In the end it's the. Players fault for getting hacked. In the first place. Blizzard has offered way more than any other mmo I've seen by giving full restorations in the first place. If you can't tak advantage of authenticators and the systems blizzard put in place and click on stupid shit you really have no place to complain

Then if you get hacked, decline the offer. They'll restore your stuff.

Blizzard should give restored accounts a free authenticator and tell them that form now on, you will be responsible for your own account security and no further restorations will be provided.

Huh. This has been going on for a few days at least. I had a guildie who got hacked--only lost his gold, fortunately, but there was 10k of it. He got this back; not sure if he took it or not.

yeah, after several weeks, some people don't want to wait that long, and might find leveling a new character easier - depending on how long they have been playing and whether they have any precious now unobtainable items.

I can agree with the a couple of these repliers.

I had my account hacked, all of my good gone, and a couple of toons deleted. Two of them I didn't even play anymore.

I didn't bother going through blizzard, it was just easier to relevel and add an authenticator to my account.

But is it really my fault my account is hacked? I'm not holding a gun to a hacker's head and saying do it. Nor am I using easy passwords or have a sign that says "Yes! Please hack me!"

Care package is a joke for people like me who have 70k gold.

I've never been hacked, and hopefully I'm not stupid enough to get hacked. The major issue I have is the authenticator, I have 5 accounts and multibox. It takes an age to log in with an authenticator, it's a huge pain in the ass. Luckily I use a mac which is sort of an extra layer of security (before windows fanboys start crying, im not claiming mac OS is perfect, but safer than windows atleast).

I do realise players getting hacked is not Blizzards problem, but with the amount of money they make of WoW, they could hire more staff. In theory hacking should be down due to people with authenticators.

@Netherscourge

Why should Blizzard give you free products because you failed to protect your computer?

I think this is a perfectly reasonable policy. They are trying to lessen the workload of their employees and provide at least some consolation to people that don't want to wait.

Honestly this article needs to be edited, frankly it has a Sensationalist and frankly misleading title, and as you can see from the comments people are not fully understanding the situation, and freaking out.

I don't know what Blizzard has done recently to earn the ire of wow.com but all this article does is confuse people and help increase blizzards work load with petitions about "wow.com says you won't give me my items back"

This is an option, for people that don't want to wait, Blizzard will give you your stuff back if you want it back. In the end account security is your own responsibility and blizzard does you a service by giving you your things back.

I don't find that it takes significantly longer to log in with an authenticator. I push the button for the code before I type in my pw, it's still there when the code login box comes up, and I'm in. at most, 2 seconds. I've had longer waits due to network latency o.O

Not everyone who gets hacked is stupid. Sure, some are; those people handing over account details to powerlevelling services or similar should probably have thought twice before doing so, but a lot of people are getting hacked despite taking all the 'sensible' precautions (short of getting an authenticator).

You see a lot of crap, especially in trade, from people saying things like 'I've never been hacked and I don't have an authenticator, ergo everyone who gets hacked is stooopid!' This attitude displays a lack of appreciation for quite how sophisticated and intelligent competent hackers can be. A lot of it is just down to luck, even anti-virus software isn't going to be foolproof.

IMO this is more than they should be giving away. It isn't blizzards fault people are giving away their account information and yet they are the ones who get bitched at when something happens. Buy an authenticator. It's not going to kill you to have to press a little button after you type in you login info. Or if it's because of a keylogger and not phishing, you could save your pass to a word file and copy paste it so the keylogger just registers a ctrl v.

@Hakker

"Blizzard has offered way more than any other mmo I've seen by giving full restorations in the first place"

On one level I agree with you, and a lot of time people stupidly fall for stuff and should know better but...

Blizzard are also being TARGETED more than any other mmo I've seen, and a lot more casual people play wow, who may simply not be as computer savvy. It's easy to place blame, but in someone else's shoes it may seem entirely and frustratingly unfair.

Have absolutely no doubt - there is a concerted, wide spread and very intelligent effort to obtain wow account going on, and the day may come where even cautious users will be hacked.

Maybe Blizz needs to hire some more people. They've gotten too big for their britches. They need more forum mods and more tech people if this is a huge problem. This sounds more like a way of cutting cost and customer service than anything else.

I'm sorry Adam, you guys are taking this entirely too far. Feel bad for the players who's negligence got their account hacked? Feel bad for the employees who instead of doing a once in a while service are working day and night and having weeks worth of work on their table. I have no sympathy for players who don't take care of their stuff. And don't even play like it's far. There are people who use IE and don't have an authenticator and do just fine protecting their account. Ever think that if they are going to make authenticators mandatory, wouldn't you think they would GIVE them away.

Hire more people? How dare you. I'm tired of waiting for the class specific articles, hire more writers per class. You talk like Blizzard is so horrible to its player base. Imagine getting your stuff back from Sony.

"Or if it's because of a keylogger and not phishing, you could save your pass to a word file and copy paste it so the keylogger just registers a ctrl v."

Squirrl, don't take this the wrong way, or personally, but if you think that will prevent you from being keylogged, you are an IDIOT.

I am sorry, I have just seen so many people claim that that method will keep you from being keylogged, and it does no good.

If you copy and paste a password, A KEYLOGGER CAN GET IT.
If you use an on-screen keyboard, A KEYLOGGER CAN GET IT.

Keyloggers don't just log keys. They are named keyloggers because that's what they originally did. Today's keyloggers watch your clipboard, some even take screenshots, monitor the position of your mouse, and intercepts the data as it leaves your computer, before it gets to the servers.

I think authenticators should be required. In the last month alone, my guild's bank has been hacked somewhere between 5 and 10 times. I've honestly lost track at this point. The GL got hacked, officers have gotten hacked, members have gotten hacked and someone got access to the bank while hacked (or weren't demoted after getting mats from the bank). I can honestly say that if authenticators were required, none of that would have happened.

I have another friend that's been hacked 3 times. He wasn't hacked a single time when he had his authenticator, but it broke and he never called in the warranty. He was hacked a couple weeks ago.

I understand it isn't foolproof, but an extra layer of security makes sense. It's only $6, and if you refuse to buy one or if it's too much work for you to type in 8 digits, then you deserve to be hacked.

On the blaming the victim crap that always surfaces in these convos: you might think you're a victim, but you're not. You're not a victim if you invite the burglar in and blindfold yourself and sit on the couch, then tell him to have fun in your house. Blizzard is the real victim here because players expect Blizzard to compensate them for their ignorance for no additional fees.

Your $15/month would probably barely pay a GM for their work on your escalated ticket. It's a smart business decision to offer a lesser option. Please note that it's only an option. They're still offereing the full restore, but shouldn't.

Wal-mart doesn't replace my TV if I hand it to a burglar, Blizzard shouldn't replace your gear/items/gold/badges if you hand them to an account thief.

Get an authenticator and you will NEVER have to worry about this crap.

@Hakker if the dude is smart who hacks the account the authenticator can be removed. An authenticator isnt a replacement for customers who are stupid and dont think smart when it comes to protecting your account.