Originally posted by Mardy While to you, your account was inactive because you didn't resub to it. But the nature of hacking is someone got into your account, did something illegal, and got your account banned. Someone most likely mass gold spammed through your account or something. Either way, your account was hacked because someone found your login username/password. It's more common than you think. It really is more to your advantage to try and figure out how someone found your information, rather than be in denial.
Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 Again, I have never had any other of my MMOs account hacked or stolen (about 15 I have played in the past few years) So don't tell me that it was hacked when all of my other accounts from all my other games and MMOs have been hacked. It is Blizzard nothing more, nothing less. They did this. It is their fault.
You ever think that hackers target WoW accounts because 1) there are tons more WoW players, and 2) these accounts are more valuable as they perhaps make more money in a larger game? It doesn't matter how many games you've played, all that matters is trying to find out how you got exploited & hacked. You do want to prevent this from happening in the future.
Step one to solving a problem is to stop being in denial, and start figuring out what you did in recent days, weeks, months that may have gotten your account hacked.
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
Wow posters need to actually READ the OP's full post because he clearly states he checked the actual WoW website to confirm it so it is not a scam
I wish they would, typed all that stuff and people don't even read it >_<
Your average Wow player is way to hopped up on Gummi Bears to read a full sentence and comprehend it...
Perhaps you didn't read the entire post either and you missed that fact that the original post was edited after all of the comments about checking the URL.
Next time maybe you should not be so quick to jump on people for something all of you failed to also do.
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change. Please use logic.
I never got an email when I took advantage of their free xx days of play when I first came back. It was an option when I logged in to my account, button right there that says to try the game for xx days. I clicked on it, voila, I was able to login. I did that before I subscribed to the game 2 months ago, and got a week or so worth of free game time. Never once did I get an email acknowledgement that I did that.
So before telling me to use logic, please stop being in denial and think that you know everything.
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Please use logic.
The new battlenet does not send a email to the old address when the email is changed.... only to the new one.
I just checked my email and received an email from Blizzard saying my account was banned because "Abuse of the Economy" and it is not even active. In the past 2 years, I have used their WotLK trial 2 times and used a referral trial 1 time. I played a few hours on each trial but then got bored and uninstalled.
What does this mean? Doubt my account was hacked as they would have not even been able to play as all the trials have already expired months ago.
What should I do?
(i went to worldofwarcraft.com, typed it in manually, did not click any links in the email, and sure enough it is banned)
------------------------------------------------------------- ***Notice of Account Closure*** Account Name: **************** 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
Originally posted by rlmccoy1987 Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Please use logic.
Logic?
Hypothetical here:
You think someone who somehow would have gotten your account info on your side, through keylogger or possibly even through email to begin with, couldn't have gotten/used that info to delete emails as well?
There's nothing wrong with his logic no matter how unlikely the scenario may seem.
It sounds to me that all the people who got their accounts stolen,said they"were told to switch to battle.net".This sounds like you were sent a fake email and all you guys responded to it .I doubt Blizzard told you guys anything,you all clicked some link that got your account id stolen.
The people that stole your account are not going to change any emails,all they wanted was to use your account to exchange rmt sales.They do this because they don't like to risk using their high level farm characters,so they will use an account that they don't care if they lose it.I would like to know when the OP received that email telling him to change to Battle.net,that would tell us how long it took Blizzard to catch these guys and act on it.
The thing is that ,personally i would follow up to see what Blizzard has or is doing about security,even though the INITIAL fault is the user,it "IS"Blizzard's priority to make sure the problem is rectified,especially when involving possible information stealing.
The reason it becomes a serious issue with Blizzard ,is because they do have the IP address that was being used on this account and the many other stolen accounts.If these ip's are reported for theft,it is jail time,lawsuits,and quite possibly would shut down the RMT operation.BTW it does not matter if the IP was done through a proxy ,it can still be traced.I am sure many of the RMT operations are smart on trying to avoid ever being traced,but nope they can be caught,if Blizzard chooses to do anything about it.If Blizzard has chosen to not follow up on any of the theft claims reported to them[yes you should report it]then they could be held liable.
If Blizzard follows up on the IP's that are doing the stealing,it most likely would result in removing future attacks,that should be a priority of Blizzard,since they are FORCING players to store their private information on Blizzard servers.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
This is exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago. Out of the blue I get a message from Blizzard that my account has been suspended for ToS violations. When I tried to login, I found my password had been changed. This actually took place while I'd been on hiatus from playing for a couple of weeks. I hadn't logged in once in that time so this was quite a surprise.
I still don't know how my accounts (yeah, they got both of them) had been compromised since I'm pretty good about sticking with Curse for my addons and I always have Kaspersky ticking away in the background. I'm very wary about unsolicited "WoW"-related email and automatically assume that they are phishing attempts.
I don't want to sound like I'm dissing B.net, but I've had my first account for a few years now, added a second last year, have always used addons, and have never had my account compromised until just recently ... not long after switching over to B.net.
I have access to my accounts again but really don't have any great interested in playing at this point. My first look at my stripped down toons on the character selection screen has pretty much sucked out what enthusiasm I had left.
Blizzard has been good and I understand that items have been restored on a couple of them (plus a bunch of bonus loot to ease the pain of being a victim), but I don't feel safe logging in now because I don't know exactly how I was nailed. I've never used any kind of out-of-game service (and have, in fact, railed against them frequently) and neither my virus scanner nor my spyware software has found any keyloggers after multiple full system scans.
I know I could use an authenticator, but like I said, my enthusiasm for even making the effort just isn't there. I'll be canceling my accounts shortly after I get my gear back for my other toons, just in case I ever want to come back to WoW again. It's possible, after the aftertaste of being digitally raped has subsided.
I'm not one usually for tinfoil hat theories, but it is curious the vast amount of accounts being compromised as of late.
A handful is unfortunate, and attributable to end user error.
The vast number that seem to be happening recently though makes that a little less believable. Yes there are stupid people, but usually not that many simultaneously. I get what others are saying about it being end user error, and I am usually the first one to call someone out when they cry "hax0rz!", but this is just too many at one time to make that reasonably believable. People that have been gaming for over a decade without security issues are now suddenly finding themselves with compromised accounts? You aren't able to keep yourself safe for that long and then suddenly become stupid. Oddly enough you became stupid at the same time many others have and at the same time there is a switch over to B-net. Too many coincidences to be believable.
After reading numerous amounts of these threads here and on other websites, appearances certainly seem to suggest the breach is at Blizzards end whether it be an unscrupulous employee or a cracked database issue.
It will be curious how this plays out., if at all, or if it quietly goes away.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
People need to realize that that meant that people dealt with their user/pass information again which they hadn't done in months/years, which opens an opportunity for people to obtain it through hacked email/keyloggers gotten after playing it. It's amazing how people automatically lay blame at Blizzard for stuff like this and start yapping about how secure 'their' computer is.
I do not have any keyloggers on my system, so its Blizzard's fault. Again, even if someone did hack my account, it has been inactive for over a year now. So why would they ban me for gold selling if its inactive and the hacker couldn't do anything anyway? Explain that.
Obviously failed to read my post.
Massive fail.
I love how people A) feel they have any clue about the security or cleanliness of their system. Probably ran an antivirus and got no hits and that's the end of it. Make dumb conclusions that then instantly the problem lays with Blizzard.
So Blizzard can do no wrong? No one can get into Blizzard's systems. Thats as likely as me having a keylogger. I play multiple different MMOs and have NEVER had any of my passwords stolen for anything. I have been using my email address for 6 years now from gmail and have never been hacked.
Again, I have never had any other of my MMOs account hacked or stolen (about 15 I have played in the past few years) So don't tell me that it was hacked when all of my other accounts from all my other games and MMOs have been hacked. It is Blizzard nothing more, nothing less. They did this. It is their fault.
Yes, the problem IS Blizzard but for some reason people here do not believe that. I told myself I was finished with this topic but the people here telling everyone that its their fault and Blizzard is invulnerable pisses me off. How many people have been reporting this? But alas, according to these people its because we do not know how to keep an account safe. Well I know one customer that Blizzard has lost and I hope all the "dummies" quit and move on to other games.
It sounds to me that all the people who got their accounts stolen,said they"were told to switch to battle.net".This sounds like you were sent a fake email and all you guys responded to it .I doubt Blizzard told you guys anything,you all clicked some link that got your account id stolen.
Nope. I switched over to B.net a couple of weeks before it was mandatory. I didn't wait for an email to be sent to me but navigated there from the WoW site because I needed to look up information on how it worked and what the ramifications would be. This was a while back too -- maybe September or October of 2009. My accounts were compromised sometime between the last week of December and the first week of January. If I did somehow get phished as a result of signing up for B.net, they certainly took their time in exploiting it.
Yes what happened to the OP also happened to me, my account was compromised, it was not my fault, and there is no explanation. Customer support restored my account password which is great, but I still cannot login becase there is now an Authenticator attached to my account!
So basically if your account is compromised you are fucked, your gold is gone, your characters may have been transferred to another account or renamed, and none of it is your fault, you just have to deal with it...
I recently came back to WoW and while I wasn't banned, I found my 80 DK and 74 Paladin deleted. My 62 rogue was also naked. I e-mailed Blizzard about it and they found my DK to be transferred to a different account. They basically said there's no way we can help. Definitely never playing this game again.
Did I mention they said nothing about my other characters?
Same thing happened to me last week. I haven't even had the game installed on my PC in over a year. They activated my account with a stolen credit card and sold my gold. My account was banned for 72 hours, and I still haven't gotten my gold or gear back in game yet. I did get to keep the time left on the account though -.-
I haven't played in a couple of years. I tried to go back but the account was tied to somebody else's battle.net account. I got it moved back to mine but they said somebody else had been playing it so it'll be closed until they look into it. They said it would take up to a couple of days but its been a week. I got fed up so after trying AOC I bought it and having a great time. They permanently lost my money.
My account got banned for exploiting even though it was inactive and I hadnt played it in over a year.. Turns out they banned me by mistake because the person who was committing the exploit had a character with a name similar to mine.. They told me that their system only recorded the first 5 letters of the characters name and then bans the account associated with it.. yet the copy of the logs they sent me clearly showed the different name.
I also got hacked while my account was inactive. The hacker/s reactivated my account and mined a ton of saronite, then I got my account back and got a free month of play time.
So anyone that has access to an account can log into it, and then start a new trial and the owner of the account does not even get an email saying the account was reactivated? What an exploitable system Blizzard has there.
Props to you OP, for taking the time to clearly document things. Your situation is clearly not a case of email phishing. Its quite possible that Blizzard's data base was hacked.
This new light doesn't necessarily mean its Blizzard's fault...it just means that these hackers were pretty damn good at what they do. No system is 100% secure.
Props to you OP, for taking the time to clearly document things. Your situation is clearly not a case of email phishing. Its quite possible that Blizzard's data base was hacked.
This new light doesn't necessarily mean its Blizzard's fault...it just means that these hackers were pretty damn good at what they do. No system is 100% secure.
It has to be something other than phishing since they activated a WotLK trial on my account, while back in December they said they could not add another trial to my account. It really makes you wonder if Blizzard has been hacked themselves or not.
Also, not sending out emails to people when a trial is activated is outrageous. That is a huge security threat.
Comments
Not true. The account was inactive, meaning there was no trial or anything going on. They were unable to to log into the account and spam as they couldn't actually access the inside of the game. No one has my information, it must be a bug in their system for the reason of the ban, maybe a mistake? Maybe they accidently banned the wrong account?
You ever think that hackers target WoW accounts because 1) there are tons more WoW players, and 2) these accounts are more valuable as they perhaps make more money in a larger game? It doesn't matter how many games you've played, all that matters is trying to find out how you got exploited & hacked. You do want to prevent this from happening in the future.
Step one to solving a problem is to stop being in denial, and start figuring out what you did in recent days, weeks, months that may have gotten your account hacked.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
I wish they would, typed all that stuff and people don't even read it >_<
Your average Wow player is way to hopped up on Gummi Bears to read a full sentence and comprehend it...
Perhaps you didn't read the entire post either and you missed that fact that the original post was edited after all of the comments about checking the URL.
Next time maybe you should not be so quick to jump on people for something all of you failed to also do.
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Please use logic.
I never got an email when I took advantage of their free xx days of play when I first came back. It was an option when I logged in to my account, button right there that says to try the game for xx days. I clicked on it, voila, I was able to login. I did that before I subscribed to the game 2 months ago, and got a week or so worth of free game time. Never once did I get an email acknowledgement that I did that.
So before telling me to use logic, please stop being in denial and think that you know everything.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Please use logic.
The new battlenet does not send a email to the old address when the email is changed.... only to the new one.
It was using the same email as before.
Everyone needs to take a big breath.
People start attacking people for nothing these days.
The OP is just wondering what's going on, it's an interesting situation..
You guys can have your 'theories', but until he hears back from Blizzard...NO ONE KNOWS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
Calm down people.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who pick their nose.. and liars.
Got the same e-mail, join the club.
Definitely is a possibility, that's why you want to contact them directly to rule that out. But I thought all accounts would be "inactive" if they are banned, wouldn't they? Since you can' t login to your account, you can't see any status or past payment history on it. So you would have no idea if someone used a fake cc to activate it for a week, used your account for illegal activities, then got your account banned and closed.
It wasn't activated, I would have gotten an email. if they tried to change the email, i would have gotten an email also about the change.
Please use logic.
Logic?
Hypothetical here:
You think someone who somehow would have gotten your account info on your side, through keylogger or possibly even through email to begin with, couldn't have gotten/used that info to delete emails as well?
There's nothing wrong with his logic no matter how unlikely the scenario may seem.
It sounds to me that all the people who got their accounts stolen,said they"were told to switch to battle.net".This sounds like you were sent a fake email and all you guys responded to it .I doubt Blizzard told you guys anything,you all clicked some link that got your account id stolen.
The people that stole your account are not going to change any emails,all they wanted was to use your account to exchange rmt sales.They do this because they don't like to risk using their high level farm characters,so they will use an account that they don't care if they lose it.I would like to know when the OP received that email telling him to change to Battle.net,that would tell us how long it took Blizzard to catch these guys and act on it.
The thing is that ,personally i would follow up to see what Blizzard has or is doing about security,even though the INITIAL fault is the user,it "IS"Blizzard's priority to make sure the problem is rectified,especially when involving possible information stealing.
The reason it becomes a serious issue with Blizzard ,is because they do have the IP address that was being used on this account and the many other stolen accounts.If these ip's are reported for theft,it is jail time,lawsuits,and quite possibly would shut down the RMT operation.BTW it does not matter if the IP was done through a proxy ,it can still be traced.I am sure many of the RMT operations are smart on trying to avoid ever being traced,but nope they can be caught,if Blizzard chooses to do anything about it.If Blizzard has chosen to not follow up on any of the theft claims reported to them[yes you should report it]then they could be held liable.
If Blizzard follows up on the IP's that are doing the stealing,it most likely would result in removing future attacks,that should be a priority of Blizzard,since they are FORCING players to store their private information on Blizzard servers.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
This is exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago. Out of the blue I get a message from Blizzard that my account has been suspended for ToS violations. When I tried to login, I found my password had been changed. This actually took place while I'd been on hiatus from playing for a couple of weeks. I hadn't logged in once in that time so this was quite a surprise.
I still don't know how my accounts (yeah, they got both of them) had been compromised since I'm pretty good about sticking with Curse for my addons and I always have Kaspersky ticking away in the background. I'm very wary about unsolicited "WoW"-related email and automatically assume that they are phishing attempts.
I don't want to sound like I'm dissing B.net, but I've had my first account for a few years now, added a second last year, have always used addons, and have never had my account compromised until just recently ... not long after switching over to B.net.
I have access to my accounts again but really don't have any great interested in playing at this point. My first look at my stripped down toons on the character selection screen has pretty much sucked out what enthusiasm I had left.
Blizzard has been good and I understand that items have been restored on a couple of them (plus a bunch of bonus loot to ease the pain of being a victim), but I don't feel safe logging in now because I don't know exactly how I was nailed. I've never used any kind of out-of-game service (and have, in fact, railed against them frequently) and neither my virus scanner nor my spyware software has found any keyloggers after multiple full system scans.
I know I could use an authenticator, but like I said, my enthusiasm for even making the effort just isn't there. I'll be canceling my accounts shortly after I get my gear back for my other toons, just in case I ever want to come back to WoW again. It's possible, after the aftertaste of being digitally raped has subsided.
I'm not one usually for tinfoil hat theories, but it is curious the vast amount of accounts being compromised as of late.
A handful is unfortunate, and attributable to end user error.
The vast number that seem to be happening recently though makes that a little less believable. Yes there are stupid people, but usually not that many simultaneously. I get what others are saying about it being end user error, and I am usually the first one to call someone out when they cry "hax0rz!", but this is just too many at one time to make that reasonably believable. People that have been gaming for over a decade without security issues are now suddenly finding themselves with compromised accounts? You aren't able to keep yourself safe for that long and then suddenly become stupid. Oddly enough you became stupid at the same time many others have and at the same time there is a switch over to B-net. Too many coincidences to be believable.
After reading numerous amounts of these threads here and on other websites, appearances certainly seem to suggest the breach is at Blizzards end whether it be an unscrupulous employee or a cracked database issue.
It will be curious how this plays out., if at all, or if it quietly goes away.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
I do not have any keyloggers on my system, so its Blizzard's fault. Again, even if someone did hack my account, it has been inactive for over a year now. So why would they ban me for gold selling if its inactive and the hacker couldn't do anything anyway? Explain that.
Obviously failed to read my post.
Massive fail.
I love how people A) feel they have any clue about the security or cleanliness of their system. Probably ran an antivirus and got no hits and that's the end of it.
Make dumb conclusions that then instantly the problem lays with Blizzard.
So Blizzard can do no wrong? No one can get into Blizzard's systems. Thats as likely as me having a keylogger. I play multiple different MMOs and have NEVER had any of my passwords stolen for anything. I have been using my email address for 6 years now from gmail and have never been hacked.
Again, I have never had any other of my MMOs account hacked or stolen (about 15 I have played in the past few years) So don't tell me that it was hacked when all of my other accounts from all my other games and MMOs have been hacked. It is Blizzard nothing more, nothing less. They did this. It is their fault.
Yes, the problem IS Blizzard but for some reason people here do not believe that. I told myself I was finished with this topic but the people here telling everyone that its their fault and Blizzard is invulnerable pisses me off. How many people have been reporting this? But alas, according to these people its because we do not know how to keep an account safe. Well I know one customer that Blizzard has lost and I hope all the "dummies" quit and move on to other games.
Nope. I switched over to B.net a couple of weeks before it was mandatory. I didn't wait for an email to be sent to me but navigated there from the WoW site because I needed to look up information on how it worked and what the ramifications would be. This was a while back too -- maybe September or October of 2009. My accounts were compromised sometime between the last week of December and the first week of January. If I did somehow get phished as a result of signing up for B.net, they certainly took their time in exploiting it.
Yes what happened to the OP also happened to me, my account was compromised, it was not my fault, and there is no explanation. Customer support restored my account password which is great, but I still cannot login becase there is now an Authenticator attached to my account!
So basically if your account is compromised you are fucked, your gold is gone, your characters may have been transferred to another account or renamed, and none of it is your fault, you just have to deal with it...
What a fucking joke...
I recently came back to WoW and while I wasn't banned, I found my 80 DK and 74 Paladin deleted. My 62 rogue was also naked. I e-mailed Blizzard about it and they found my DK to be transferred to a different account. They basically said there's no way we can help. Definitely never playing this game again.
Did I mention they said nothing about my other characters?
LAWL
Same thing happened to me last week. I haven't even had the game installed on my PC in over a year. They activated my account with a stolen credit card and sold my gold. My account was banned for 72 hours, and I still haven't gotten my gold or gear back in game yet. I did get to keep the time left on the account though -.-
I haven't played in a couple of years. I tried to go back but the account was tied to somebody else's battle.net account. I got it moved back to mine but they said somebody else had been playing it so it'll be closed until they look into it. They said it would take up to a couple of days but its been a week. I got fed up so after trying AOC I bought it and having a great time. They permanently lost my money.
My account got banned for exploiting even though it was inactive and I hadnt played it in over a year.. Turns out they banned me by mistake because the person who was committing the exploit had a character with a name similar to mine.. They told me that their system only recorded the first 5 letters of the characters name and then bans the account associated with it.. yet the copy of the logs they sent me clearly showed the different name.
Warp
I also got hacked while my account was inactive. The hacker/s reactivated my account and mined a ton of saronite, then I got my account back and got a free month of play time.
So anyone that has access to an account can log into it, and then start a new trial and the owner of the account does not even get an email saying the account was reactivated? What an exploitable system Blizzard has there.
Props to you OP, for taking the time to clearly document things. Your situation is clearly not a case of email phishing. Its quite possible that Blizzard's data base was hacked.
This new light doesn't necessarily mean its Blizzard's fault...it just means that these hackers were pretty damn good at what they do. No system is 100% secure.
It has to be something other than phishing since they activated a WotLK trial on my account, while back in December they said they could not add another trial to my account. It really makes you wonder if Blizzard has been hacked themselves or not.
Also, not sending out emails to people when a trial is activated is outrageous. That is a huge security threat.