posting and using their email address for website registrations all over the web and who knows where else. Now people are using that same email address for their account logins it makes hacking so much easier. I am willing to bet a huge number of people use the same password for various websites as they do their wow account, but figured it was ok, because they used different login names (or didn't). This was a bad decision by blizzard.
I bet many people do not know that wowhead.com, thottbot.com and several other popular gaming information sites are owned by gold selling companies like IGE.
Hell, a hacker only needs to hack your email account now and they have free reign to reset your wow account password and remove any trace of their deeds.
Yes the website directed me to a site, no I did not go. It was from a legit @blizzard email addy but I know better anyway then to click email links. As soon as I recieved this email I opened another tab went to the offical WoW site and tried to log into the "My account" where I then recieved the said message.
I just wanted to repeat that it does not matter what email address is listed as the sender of an email. It is easily faked and any decent phishing email can be made to look like it came from anyone.
It is smart to not click on links though.
oh frell!!! just typed a novel and tabbed out or somethin and now gotta retype!!1 hahahah, ok, I have to EMPHASIZE that with the authenticators you have like .000001% worry about your account getting hacked through e-mail,keyloggers or any other form of phishing for your account info, EVEN if they get all your info and contact blizz pretending to be you, they MUST have the authenticator in-hand to get access to your account and change it, $6 ppl!!! well worth the peace of mind.. nothing is full-proof ( better alarms breed better burglars)(spelling?) but the authenticator is a keychain sized device with a button and a LCD screen, when you log into ANY secure site from battle.net-blizz-wow you use your e-mail & password, THEN a screen pops up saying enter code, you then press the button on the authenticator and enter the code that is changed every 30 SECONDS!!! they have to be uber-pro hacks to beat that,,, end this post and get an authenticator, you can use them on timecard accounts or CC pay accounts. in the words of NIKE " JUST DO IT" the OTD
I would like to say wowzer bliz phone support sucks. I just got off the phone with tech support (the only number that looked suitable to call). I was surprised to find out my account has infact been compromised since January. I didn't believe it at first but one of the emails that I thought were "Oh no you canceled your account again" were actually "Oh shit son you just got permaband". I guess my account was used in buying/selling of gold/items 3 months ago. So that means that I had nothing at all to do with this hacking issue. But basically the fella on the phone told me that the people who handle account issues DONT EVEN HAVE A PHONE NUMBER and operate ONLY through email. Are you kidding me? This is probably the most important topic/issue slate people have and you restrict this set of people to email. I honestly expected a lot more from blizzard. I'm not going to cry and say I'll never play again boo hoo, because I probably will eventually. I just figured that this powerful company would have a phone on someones desk in the office of the guys who investigate these account issues.
The thing that really confuses me is that I didn't even use my pc for web browsing from early December until mid February. I got one of the droid cell phones and started using that for all my daily interweb surfing. My pc was restricted to FF11 usage only where my account remains untouched.
Yes the website directed me to a site, no I did not go. It was from a legit @blizzard email addy but I know better anyway then to click email links. As soon as I recieved this email I opened another tab went to the offical WoW site and tried to log into the "My account" where I then recieved the said message.
I have been getting 2 to 3 of this EXACT email you mention every single day, AND another one that is similar to that email. No....they are NOT legitimate NOR from Blizzard. As a matter of fact, the one you're talking about is the one I copy and pasted below. As a matter of fact....I will show examples of ALL the emails I have gotten. I've received all of these over the course of just this past week. I get 2 to 3 of them a day, some that I receive are duplicates. This has been going on for about a month now. NONE of which are legitimate.
These are copied directly and not edited, (other than when I came back to add spaces on the urls to KEEP people from clicking them).
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THESE EMAILS OR COPY AND PASTE TO "FIND OUT" WHERE THEY GO.
EMAIL 1:
Greetings,
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: http:// ht tp://ww w.warcraft-blizzard.com/
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,
Kennalith
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
DBL5YqFrc9bvf
EMAIL 2:
Greetings!
Our automated security systems have indicated that your account is insecurity. In order not to affect the normal use of your account, please check your account settings as soon as poosible.
Use the following link to review your account settings and do some modifications if necessary:
htt p://us.battle.net/maintenance.htm?ref=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.worldofwarcraft.com%252Faccount%252F&app=wam
If you cannot sign into Account Management using the link above, please contact Blizzard Billing & Account Services for advanced assistance.
Billing & Account Services can be reached at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD (1-800-592-5499 Mon-Fri, 8Am-8PM Pacific Time) or at billing@blizzard.com.
Account security is solely the responsibility of the accountholder. Please be advised that in the event of a compromised account, Blizzard representatives will typically lock the account.
In these cases the Account Administration team will require faxed receipt of ID materials before releasing the account for play.
Regards,
The World of Warcraft Support Team
Blizzard Entertainment
EMAIL 3:
World of Warcraft -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use:
Blizzard Entertainment -> Legal -> Terms of Use
A 3-hour probationary suspension is pending on this account, awaiting confirmation from a specialist. A final warning has been issued. The investigation will be continued by the Account Administration team to determine the any further suspensions. If the account in question is found in violation of the EULA and Terms of Use, further action will be taken. Be aware that any additional inappropriate actions may result in the permanent closure of the account.
Thank you for respecting our position on this matter. ================================================================================================================== ** We request that you verify your legitimate ownership of the
account here:
h ttp://www.worldofwarcraft-battle-admin.com/acco unt/support/login-support.htm
Blizzard staff will verify your account information submitted in two days, please do not modify your account information during this time . It will not affect your game uptime.If you are unable to successfully verify your password .using the automated system, please contact Billing & Account Services at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD (1-800-592-5499) Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm Pacific Time or at billing@blizzard.com. Account security is solely the responsibility of the account holder. Please be advised that in the event of a compromised account, Blizzard representatives typically must lock the account. In these cases the Account Administration team will require faxed receipt of ID materials before releasing the account for play.
Regards,
The World of Warcraft Support Team Blizzard Entertainment
EMAIL 4:
Greetings!
This is an automated notification regarding the recent change(s)
As you may or 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. It will be ongoing for further investigation by Blizzard Entertainment's employees.
If you wish to not get your account suspended you should immediately verify your account ownership.
If the information is deemed accurate, the investigation will be dropped.
This action is taken because we at Blizzard Entertainment take these sales
quite seriously. We need to confirm you are the original owner of the account.
This is easiest done by confirming your personal information along with concealed information about your account.
we recommend you Login verify Information your account:
htt ps://www.battle.net/account/support/login-su pport.xml
If you ignore this mail your account can and will be closed permanently. Once we verify your account,
we will reply to your e-mail informing you that we have dropped the investigation.
billing@blizzard.com. Account security is solely the responsibility of the account
holder. Please be advised that in the event of a compromised account, Blizzard
representatives typically must lock the account. In these cases the Account
Administration team will require faxed receipt of ID materials before releasing the account for play.
Regards,
Blizzard Entertainment Inc Account Administration Team
P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623
Blizzard Entertainmen
EMAIL 5:
As a World of Warcraft operating company - Blizzard, we have been persistent to create a fair gaming environment for the effort.
To this end we will regularly account for all members to conduct random checks of records of transactions, it is unfortunate that in this time we have evidence to prove your account of illegal transactions.
Please visit ht tp://ww w.worldofwarcarft.com/ verify your account, or we will lock your account.
Blizzard Abuse Department.
EMAIL 6:
When we carry out a routine check when the account, we have evidence to show that your account has been involved in the disputed transactions.
So we have to inform you visit our website( htt p://w ww-battle.net ) fill out some information to facilitate our investigation.
If you can not tie in with our soon we will have to temporarily lock your account.
Sincerely,
Blizzard, Inc.
Copyright @2004-2010 Blizzard, Inc. All rights reserved.
EMAIL 7:
Greetings,
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:
http://w ww.battle.net/account/support/lo gin-support.xml
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
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now, granted some of these are very good fakes, and some are so obvious they wouldn't fool a 4 year old. But I'm guessing you fell for one of the convincing ones. I have talked to Blizzard Customer Services and they have confirmed that ALL of these are fakes. So BE AWARE.
I have also received more than one of several of these. My account is fine, by the way, so....just know that these criminals are getting slick. A few of them could take lessons from some of the others though. Some of them are totally laughable.
ANOTHER THING:
When you see what appear to be legitimate LINKS (as some of the above DO) NOTE that when you mouseover the link and look to see where it goes....they are REDIRECTS. They do not GO to where the link SAYS it goes. This is probably how you got duped. The ones that appear legitimate links do not link from your email as they do above.
BOTTOM LINE:
Never ever ever ever trust an email from "Blizzard." If you are curious regarding what any of them say, go to Blizzard's official site in a different browser, or call the number on your game box, etc. Blizzard will never ask for your password for ANY reason.
Edit: Added a space to all urls to try to HELP people who can't resist clicking on links. There seem to be a lot of these people using the internet these days. lol
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club