Hacked Account -- any experience?

[WindupAtheist]

Firefox with NoScript.

Have it. Still had to scour a keylogger off my system a couple nights ago. They didn't get anything, but yeah.

[bhodi]

Well, this past week for example there has been a rash of account thefts due to an unpatched flash security hole that adobe has been very slow to fix. The vector was apparently through one of the big strategy websites and to prevent anything like this in the future, I just merged my account into a battle.net account (I'd have to do this eventually anyway) and downloaded the free authenticator program for my iphone and attached it.

I should have probably done it long ago since I've got full guild bank access and someone could do a lot of damage if they got hold of my account.

[Fordel]

Just another reason to ban flash ads/sites from the internet!

[Sheepherder]

Have it. Still had to scour a keylogger off my system a couple nights ago. They didn't get anything, but yeah.

It should sanitize scripts running through Flash ads unless you've enabled the Flash ads for some reason, or unless the top-level domain itself is hacked.

[Morat20]

Well, this past week for example there has been a rash of account thefts due to an unpatched flash security hole that adobe has been very slow to fix. The vector was apparently through one of the big strategy websites and to prevent anything like this in the future, I just merged my account into a battle.net account (I'd have to do this eventually anyway) and downloaded the free authenticator program for my iphone and attached it.

I should have probably done it long ago since I've got full guild bank access and someone could do a lot of damage if they got hold of my account.

What's the upside of merging with Battle.net? And what's the authenticator program do?

[fuser]

Well, this past week for example there has been a rash of account thefts due to an unpatched flash security hole that adobe has been very slow to fix. The vector was apparently through one of the big strategy websites and to prevent anything like this in the future, I just merged my account into a battle.net account (I'd have to do this eventually anyway) and downloaded the free authenticator program for my iphone and attached it.

I should have probably done it long ago since I've got full guild bank access and someone could do a lot of damage if they got hold of my account.

What's the upside of merging with Battle.net? And what's the authenticator program do?

Authenticator generates a numerical digit in addition to your password. Every so many minutes it changes based upon a math formula, but your authenticator program has a unique id which is registered against your account. It's very secure as technically and a good option for anyone with an iphone. If not get a $6.50 key fob version.

[Numtini]

It's not hard to get hacked. I bought the authenticator after I had a virus alert on a wow-oriented keylogger. I was looking for some info on something late at night, was tired and frustrated, and accidentally scrolled from a message with a real link to one with an obvously dodgy link and clicked it. Chances are that if AVG hadn't intercepted it and popped up, I would never have noticed.

I have to say that the character being levelled doesn't sound like hackers. OTOH I would guess that asking Blizzard to delete 16 levels from your character is likely to add weight to your telling the truth.

[Morat20]

It's not hard to get hacked. I bought the authenticator after I had a virus alert on a wow-oriented keylogger. I was looking for some info on something late at night, was tired and frustrated, and accidentally scrolled from a message with a real link to one with an obvously dodgy link and clicked it. Chances are that if AVG hadn't intercepted it and popped up, I would never have noticed.

I have to say that the character being levelled doesn't sound like hackers. OTOH I would guess that asking Blizzard to delete 16 levels from your character is likely to add weight to your telling the truth.

Delete 16 levels and remove an expansion pack, in fact. :)

I'll probably get her the key-fob. It'll annoy her, but currently she doesn't have a leg to stand on. And knowing Blizzard, it probably has a murloc or something on it.

[Shrike]

Mine is blue, but I've heard of different colored ones! 

Regardless, if you're playing WoW, you should have an authenticator. There's so much assholery going on around this game it's not even remotely amusing. Anything third party is a risk and so much of what you need to keep on top of your character development and raiding depends on such things.

Get the authenticator! It's cheap and easy insurance.

[Lantyssa]

Grats!

The fob isn't a bad idea.  My boss' group uses them for access to many of the super computing centers they use time on.  Just don't lose it.

[Sheepherder]

It's a device which creates a key based on a cryptographic hashing function, probably one of the stronger ones since Blizzard tends to be pretty security conscious.

[Musashi]

I'm not saying that's what's happened in Morat's case but, until recently at least, actual hacks using malicious software etc were pretty rare.

Yea, it's not so anymore.  There's a lot of money to be made by farmers using hacked accounts for nefarious purposes.  A lot of them use the info you give them when you buy gold to phish your ass after they've completed your transaction.  Then they'll use your account to spell their website name in dead Gnomes in front of the Ironforge bank.  Permabanned?  Oh well!

I've known serveral people who lost accounts.  The brazen offender would be seen not answering guild chat when horrified guildmates looked on as they watch the once proud character they helped build 'ping, ping, ping' disenchant everything down to naked.  This has happened to people I know tens of times that I can personally verify.

I had my Steam account phished once, and I still have no idea how it even happened.  Just tried to log in one day and couldn't, and friends said that I was actually on.  But it wasn't me.

When it's an obvious case, Blizzard has always gotten the account back that I'm aware of.  Sometimes it takes them a while, but they do a good job of this.  So if your account was legitimately hacked, you'll probably get it back.  Valve got my Steam account back for me too.

[gryeyes]

Phishing is not malicious software,a vast majority of people who get "hacked" give the information out. This is why Blizzard tends to tell you to go fuck yourself unless its extremely obvious its not your fault,or they are feeling charitable. They know a vast majority of the time its you giving the information out, usually doing something naughty. They know that you can easily reclaim the account unless you also have your email compromised (barring the thief isn't extremely sneaky).

He already has possession of the account.What hes asking is to overturn a permanent ban and roll back a character and expansion pack. Which makes the story even stranger,who would know the player was not coming back and invest in an expansion pack. I don't think their investigations are that,so much as look as look up this policy for this circumstance and tell you. Tho when I played it did not seem that their support staff had a very strict set of policies.

[bhodi]

Phishing is not malicious software,a vast majority of people who get "hacked" give the information out. This is why Blizzard tends to tell you to go fuck yourself unless its extremely obvious its not your fault,or they are feeling charitable. They know a vast majority of the time its you giving the information out, usually doing something naughty. They know that you can easily reclaim the account unless you also have your email compromised (barring the thief isn't extremely sneaky).

He already has possession of the account.What hes asking is to overturn a permanent ban and roll back a character and expansion pack. Which makes the story even stranger,who would know the player was not coming back and invest in an expansion pack. I don't think their investigations are that,so much as look as look up this policy for this circumstance and tell you. Tho when I played it did not seem that their support staff had a very strict set of policies.

You and your opinions are wrong in almost every conceivable way. So much so that it really looks like you're trolling and doing a poor job of it.

[gryeyes]

Which part the phishing is not malicious software? Or that blizzard will tell you to go fuck yourself if they believe you have shared the account? Because I assure you both are true, as to Blizzard policy dealing with compromised accounts Ive had to deal with it dozens of times. So feel free to elaborate or kindly stfu.

[Ingmar]

Over the years a few of our members have had their accounts compromised. In all cases Blizzard fixed it and returned all the gear, etc., including what was looted from the guild bank. I'm not sure why one would think they "usually" tell people to go fuck themselves; that is not true in *any* of the cases I'm personally acquainted with.

In fact I would go so far as to say overall Blizzard has had the best customer service of any MMO I've played (not counting ones I never had to deal with CS of course).

[Sjofn]

Hell, it happened to one dude twice within a few months of each other. They were a little slower to restore him the second time, but restored he was.

[Numtini]

Same here, everyone I know who had their account stolen had everything restored in about a week.

[bhodi]

Exactly. Blizzard has exemplary customer service in any and all cases I have ever heard of. Furthermore, almost all hacks happen from automatic exploits such as the flash kelogger example that I just described, or from logging in from an unsecure (shared/cafe) computer that has a keylogger installed onto it. I'm not sure how you think when people give the login information out to a friend it winds up in the hands of gold farmers but you're wrong on that one, too.

[gryeyes]

The policy is if you give out your information you lose the account, period. Why exactly would blizzard have to step in to retrieve a compromised account? The "hacker" cant change the fucking password unless he also has control of the email thats tied to it. Which I am willing to assume is extraordinarily rare.

So basically all your *examples* are simply the restoration of items that were deleted in an extremely obvious way and reported almost instantly. If you don't report something is amiss till after Blizzard has taken action against your account the chances of them overturning the perm ban is almost nil (Ive never known of an instance of it occurring). If you are the one who brings it to their attention it changes the situation entirely. Them telling you to go fuck yourself is not bad CS, its that in these circumstances its the players fault and a breach of the ToS.

Ive sold dozens of accounts and have had to reclaim several,im not making this shit up.

[Lantyssa]

Well, apparently they DID since Morat got the account restored to its previous state.

Maybe they just don't like dealing with someone who has dozens of accounts that seems to keep selling them, cause it looks kind of fishy.

[Morat20]

Well, apparently they DID since Morat got the account restored to its previous state.

Maybe they just don't like dealing with someone who has dozens of accounts that seems to keep selling them, cause it looks kind of fishy.

I haven't gotten squat restored. :) Still waiting to hear from them about getting it unbanned. Removing the WoTLK key and trying to get her character(s) restored is secondary.

Still, I'll probably get the key-fobs. I use one at work, and they're pretty simple. My only concern is "How to you handle losing it?", but I'd imagine Blizzard has a pretty straightforward policy on that.

As for getting it unbanned -- everyone I've talked to (except greyeyes) indicates that Blizzard is pretty damn good about unbanning and restoring accounts. They think the fallow time between us discontinuing the account and the compromise will probably make Blizzard more likely to unban it quickly, but makes it less likely she'll get her characters restored -- it's just too far in the past, unless they routinely save account snapshots and archive them. In that case, it's probably easier to restore than a two-day old "melt your shit and sell it" hack.

But I don't think we're that lucky.

All that crap aside, I'm looking forward to playing again once my wife has an actual account to play with! I haven't reupped mine to show my solidarity, and also to get to sleep in the bed.

[gryeyes]

Well, apparently they DID since Morat got the account restored to its previous state.

 

The things that will get an account perm banned are generally for offenses beyond arbitration,regardless of circumstance. The owner is fully responsible for the actions of the account. If this person stole the account and the email somehow then there would be a process the rightful owner could go through to reacquire it. Generally involves faxing them your ID that matches the name of the account. Its overturning the ban that is the problem,restoring the character and such is trivial.

[Sheepherder]

Generally involves faxing them your ID that matches the name of the account. Its overturning the ban that is the problem,restoring the character and such is trivial.

My warrior was permabanned for economic exploitation while hacked.  Shine on you crazy diamond.

[Lantyssa]

I haven't gotten squat restored. :) Still waiting to hear from them about getting it unbanned. Removing the WoTLK key and trying to get her character(s) restored is secondary.

Your reply to Numtini sounded like you had. =(

Still, with every instance of it I've seen in the past, I think you'll be fine once they check the IPs and do some digging.

[Morat20]

I haven't gotten squat restored. :) Still waiting to hear from them about getting it unbanned. Removing the WoTLK key and trying to get her character(s) restored is secondary.

Your reply to Numtini sounded like you had. =(

Still, with every instance of it I've seen in the past, I think you'll be fine once they check the IPs and do some digging.

Worst case, we start over with a new account and I send her a zillion gold and me and a friend power-level her. She's been out of the game long enough that that's NOT quite the heartache it would have been.

I hope to hear from Blizzard today or tomorrow. On the bright side, she's cheered up considerably at the notion that the hacker got her account banned BEFORE he could sell the character. :) Someone had to pay for the WoTLK upgrade it got, and he didn't get to sell the character before getting banned amuses her.

[Morfiend]

While I dont play any more, I used to play a lot, and knew slews of people who got their accounts hacked or stolen. I think every single case that was lagit, the person got their account back.

The only time someone didnt get 100% satisfaction was when the hacker sharded all their gear, and then sold the shards on the AH, and something to do with the items technically still being in the game (in shard form) Blizzard wouldnt give them back the equipment.

I have a feeling you will get your account back, with a free WotLK and a level 79 character.

Just ignore Gryeyes.

[Sheepherder]

Worst case, we start over with a new account and I send her a zillion gold and me and a friend power-level her. She's been out of the game long enough that that's NOT quite the heartache it would have been.

You could make a new character as well and Recruit-A-Friend alongside her with your mutual friend feeding you both gear.

[IainC]

While I dont play any more, I used to play a lot, and knew slews of people who got their accounts hacked or stolen. I think every single case that was lagit, the person got their account back.

The only time someone didnt get 100% satisfaction was when the hacker sharded all their gear, and then sold the shards on the AH, and something to do with the items technically still being in the game (in shard form) Blizzard wouldnt give them back the equipment.

I have a feeling you will get your account back, with a free WotLK and a level 79 character.

Just ignore Gryeyes.

You missed the part where he already has the account back (really he never lost it) but it's been banned in the meantime. I don't think anyone is under the impression that Blizzard won't restore a stolen account to the legitimate owner, the question is whether or not they'll overturn the ban.

[gryeyes]

After the 10th time of explaining the distinction I realized its pointless.

[fuser]

fyi went looking for the mobile authenticator app tonight and it got pulled from the app store due to login issues with the latest update 

[Sheepherder]

You missed the part where he already has the account back (really he never lost it) but it's been banned in the meantime. I don't think anyone is under the impression that Blizzard won't restore a stolen account to the legitimate owner, the question is whether or not they'll overturn the ban.

After the 10th time of explaining the distinction I realized its pointless.

My warrior was permabanned for economic exploitation while hacked.  Shine on you crazy diamond.

Or: we knew what you were talking about and know that Blizzard un-permaban people all the time, go away, you're a real downer.

[gryeyes]

Or you dont because the examples given as substantiation have nothing to fucking do with the issue at hand. Congrats you got your character unbanned (bullshit), completely fucking irrelevant.

[Sheepherder]

Or you dont because the examples given as substantiation have nothing to fucking do with the issue at hand. Congrats you got your character unbanned (bullshit), completely fucking irrelevant.

OHAI THAR

My son was recently hacked, his gear sold and account banned, I called and got his account back, and then asked for it to be locked up until I can buy him his authenticator for his account, so the account was safe locked for me. I ordered his authenticator Monday, and he received an email saying his gear, gold, and emblems was sent back to him. My question is, mail lasts for 30 days, but I know some things like Cash on Delivery shipments last only for a short time unless got out of the mail, is his gear going to delete itself in the mail by the time his authenticator comes, and I reactivate his account?

[Numtini]

We tend to focus in on why WoW is successful based on gameplay and stuff. But whether it's things like the authenticator, their aggressive anti-RMT stance, or the way they are willing to restore accounts and items (a long way from "I cannot help thee with that") Bliz has a way of making you feel like they're not the enemy.