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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Has your account ever been compromised?
by Andrew Ross 
Apr 19th 2011 at 8:00AM
Account security is a serious matter in Azeroth. If a player's account is ever compromised, it can be a devastating blow. You work hard to reach the level cap, run the dungeons and raids for the gear your character needs and level your chosen professions. Chances are, you also have a fair amount of gold from questing, dailies, and your professions. If hackers gain access to your account, they wreak havoc while inside, stripping your characters of everything they have, taking all your gold, and selling anything of value.
My account has only been hacked into once, but it was more than enough for me to doublecheck my security settings, wipe my hard drive, and buy an authenticator. When my account was hacked, I was beyond devastated. All of the hard work I put into my characters was gone in an instant. Hackers move a lot like a fire.
They move fast, and they leave a wave of destruction in their wake. It took roughly a week to have everything in my account restored to what it was prior to the hacking. This was long before Blizzard streamlined the restoration process for hacked accounts. After it was all said and done, I not only invested in an authenticator but a goblin security system that rivals the bank in Gadgetzan.
Have you ever had your account compromised? How severe was the damage? Did you take any measures to prevent it from happening again?
| Yes | |
|---|---|
| No |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Account Security, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 9)
Noyou Apr 19th 2011 11:07AM
Yeah. hopefully he doesn't have access to your PC ;)
Jeff Field Apr 19th 2011 8:26AM
Yeah, mine was hacked a long time ago - right after burning crusade, a week or two before I was going to level my alts on it (main was on another account). This was before authenticators and I stupidly used the same username/password for my WoW account as I did for a lot of wow related forums. I got a message from one of the forums of a defunct guild on Bonechewer (Lux Lucius) that I had a forum PM. Thinking it was someone trying to get back in touch with me, I logged in to find no PM. I thought it was weird, but didn't really give it a second thought.
Oops.
A day later I got a call at work from a friend of mine asking why my hunter was naked in Stormwind. God, of all the places to leave someone, why pre-tbc stormwind. So cruel.
I got all my stuff back though. GMs are champions.
MattKrotzer Apr 19th 2011 8:29AM
Thankfully I have not, but I do take precautions, including NoScript for Firefox, SpyBot S&D, AVG and a Blizzard Authenticator.
jp Apr 19th 2011 8:29AM
Mine was actually closed at the time I was hacked. They reopened my acct andit was only by odd chance I looked at one of my characters on the armory one day and noticed recent activity.
In the end they were running instances and farming ore and herbs as well as auctioning all the materials I had in the bank. Nothing deleted and I was able to get everything back, I actually made gold from the auctions that were still posted but it was still my materials used.
They went so far as to chargeback the credit card used to open the account and beyond getting a free month play time from them I do not know if Blizzard was able to actually even keep their sub fees.
I have been the proud owner of an authenticator ever since and zero further problems.
bigalthebear Apr 19th 2011 8:34AM
In b4 I got hacked with an authenticator lies start popping up.
Never been hacked in 4 years, change my password once a year (if that) Bad security practice I know but meh, Authenticator makes up for it.
cmichaelcooper Apr 19th 2011 8:31AM
My account is too selfish to compromise.
Jennifer Matt Apr 19th 2011 8:32AM
I got hacked about 2 years ago. I had 2 accounts and they hacked one while I was on my other. I was the guild officer in charge of the bank. Well they cleared out my bank...my guilds bank. Deleted any toon that was not max level. All the while, me and guildies are swearing at the hacker and I'm on the phone with Blizzard saying " seriously, he is on right now...DO SOMETHING" LOL
I got an authenticator eventually and never had a problem, but that experience was like total violation. I did get my toons recovered and all my stuff back, but it was a horrible thing to go through.
Gendou Apr 19th 2011 8:31AM
Never. But a lot of guildies have been, and that's scary enough.
I wouldn't be able to sleep at night without an authenticator attached to my account.
BoB Apr 19th 2011 3:44PM
I have never been hacked, but I havent played WoW in over a year, so maybe all those spam emails are real. Then again, there are about 6 different kinds of WoW@blizzard things on those emails. Ah, I dont care anymore.
Kal Apr 19th 2011 8:39AM
I have not, but I mostly owe that to the authenticator on my account. My sister has though, after her computer went kaput on her, she wasn't able to play for a few months. So one night when I saw her log on with her main I tried to talking to her but got no response. A text revealed that she was still without WoW access and that she'd been hacked. So while we unpromoted her toons to our 'Timeout' zone that has no gb access, she called Blizz to get things sorted out.
Was impressed with how they handled it, instead of restoring all her stuff immediately after changing the info on the account, they told her to email them when she was able to play again, to ensure nothing could be taken in case she was hacked again in her down time. Though now she has an authenticator so hopefully neither one of us will have to go through that again. :)
Rai Apr 19th 2011 8:42AM
Never been hacked, despite the mountain of phishing and spam emails I get from fake Blizzard accounts. Even before I attached an authenticator.
marblz Apr 19th 2011 8:46AM
Got hacked recently. Took my authenticator off for a couple of days 'because I lost my ipod and had been meaning to change it over to my new phone anyway. I was lazy about putting a new one straight on because I hadn't been playing much. The second day it was off I apparently interrupted whoever was cleaning out my account.
Apparently they couldn't verify suspicious activity and would only cod my stuff back, none of my gold. I'd been saving for that alchemist mount too. Being a casual player lately it's kind of killed my enjoyment of the game, spose I have more time to put into university/other hobbies now hah
Elleh Apr 19th 2011 8:48AM
Blah to Blizzard and their authenticators. I tried to get one a few years ago when they were new out. Yes it's only $6. But to ship to me it was $20. (it was news to me that Canada is considered International.) I needed 3. So I asked a friend to ship to them in the US and then mail to me at my expense. No go. He could never get the delivery from Blizzard. 3 months of fighting with Blizzard over $6 x3 to get a refund before I called my credit card company and had them credit me for a fraudulent transaction.
Yes, now you can use your phone... but the phone I have is not compatible. So I'm supposed to buy a new phone just to get one that's compatible? I think not. I'll take my chances and make Blizz refund my stuff if/when I get hacked.
Hermeska Apr 19th 2011 8:47AM
Had my account hacked after installing some dubious auction house software. Needless to say, Blizzard got onto it pretty quick. Had my main toon nudified and everything sold, lost around 30k gold. Luckily whoever did it didn't bother to check my AH alt that had around 70k on him and another 100k in the gbank.
Managed to get everything back and put the mobile authenticator on the account. The funny thing is I'd owned an iPod touch for around 12 months and never bothered adding it to the account, thinking it would never happen to me.
JoeyDethelli Apr 19th 2011 8:48AM
My account was compromised a few weeks ago, logged into my Paladin to find everything except the gear I had equipped was gone.
Queue panic when I realised I had logged off in my Healing set and all my main spec Prot gear had gone.
Put in a ticket and it gave me an estimated response time of 4 hours. Was contacted about 10 minutes later by a GM, had all my stuff and the stuff from my Guilds bank back 5 minutes. So props to Blizzard for that.
I ordered an authenticator on the same day. It wasn't until it happened that I realised how much I value my account.
lolikitty Apr 19th 2011 8:51AM
After 5 1/2 years, I'm pleased to say my account has never been compromised. I've been receiving the odd "Blizzard" email or 5 lately, funnily enough they're not sent to my battle.net address, heh. Hackers you so silly. Also proud owner of an authenticator, it's good to feel safe.
gaylen666 Apr 19th 2011 8:51AM
i never been hacked but then again i was smart enough to buy a couple of authenticators back when i caught them in stock so me and my wife can game in relative peace. To bad the same can't be said for alot of guilds i have been in. Not only was there way to many unprotected accounts but the ranks that had the power to bone the guild. where given to people with out authenticators. I so wish that a help window or warning window would pop up every time a new guild is made to explain the pro's and con's of the guild management settings.
Emilio Apr 19th 2011 9:15AM
To all complaining about Suspicious Activity false alarms and pass resets, jst email customer support. I travel a lot and by now i got the direct email of a rep, i just shoot him a Message saying ill be out from x to x, and he deactivates the thingy. I know also they can add manually an ip address to your safe list in case you regularly log on from different but usual places.
Paul Apr 19th 2011 8:57AM
I was hacked just before authenticators were released. I was at home and my g/f said "Hey you are on WoW" I said no i wasn't and tried to log in but my password had been changed. After calling Blizzard and doing the reset password thing I finally got on by then all my normal stuff has been sold off but the hacker has transferred a bunch of blue things to sell off onto my character.
Now mind you I had been using very very good anti-virus at the time either NOD32 or Symatec Enterprise Antivirus I can't exactly recall and I had a routine of every three days of running Spybot and Ad-aware to check for other threats. Also I used a firewall and used a random password with letters and symbols in it, with WoW using a unique one. I have no idea how they got in to this day but I remember at the time there was a way hackers figured how to get into an account. My email was never compromised and I still use the same one.
In the end Blizzard made all things right and I got to keep all the blue and purple items. I think I ended up coming ahead with an extra 700g in my pocket (This was before Burning Crusades so I thought that was a lot of gold)
As soon as the authenticator came out I purchased two best $13 I ever spent. And they were sold out immediately. I think there is no excuse for not having an authenticator. If you have an android phone or an iPhone they even have a free software version of it.
I don't care how careful you are, everyone should get one. Heck I doubt Blizzard even makes a profit off them at how cheap they are. Its half of a one month subscription at the most. And if you are a guild leader or an officer you should definitely have one as a service to your guild.
Aggrajag Apr 19th 2011 8:57AM
I've never been hacked even though I've played from the start, but I was still nervous enough to get the iPhone authenticator as soon as it was released. At the same time I bought my son and my g/f a physical authenticator too.
In my very small guild I've had 3 guildies hacked who cleared out the guild bank, plus my son has two friends who've also both been hacked.
So in my circle of close acquaintances I reckon there's 30% of them who have been hacked.
I wouldn't sleep without my authenticator.