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I definitely thought this was another article about the snow in DC.
1 replies
I definitely thought this was another article about the snow in DC.
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\"If you have experience dealing with World of Warcraft issues, please leave Anonymous some advice.\"
Quit...best thing I ever did
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If that's the best you can do, perhaps you should apply your own advice to your Consumerist commenter account too?
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you've obviously never played or seen someone who does. WoW tends to slowly take over you life and then you don't realize that *EVERYTHING* revolves around WoW.
benbell gave good advice, you just don't know it.
I've stayed away from WoW, but I have many many friends who have been/are currently sucked into the hell hole that it is.
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Why is it necessarily a bad thing? Perhaps he has friends who play WoW. Perhaps he has moved away from these friends and enjoys hanging out and staying in touch while playing WoW. Not everyone gets sucked into the point that everything revolves around WoW. Some do I am sure.
But if there are those where everything revolves around WoW. Maybe its not really all about WoW. Just seems like it. Maybe their spouse plays WoW as well. Maybe they sit next to each other playing and conversing while hanging out with other friends.
It can be a bit like saying once you get friends and a significant other your whole life seems to revolve around them. Don't get sucked into that hell hole. Stop doing it and go back to working and paying bills. When at home watch TV(preferably American Idol) and only use your computer to check e-mail and play farmville on facebook.
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I've played WoW for about 3 years now. I have an 80, and 3 other toons that are almost there. Can't say it's sucked my life away, and I don't know anyone that has had any problems. Every once in a while I'll play for a few hours a day for maybe a week or two, but I have no problem with moderation. It's a lot of fun, and it certainly doesn't take over your life unless you want it to.
I feel BAD for OPs friend - aside from losing the feeling of owning the hammer, it's an achievement that does actually have monetary value. If he wanted to sell his account, having the high-level dungeon/raid items would make it worth a lot more money.
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It can take over your life even if you don't want it to. A friend of mine had an account that he has played full time since the game came out. If you had asked him while he was playing it if it was unhealthy and had sucked him in, he would have said no. The reality, of course, is that he played it around 80 hours a week, pretended to look for jobs, but would turn them down or quit after a few weeks and pretend he had been let go, or come up with some story (he once claimed that he had leprosy and had to quit his job because of it). He also got his account stolen from him, and the thief put an authenticator on it after changing all of the information. He couldn't get the account back, and he quit as a result.
He now admits that it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him, and he quit the game. My point is that while you're right that not everyone gets sucked in, you may know people who have been sucked in and just don't admit it.
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I'm super surprised you haven't known anyone who has had problems. My husband and I are also casual players we play ever few months when we have time.Yes, you can do it with out getting sucked in, but I have had several friends who have had there lives completely taken over. Lucky they have all recovered. Some of them have never returned to WOW and others have learned how to not let it take over there lives and play casually.
Was he the original owner of the account or did he buy it? If he bought it, the original owner can reclaim ownership.
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Most definitely this is what happened. He bought the account and the original owner called Blizzard and asked for it to be returned. Since buying, selling, or trading account is against the rules, well...
Too bad, so sad, friend of Anonymous. Play by the rules next time.
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If it's not legal to sell the account then why should it be returned to the person who \"sold\" it?
Not that, yknow, this whole \"you can't\" logic flies, because what people sell is the actual physical game, which has the accounts tied to it. Or at least, that's what they used to do.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-74489-100x100.png\")
There is a pretty legitimate looking phish email going around that says some of your account information has changed and wants you to go to your account page and verify your information, which they provide you a link to. If you check the email headers it all checks out. The only issue is if you hover over the link, it's not blizzards site (a very close url though). I don't play anymore and haven't in some time, but this email almost got me and I know to look for this crap. It bas
It sounds to me that he bought the account and the original owner took it back.
It is almost impossible to 'hack' an account with an authenticator attached to it, and 99.9% of account 'hacked' in World of Warcraft is not hacked, but rather keylogged or scammed. Even if the 'hacker' had gotten ahold of his password, he couldn't get past the authenticator and wouldn't be able to change the address or email associated with the account without access to the old email on it.
However, if he had bought the account from someone else, they could easly contact Blizzard and by showing the proper ID's (you can not change things like the orginal name on the account) and get his account back.
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I've argued before that compromised accounts are almost never \"hacking\" and it's a pet peeve of mine that people say \"My account has been hacked.\"
No, you've been a victim of social engineering and your own stupidity. Tough cookies.
Agreed. Nearly every case I've ever heard of was not a case of being hacked, but actually a case of trusting someone who should not have been trusted (whether a relative, or a power-leveling \"service\" or a friend, or a phishing site, etc, etc). The few I've heard of where something like hacking even remotely occurred, have all been cases of doing something convenient but stupid (such as logging in from a public library computer).
I recall one poor schmuck, whose Everquest account was stolen by his Uncle. Said Uncle refused to return it, and even went so far as to spam the Everquest forums with the account-linked forum ID, with various abusive posts (the tamest was claiming to be a pedophile in all caps) until Sony banned the account permanently. Apparently the Uncle thought it was hilariously funny, and saw nothing wrong with his actions.
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Server side attack. It happened to one of my fellow guild members. Fortunately, it was detected in time before he lost his characters and his stuff. The Authenticator add another level of security, but its not perfect. Blizzard responded well in his case, and in another case where one of my fellow guild members was hacked. Also from reading the article, the OP says he had the account for over 3 years. That does NOT sound like he bought it on eBay.
Blizzard's severs have never been compromised.
Honestly, if someone could hack into Blizzard's servers, do you think they'd bother with stripping the gold from someone's account? Or logging into their character and running botting programs?
Give me a freakin' break!
They'd take the credit card information!
If Blizzard's servers were compromised, they'd be required to notify their consumer base under federal law.
Server side attack. It happened to one of my fellow guild members. Fortunately, it was detected in time before he lost his characters and his stuff. The Authenticator add another level of security, but its not perfect. Blizzard responded well in his case, and in another case where one of my fellow guild members was hacked. Also from reading the article, the OP says he had the account for over 3 years. That does NOT sound like he bought it on eBay.
Yeah, I can't come up with ANY way that somebody could hack an account with an authenticator unless they hacked both his account and his iPhone, and who knows if that's even possible.
Plus, hackers wouldn't go through the trouble. They keylog and scam anybody they can and they run in fast and in bulk, sell all the stuff for gold, send the gold to a dummy account, and then sell that crap. They don't do elaborate and fancy things like this. This smacks of \"not the whole story.\"
This.
I haven't actually used the Authenticators since I was fortunate enough to quit before they came out, but it would be analogous to hacking a car with an auto-starter. Either someone had physical access to his phone and did it or his account was purchased.
Agreed that buying an account on Ebay is bad and is pretty much the only suitable answer here. You can complain all you want that the time and effort you put in to the account is yours, but Blizzard owns the license. When you buy someone else's account you add another layer of access to your work.
To those wondering, the authenticator is similar to the security to what some banks and government entites use. The authenticator is a keyfob that generates a different 6-digit number every minute based on its serial number. The serial number is then tied to your account, so you need the keyfob every time you login to the game *or* the account management area. Now why can't I get one for my bank accounts when I can for a video game?
In fact, the authenticator is the same that one would use at a bank or other similar organization.
The same company that produces Blizzards, makes the ones for banks all over world.
It's one of the reason Blizzard always has a shortage of them, the company will only make so many for Blizzard before switching production back too it's main clients.
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You're pretty much at Blizzard's mercy when something like this happens, but one thing I don't quite get... the authenticators are a pretty solid security tool. For those who don't know, it generates a random code that you have to enter along with your username and password to get into the account. My wife, my son and myself all have one for our WoW accounts but it's not the mobile one; we purchased little keyfob-like devices that generate this code.
Anyway, if Blizzard is disputing the account ownership that tells me that someone has done a decent job of having the authenticator removed from his account, enabling that person to hack the account. Doing this is no mean feat; something with this story doesn't sound right.
I had an authenticator issue when my iPod died. To reset my account and reinitialize the authenticator, I had to provide the account activation codes from my original CDs, in addition to the standard \"who are you, where do you live?\" questions. They went so far as to request the last 4 digits of the credit card my account is billed to. So I would say that this smells very much like an ebay account scam.
What gets me is that I'm pretty sure you can't remove an authenticator without the authenticator. There's no way that this is a random hacker, if this story is true. It's far, far too dedicated an undertaking for somebody to have done this, and with so many million subscribers, these guys can find a newb whose account security is wide open without even trying.
There's so much more information that needs to be had here before I'd even begin to blame Blizzard. I'd say them investigating IS the best thing they can do, since it sounds extremely fishy to me.
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You don't need the authenticator. You just need the serial number off of it. If the OP's friend was using the iPhone authenticator, than someone could have borrowed their phone at some point and copied down the serial number. It would only take a few seconds.
But I'm giving the OP's friend the benefit of the doubt here. Chances are, you're right, there's probably more to this story than what was conveyed to us.
That's false.
Thats all you need to add one to an account.
To remove an authenticator, you need the serial number and then you have to input two of the code sequences in order. Meaning input one, and then wait 60 seconds or so for it to change to the next one.
The only other way to remove one is to call Blizzard and provide them with just about everything too a signed notice from the doctor who birthed you that you are indeed the account says you are.
You can remove it, but Blizzard asks a LOT of questions. They also request your original account codes from the install CDs. An authenticator-protected account is hack=proof as long as you don't lose the authenticator.
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I wouldn't sweat it too much myself, you'll end up replacing all your gear when Cataclysm comes out anyway ;-)
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I suggest contacting a magistrate of at least level 46, with a +7 charisma. I would also suggest casting a spell for a saving roll of appeal.
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this isn't D&D :P
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Of course not, if it was D&D we could just have a 3rd level cleric cast a Zone of Truth spell and clear this up in no time!
That's what they WANT you to think!
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In all my experience and work with MMO companies it is very rare that the company is actually hacked and accounts compromised. Users often visit sites that install key loggers or prey on people that use the same password for everything. That or they tell friends or clanmates passwords for shared use. Weak passwords are also very very commonly used by MMO players. The problem with these sorts of complaints is it is very hard to tell how the account was compromised but my money isn't on straight up hacking the company running the game.
A wizard did it
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I would put my money on a rogue/thief.
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That's classist, man. Just because we're rogues, doesn't mean we're crooks. These thief's tools? They're for entertainment purposes only. The pocket full of gems? I found them.
They are perfectly acceptable professions. Don't be so damn sensitive. Thief is just the old school way of saying rogue, and they have their own guilds and everything! Just don't backstab me for revenge!
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I've got an ogre-slaying knife! It's got a +9 against ogres!
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No, no I don't, I have gray eyes...
Realy... GetemSteveDave and Tiaris should be ashamed.
My reply does come from the same sketch =)
Sort of... not verbatim, however. You earn half a cool point. ;)
YAY! Cool Points! *beams*
No, the only thing close is in reference to Magic Missile, where he says, \"There's nothing to attack!\" In fact, the whole point of the ogre quote is that there ARE ogres, because the other guy didn't cast Mordenkainen's Magical Watchdog.
(You memorize shit like this when you get stuck watching your friends film this for 5 hours: Mordenkainen's Magical Watchdog)
Whoops, the \"this:\" part was supposed to be a link: http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS341US341&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=dead+alewives+transcript
Fail on my part.
No, it doesn't. Trust me...I have it memorized, and I went back and double-checked.
My apologies, cranky-lady. I mis-remembered it, then. Wow you're being snappish over a little bit of fun.
Dude, there's nothing even close. Don't blame me for not recognizing it.
You do seem to have a very large chip on your shoulder or peeve or something about folks you appear to perceive as unwelcome or incorrect. It was joking and mutual enjoyment of a very fun and well-done sketch. Did you have to ruin it by being unnecessarily nasty about a simple memory-error? You could have corrected my mistake nicely and continued the camaraderie, instead of attempting to ostracize a fellow commenter and gamer. =/
I wasn't unnecessarily nasty until you started name-calling. You made a mistake. I pointed it out. You called me \"cranky-lady.\" I fail to see where I was out of line.
And it's hard to mutually joke when I couldn't even tell that your comment was from the same skit. That isn't being nasty - it's just the truth. In fact, MostlyHarmless and I were having a side conversation about this (via another media) in which I said to him that you might just have made a mistake, and then we both said no, there's no way. So...I'm sorry I didn't read your mind?
So you decided that the likelihood of me making the snide comment that ogres aren't involved was higher than the likelihood that I recognized the sketch and was attemping to play allow, albeit making a mistake? Interesting. I'm not entirely sure I would call saying someone is cranky is name-calling, but that's your call for this one. You needn't have read my mind. All you needed to do was say \"I think you are mistaken somewhere...\". Instead, the response you posed, \".............. I know that\" is pretty hard to take as anything but nasty. Which is just not the expected response to someone making a simple mistake, sorry.
Well, because I had no way to know that your comment was a quote from the same skit, I thought it was a snide remark, so I responded in kind. And yes, snide remarks happen a lot around here, so it wasn't out of the ordinary for me to think that you were just being rude. Plus...there ARE orges...you're surrounded by them! :-P
Uh, I'm sorry your feelings were hurt. I'm not really sure what else to say. This is the Internet. People are rude. Grow some tougher skin. And stop name-calling. Cranky-lady is a pejorative, it falls under the category of name-calling, the end.
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*| META COMMENT ABOUT HOW DEEPLY INDENTED THE COMMENTS ARE |*
Can we scroll it off the page?
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I cast magic missle! Against the darkness!
(i got your reference)
Okay, but if there are any girls there, I wanna DO THEM!
Sure, as long as you get it all on tape.
And I want to watch. And tape.
Roll to see if I can tape it.
Really, an ogre slaying knife slays ogres? Well, if it didn't I'm sure we'd see a post about how Amazon is selling an ogre slaying knife that only slays orcs.
There aren't any ogres!
...
I know that.
*patpat*
Supposing I meant it the way you took it, it would be incorrect; there are ogres in WoW =)
*patpat*
I see what you did there. Cute.
But you're not there! You're getting drunk!
(And if there are any girls there, I wanna do them.)
Roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk!
Do I really want to see the cranky-lady get drunk?
Yes. Yes you do!
What do you roll to determine BAC? 2d10?
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Actually it's a d20 roll against your constitution save. The temporary damage to your constitution would be determined by the type of drink being consumed.
Brother had the same problem... well similar. Tell the guy to stop using 3rd party servers. When you hook up to those servers you download spyware and other nasty little trojans. Also, tell him that there is much more pleasure in getting a real hammer and creating something that is useful in the real world. Maybe this was his wake-up call.
Blizzard isn't help at all.
Tell me how a real hammer(I mean a big face-smacking hammer) could be useful in the real world?
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Did you know that Blacksmith is a dying art? Trying to get horseshoes maintained can be really expensive if you don't know how to do it right.
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To reclaim ownership the Original owner needs to provide the CD Keys used in the game. Im sure between , wow, wrath, and burning crusade he should have at least one of those. ALSO, they do allow him to provide faxed copies of his id to them to verify. There is A LOT of missing info in this post that something just doenst seem right.
Contact Blizz, they will ask to verify account. They do not do name changes on accounts so his name should still be the one registered. regardless of address and security questions.
More than likely they will require him to fax identification to them, and may ask for the CD Key as I mentioned above.
Providing this in a timely manner should help resolve the issue. HOWEVER, if his account is to have been found in Grave misuse (not the first time account was hacked, or account sharing, botting, buying gold, power leveling) then blizzard can and will have the account perma banned no matter what the case.
\"You can just hang around outside in the sun all day, tossing a ball around, or you can sit at your computer and do something that matters!\"
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But I'm playing hello kitty island adventure!
Why the fuck don't they just copy the character to the new account. Problem solved.
Oh wait, that would make sense.
You can't transfer a character off a suspended/locked account.
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I believe when he said \"they\" he was referring to Blizzard and not the OP.
This reeks of a common purchased account scam.
Person A has an account, sells it to Person B for some dollar amount. Person A provides username/password info to Person B.
Person B logs into account, puts an authenticator on, changes billing information. However, Person B doesn't change the account security question or information.
Person A contacts Blizzard, says that their account credentials were stolen. Blizzard locks the account until they can determine 'rightful ownership'.
Person A now has the money from selling the account, and Person B has nothing.
When these first started happening, Blizzard would eventually restore the account to Person A. Person B has no recourse since buying accounts is against the ToS, and it's difficult to prove that Person A tried to sell it to begin with. Person A could then run this scam a couple times over, getting paid off each time until Blizzard no longer restored the account back.
I also echo the sentiments about quitting. Best thing I ever did. :)
I played WoW for a few years and fortunately, have never had my account hacked. Blizzard does claim that the authenticator software should make your account virtually unhackable and you pay extra money for it, so I would make sure that Blizzard is clear that after taking extra measures to keep his account safe, their product didn't work,
Otherwise, I don't think there is anything he can do. He agreed to Blizzard's terms when he initially signed up for the account and they clearly state they can revoke your account at anytime, for any reason. I know many people who have had their accounts banned and there is nothing they or anyone can do about it. It's just the risk you take with playing an MMORPG. When playing WoW, I highly recommend changing your password on a regular basis and if possible, changing your e-mail address now and then also.
The Iphone authenticator is free. The only thing anyone pays for is if you get a physical authenticator, and then you are paying about $7 for shipping.
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This is yet another great reason never to pay money to play an online game. If WoW had been a standalone application you install on a PC or console, this sort of thing could not have happened .. because there would be no online account to have to log into, much less be compromised by some unknown party.
Not everyone likes to play games with only themselves. The biggest draw/importance of MMOs is that they're MM - MassivelyMultiplayer. You play them to SOCIALIZE as well as game.
So being smug/snide about the fact that this is an online game is more telling about *you* than it is about the folks who play them. Food for thought.
That lots of people do something is not good reason to do it. Lots of people also once thought the world was at the center of the universe, too. Does that mean it's true?
Just food for thought.
Oh, and insinuating that I'm somehow deficient because I avoid multiplayer games ... that's known as argumentum ad hominem and is fallacious. That you think something is wrong with me does not make me wrong. It does, however, say a lot about you, that you believe it does.
More food for thought.
*grin* That I'm not lawyer means I'm not terribly impressed with your Latin =) Were you not, yourself, claiming there was something deficient about someone who would pay [money, no less!] for a *gasp* online game? When they could just as easily enjoy a nice, \"safe\" single-player game?
My point, that you apparently missed, is that just because you appear to be against social gaming, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with other folks doing it. They don't deserve to be 'hacked' (sic) simply because they chose to play online versus console/offline.
Smile, it looks way better than a smug sneer =)
\"Were you not, yourself, claiming there was something deficient about someone who would pay [money, no less!] for a *gasp* online game?\"
No, he wasn't. He just stated why he thought non-online games were better. He didn't attack the people who play online games, the way you attacked him.
How is that WOWs fault he was hacked? It is a risk the OP took by playing a game online. They didn't steal MONEY. The hacker allegedly stole a \"Valinar (sp?) hammer\". Its value for those who live in reality ZERO dollars and ZERO cents.
Ahh, but this is not the argument of the commenter I was replying to. -1, offtopic.
Okay, I'm going to get myself in trouble here. But I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
If you get \"hacked\" in WoW, it's your own fault.
Not to say it's something that you look for, but it's like running into a parked car. It's your fault, even if you didn't mean to do it. So don't complain too hard about it. And here's why:
No one out there is actually \"hacking\" WoW accounts. While I disagree with the term \"hacking\" when used to describe attacks on computers, even the common usage of the term is incorrect, because it would imply a level of sophistication that simply doesn't exist in the WoW-account theft world.
There are only 2 ways someone could get your WoW password. Either they get it form Blizzard, or they get it from you. I am extremely confident no one out there is stealing account info from Blizzard. Because if they had access to Blizzard's DB servers, they'd just generate their own gold and loot. No reason to go to the trouble of stealing yours.
The only other way someone gets your password is if you give it to them. You may not intend to do that. It may be ignorance on your part, but that's how people get your password. Most of the time, people are just sending the thieves their passwords without thinking twice about it. They'll \"sign-up\" for some \"Cataclysm Alpha\" (in the past, it was Lich King Alphas/Betas, and BC before that). Some website will purport to have \"Beta Invites\" available, and all you have to do is enter your account information (which they promptly use to steal all your \"l00tz\").
Less common, but still popular, is for someone to infect your computer with some sort of spyware that steals your login information when you enter it. This can be prevented easily by simply not downloading suspicious files or files from P2P networks and maintaining current anti-virus and anti-malware (heck, you don't even really need the latter if your good at the former). And certainly stay clear of WoW \"cheat\" programs. They're almost unanimously designed to steal your account information.
The third way people give out their info is simply to tell it to other people. They'll give their \"friend\" their login information in order to get on their account to do something. The friend will either pass the info along to others, steal the loot themselves, or unwittingly give the info away via spyware on their computer. Remember, if you log in on someone else's computer (or let someone else log into your account on their computer), you are trusting them to have a spyware-free computer. Never give you info out to anyone -- especially someone who has already had an account compromised.
If you really want security, get the Blizzard Authenticator. A free (software) version is available for the iPhone/iPod Touch and a keychain version is available for under 10 bucks from Blizzard. This is the same kind of two-factor authentication some the world's largest and most secure computer systems use. It's realistically unbreakable. Even if the attacker gets your password through a key logger, they'll have less than 60 seconds before that password becomes invalid. Far too short, considering most people spend more than 60 seconds at a time playing WoW and multiple simultaneous logins are not allowed.
I know, I'm ranting. But I want to raise awareness about this sort of thing. It's not hard to keep your info secure. Blizzard tells you how to do it all over their website and even in-game:
Never give out your account information to anyone.
I have very little pity for people who get their accounts broken into. Most of the time, they get their stuff back, and all of the time, it was their own fault they lost it in the first place. Be more vigilant.
Oh, and if you think you got your account info stolen through no fault of your own, please send your username and password to me so I can look into it. ;-)
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\"if they had access to Blizzard's DB servers, they'd just generate their own gold and loot. No reason to go to the trouble of stealing yours.\"
Unless they had something against you - say, because they're a griefer and someone who recently won this award, which takes a lot of time and effort, is a prime target for their trolling.
Also, I know the OP's friend here used the Blizzard Authenticator. This particular situation may be more complicated than it appears.
The BA isn't 100% foolproof. I was having trouble with the iPhone BA and was able to get it removed from my account without a great deal of difficulty (or personal information). However, I did need to know the email address and name associated with my account. Furthermore, since this is two-factor security, getting past the Authenticator is only half the battle. The person would also need the account name and password. Which, in this case they could have gotten through more \"traditional\" means.
The item the OP's friend had a Val'anyr (seen here: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46017 ), which is an extremely hard-to-get item. The fact he had it means he plays a ton of WoW and probably has a lot of gold and items and access to his guild's bank (which probably also has significant wealth).
I won't entirely discount the idea that this guy's account was deliberately targeted (someone could have purposefully infected his computer to get his account details). However, with most WoW account thefts, there's more to it than what the victim says. Few people come out after having their account broken into saying, \"It was my fault, I gave my info to my friend/my guildmate/some random person on the internet!\"
So, especially considering this is a second-hand story from an anonymous source, I really wouldn't start freaking out yet. I'll consider reversing my stance once I see some more concrete evidence that someone out there is breaking into accounts protected by authenticators without any personal knowledge of the account-holder. But the fact that this isn't happening to dozens of high-profile players means (to me) that there's probably more to this story than meets the eye.
Plus I'd bet that there are/were a lot of people brute forcing accounts too, since there apparently isn't an account lockout policy.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1159264-100x100.png\")
There is some sort of lockout, I know I had a lockdown on my authenticator once. Had to call up with my username and secret answer question to get it fixed.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-206518-100x100.png\")
There is actually a point where Blizzard will lock the account. My husband and I both have authenticators, and there was a point ast year where they attempted to hack him. The authenticator saved him of course; they could not change his password without the code from it. After a certain number of attempts (although Blizzard would not tell us how many) the account was automatically locked. We were notified via email, and he had to call Blizzard and verify personal information to get it unlocked.
I would think that's far less common. Because before you could even start the potentially multi-month brute-force attack on someone's account, you'd need their account name, which people should avoid giving out. I'm a bit annoyed that Blizzard uses your email address as an account name these days, but even if the attacker has your account name, if you use a reasonable password, it should take them many millions of login attempts before they crack it.
It's 2010 people, if you haven't figured out that weak passwords are dangerous, you're probably in danger of losing more than your virtual hammer.
A \"friend\" had his account \"stolen\". He used the same e-mail/password for WoW as he did for the message board for his guild. That's where he figures they got the e-mail/password combo.
Yes, lets also blame rape victims for dressing scantily. Blaming the victim is never acceptable.
Not really, the two aren't really analogous. Though to make an attempt on it:
Suppose someone goes to an area where they know multiple rapes happen every night. Where they know they precisely fit the rapist(s) preferred victim profile. They deliberately go there unarmed and alone. They deliberately and with forethought drink enough booze to lose short term memory. They wear a sign around their neck stating this fact in five languages. Then instead of taking a taxi home, they choose to go to sleep on a park bench dead center of the area. Is the victim even slightly to blame for waking up the next day raped?
Yes. Because they did everything in their power to make sure it happened. And that's exactly what people do every day with their account security, out of ignorance and/or stupidity and/or naivete. And then they scream about being hacked, and how could this happen, etc, etc, etc.
Well, that was a bit outrageous. The difference between getting your WoW account broken into and getting raped is that you have to proactively do something to get your account broken into. You have to give someone your password, or download a malicious file, or something like that. And most of the time, people give away their information in an attempt to cheat or get someone they know they don't deserve. They resemble the \"victims\" of 419 scams far more than they resemble rape victims.
It's never someone's fault they get raped, and I resent the implication that I implied that.
That's a huge jump there. And slightly inappropriate.
Is there a version of Godwin's Law for this kind of thing?
Well, he did say he had the Iphone App authenticator.
That tells me someone else had the original info fro the account, has well as matching ID's on the original account name.
Nice rant, but you obviously didn't RTFA. The guy has the authentication software you recommended. Fail +9
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1435794-100x100.png\")
I dunno - people say they use those things, but often they switch them off because its a hassle.
The other thing - if you have control over the account you can switch it off quite easily I understand.
While it may not protain to the exact topic at hand, it is still useful information.
Hundred's of people a day lose their account to scam's like he mentioned all because they still don't know to be on the look out for it.
Blame whoever you want for that, but the more people who are honestly aware of how their accounts get 'hacked', the less trouble we'll all be in.
Bliz is strange with their account policies. I've had name confusions where they were banning one account, but somehow put my account name in instead. They both started with F.... and that's it for similarities. After a two week long fight they finally gave my account back but never explained what happened. All emails went unanswered and all forum posts on it magically disappeared. It's a finicky gamble with them -.-
The best bet is to follow along with blizzards policy as best as possible. They'll requirement some proof of ID, and a little bit of time to sort this out.
Honestly, this is the biggest game ever, so this happens, and it takes time to sort out. I know from a previous post, they are trying to give people a 'care package' instead of returning the same gear, but obviously that won't work in this case.
So the only advice I have, is to get on the phone, be polite, and most importantly be patient. You should have some reason for annoyance if you're actually using the authenticator app.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-547028-100x100.png\")
This happened to us and my husband was able to fax in drivers licenses and stuff to prove association with the credit card that was used to open the account. It was an option only made available after a lot of phone time, efforting, begging, etc.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1445012-100x100.png\")
Do you know how many people have stories like this? (That aren't really true?) I'm sure his friend did get hacked, but if he has an authenticator...he didn't get hacked by a random person. In fact his friend probably got hacked by a friend who had access to his ipod or he has a jailbroke ipod and hasn't patched his ssh security hole...
As far as valynr, its a legendery mace but its below par now and its pretty much useless (from what I remember). Its Ulduar grade stuff, so lvl 232 stuff when you can get like lvl 264 stuff now.
Meh
Not that interesting.
Stat wise, yes.
But the proc steal more then makes up for it since it scales so nicely.
Assuming for the moment that the story is true, and the guy did have an aunthenticator, and that the guy did have the Legendary item, I think this was an inside job. I don't know if that means inside to our fellow, or inside to Blizzard, however. I've been playing consistently since the Wrath expansion pack came out, and I've seen two fragments drop. To WoW players, this item is the holy grail.
Why would staff of Blizzard, who have access to items that can instakill monsters, want a legendary that is made more-or-less obsolete by new gear? Why would the GMs want to steal an account?
Your comment makes no sense.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523987-100x100.png\")
\"Notably, he also uses the authenticator software for the iphone, which should make his account pretty much \"unhackable\" according to Blizzard. Whoever hacked his account was able to change the address and his security questions. His email account wasn't hacked and he didn't have any keyloggers or the like on his machine.\"
Did he have the machine checked by a certified PC tech? Did you see the report that certified it clean of key loggers? How would you know if this email was hacked? Did you request and receive a list of all IP addresses that logged into his account from his Email provider?
I get that it sucks that \"the friend\" lost his account. That doesn't make it OK to present broad assumptions as if they are facts. If anything, it weakens his case if you can't back up these claims with documentation. It's like being the guy that tells the cop he only had \"two\" drinks that then blow 3 times the legal limit.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-123775-100x100.png\")
That is mostly correct. Spyware can be installed with drive by methods through a buggy browser, Adobe Acrobat, or other vulnerable pieces of software. Ads on WoW related websites have in the past installed spyware by these means.
Additionally, many people use addons with WoW (these are different from bots, and are allowed and encouraged by Blizzard). Unfortunately, sometimes addons, or programs designed to manage addons, can come with extra, unwelcome \"features\". In cases like that it wasn't the \"hacked\" accounts' user who was hacked, but the addon creator or website.
Finally, the way to get around authenticator based logins is with fake login pages, which pass the username, password, and authenticator code to the hacker, who immediately uses this to login. This is how bank accounts which use authenticator style devices are broken into. It would probably not take too much skill to make a fake WoW login screen which looked completely ordinary, but passed the information to an automated system which logged into WoW and cleared out the account, while presenting the legitimate user with an error page. And what WoW user would immediately think \"OMG Hack!\" when they login and get a realm not available error, or something?
Blizz customer service is usually pretty decent as they do appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into some of the end-game loot. I'm a bit confused by the \"pending litigation\" piece though. Has someone filed some kind of suit that pertains to this account? If that is the case then they probably are not permitted to alter the account in any way while that litigation is seen through. If not, then I'm not sure what they are getting at. Certainly though that can confirm that a given character had legitimately received certain loot, so replacing it is really just as simple as popping it in the mail from their perspective. I'd give it some time, clarify the \"pending litigation\" comment, and be extra nice. Good luck!
\"they told him that his account was on hold for \"pending litigation\" and that they couldn't return it to him. \"
That line alone ends this whack jobs beef. NOTHING can happen until litigation is resolved.Somebody has made a claim to his account. Once the trial is over he can have it back. WOW never stole anything from him. Some hacker did.
Another video gamer who really should venture into reality if they ever dream of getting laid.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-439770-100x100.png\")
Anyone else think it's funny that this is happening to the submitter's \"friend\"?
Like \"I have a friend, and he thinks he might have herpes - how can he tell\"?
Though, admitting that you play WoW might open you up for ridicule.
I play WoW. Ridicule me.
don't you mean \"your friend\" plays Warcraft?
If your not getting any help via email - call them up - or email the person in charge of the gm department there (look in the game credits - I really have no clue who this would be). The email schemes at Blizzard are first initial last name @ blizzard.com.
I hate when people say \"Its only a game, not a big deal.\" Obviously, they dont think highly of video games, which is fine and fair. But, this person spent a huge amount of time on their hobby.
For example, lets say you are restoring a car. You spend 40 hours a week, for 3 years restoring this car in your spare time. Its personal, its yours, and you invested a lot of your time in a hobby you enjoy. At the 3 year point, someone steals your car, but the police find it within minutes, but now its locked in impound, and the police wont give it back. You have no idea when you will get it back, could be months, could be years. Now you have tons of freetime you want to spend working on your car with your friends, but you cant.
Its not just a game, its the persons life. Its their friends, their social life, and a major hobby.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-439021-100x100.png\")
Ill be honest, this smacks of him having purchased the char/account and the original owner deciding to lay claim to it again.
The accounts are non-transferable and no one other than 1 minor child who you are a guardian of may share you account with you.
Odds are that the original owner will provide the CD keys and the original contact information and get the account back. Authenticator or not, there is nothing he can do to stop this.
Even if he does prove to Blizzard that he bought the account it will be closed for violating the TOS.
If this is indeed the case then he is SOL according to Blizzards rules.
His best bet is to start over. Blizzard will not transfer of items or chars. He knew that buying the account was a violation of the TOU.
His best bet is to make a post in the Customer service forum http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11112 or call the customer service hot line.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1528479-100x100.png\")
Maybe he should stop being so damn impatient. If he's trying to prove he's the owner of the account he needs to get someone from Billing on the phone and send them his identification again. The process could take anywhere from a day to a whole month. Possibly longer if items and gold were stolen from the account. If items were stolen he needs to make a list of everything he had and how much gold he was carrying, and when he gets his account back he'll have to open a ticket and put that information in so they can start the item recovery process.
I have been reading the Customer Service Forum, which typically addresses this issue, for many years. \"Pending litigation\" is a term I have never heard before when referring to stolen or compromised Blizzard accounts. Mostly, the term is \"pending investigation.\" I've never heard of a non-sold, non-banned account that wasn't returned.
The average account compromise takes several weeks to process. If it has been less than several weeks, the friend has no leg to stand on. It is non-trivial to locate and restore the hundreds of items across numerous characters, sometimes on numerous accounts. Investigating possible fraud will add more time. Most people will, in time, receive their items back.
That said, all the protestations in the world about no keyloggers and such mean nothing when the most common source of compromised accounts is stupidity. People receive an official-looking email from Blizzard, send off their account info including password (which Blizzard says NEVER send), and boom, no more account. The OP likely fell for a scam and needs to go through his email and actions to determine which one. The authenticator piece is fascinating, though. I wonder how that happened.
As an aside, Val'nyr comes from killing Lovecraft-esque monsters and bosses stolen from Viking Mythology, not orcs. Also, it's a healing weapon...he's not killing anything personally. :P
He slaughtered robots, dwarves, corrupted titans, and an old god for the hammer. no orcs. ;)
As for the case at hand... I'd want a post from the actual person, not hearsay from \"a friend\".
The idea that his account was purchased and has been reclaimed by the original owner is interesting, but I'd like to offer an alternate of the same theme: \"Your friend\" sold his account -- hey, Val'anyr probably knocks the price up quite a bit -- and is making a big stink to his guildmates so they don't know he screwed them.
If the authenticator was turned off, someone had access to the original account stuff. They would have had to get the authenticator off *first* before they could go in and change the address and security questions -- since you need the authenticator to log into account management to do that. If you have the authenticator, reportedly you can just go to battle.net and clear it (if he sold it, he'd do this), if you *don't* have the authenticator, you need to call in with the CD keys (if he bought it, the original owner would have done this).
Hey, if you want to argue this, you could go to Blizz's customer service forums. Please do, because it's *hysterical* when the CMs report back with comments like \"Hmm, yes, it does seem your account was emptied of all gold and items. However, in the 4 days prior to that, it seems you played for 20-hour stretches, grinding mobs and leveling from 60-80 in a most expedient manner, whilst showing an IP address far removed from your regular one. Seems we missed that, we'll get your account ban out for you ASAP.\" If your account was locked in error, they're pretty slick about getting it fixed, but if you deserved it, they'll let you know. ;)
I've always found MMORPG players to be a self entitled bunch. I suggest you get out of the basement and get some fresh air. The object that you are crying about has absolutely no value whatsoever.
I've always found snarky commenters on websites to be a self-righteous bunch. Maybe you should stop making pointless contributions that no one really cares about (not even me) and go outside!
I bet his password was 12345
(puts this story through the 'BS Translator')
I'm a scumbag who regularly sells my WoW account through craigslist, then calls up Blizzard and claims it was stolen. I messed up real good this time, and now Blizzard won't let me have my account back. WAAAAHHH!!
from what i've heard, they're generally very good at restoring hacked accounts. these days, hackers are very active and therefore blizzard is a little bit busier with the restorations, so it might take a bit longer.
my advice is to be patient, and in the meantime teach your friend basic internet security so that he is not hacked in the future.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-286941-100x100.png\")
Blizzard has by far the worst customer service i've ever seen in the video game industry. You report a problem to a game master and it doesnt seem to matter what the problem is, you'll get a reply maybe in 2 days. Seriously, a 2 day backlog on problem reports?
yes its called they have 12 million players I work in CS for my company there is NO way you can hire any practical amount of people with the powers the GMs need to service many cases without MAJOR corruption issues.
Most problems are handled in under 24 hours. The more complex item restores are done in a few weeks.
It's a voluntary game. Don't like it? LEAVE. (Also, can I have your stuff?)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-300009-100x100.png\")
I am calling shenanigans... My sons account was hacked a few weeks ago and the battle.net account information was all changed just like in the story above. It took 24 hours for a response and everything was restored in the account within 4 days.
Since this guy used an auth key on his account, something is very fishy. As someone pointed out, you have 60 seconds to hack encryption that would take a super computer months to do. It sounds more like anonymous is trying to get the Consumerist crowd to put some pressure on Blizzard when the scam backfired on his friend.
Since many of the epic items are bound to the character, selling the entire account is the only way to transfer an item. Having an epic item would make the account worth much more.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-472416-100x100.png\")
I don't care for video games. But, I do like crafts... and sci-fi. If someone took my crafting/sci-fi paraphernalia I'd be one bitter bitch. Could I replace it? Yeah, but it takes time, effort, and creativity to build up a suitable collection of materials, plans, projects, etc. It would break my little geeky heart. So, while I have no advice for OP's buddy, I offer my sympathy.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1530836-100x100.png\")
I agree with everyone saying that something isn't right here. Either the \"friend\" doesn't have enough of the details to present the issue properly or the details were fudged to begin with. The affected is either running a scammy scam or is the victim that doesn't want to admit he was dumb and compromised his own account.
My \"friends\" who had their accounts hacked all had quick acknowledgments and somewhat prompt resolution to their issues. Blizzard knows something is up even if this guy doesn't want to admit it.
On a plus side, maybe Phil just refers to anything that can receive damage in a \"vidja\" game an \"orc\".
I don't know how it could easily be removed form the account or changed to another authenticator. I have one, and in order to change it, here's the post from the blizzard page:
Removing an Authenticator
In order to detach an Authenticator from a Battle.net account, you need to provide two consecutive authentication codes. After entering the first code, wait approximately 30 seconds to generate the second code. You must press the \"Remove\" button before the codes expire for the Authenticator to be removed successfully.
To do so, please follow these steps:
1. Go to the Account Management Manage Security Options page and select the Authenticator type.
2. Enter the information requested on the page:
• First authentication code
• Second authentication code
3. Click the Remove Authenticator button.
4. Your Authenticator will be removed from the account, and you will now be able to log in to the account without it. To reactivate, you must re-associate it with the account.
This smells like a rat.. I think OP is screwing with us or trying to blackmail bliz.
There are some aspects to this story that seem suspicious,according to \"blue\" posts in the forums you are no longer able to change your security question. http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=3508311304&sid=1. Add to that the account is using a blizzard authenticator. Accounts that get hacked are usually because account information was shared at some point. http://us.battle.net/security/index.html
That said, even if the OP is correct about all of the details, there still isn't much you can do. Blizzard owns the characters you play, and as such can do anything they want with them. Read the EULA very carefully, unfortunately you don't really have any rights in Azeroth. Try politely telling them that, without your old characters, you have very little incentive to keep playing wow.
I've had several friends get accounts hacked, including myself, and we all got all our stuff back in a day or two. If your friend hasn't there's something more going on that you're not sharing with us. As they say in the game, QQ more.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-482109-100x100.png\")
Not sure if this has been posted yet but everyone who plays wow should get a blizzard authenticator if they care at all about their account. makes it impossible for someone to hack your account. If you have an iphone you can download an app for it and save the 6 bucks. Basically it generates a random key that it sends to you every 10 seconds or so. When you log in you need your username, password, and the key. since it generates every 10 seconds even if someone guesses your password theyd need to know what your key was. even if they guessed what the key was (impossible) it would change in 10 seconds. If you lose the authenticator it can be remotely disabled.
Banks were going to use this kind security but people are too lazy to enter 3 pieces of information so instead we get rampant identity theft.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-68690-100x100.png\")
I got one. $6.50, free shipping, and got the special in-game pet. Thing is kinds cute too. Got hacked once. Learned my lesson. Thankfully, some of my guild mates were online at the time and saw my character emptying out the treasury. Got a GM to freeze the account, and was restored in 3 days.
I had my account hacked once although it was very strange since it was hacked after I had stopped playing/frozen my account for more than a year. I randomly logged into my account information on the WoW website one day and noticed that it was active for some reason.
The items on my characters had all been sold off but the gold made from the sales was still there. I contacted Blizzard and they were able to give me the majority of my items back plus the extra gold was left on my account. Additionally whoever hacked my account had also updated it to Burning Crusade for me.
Blizzard is...Blizzard. I personally believe they hack their own accounts to scare people into buying authenticators. This does sound like an example of someone buying an account and the original owner taking it back. What needs to happen is lazy gamers need to stop being lazy and get together and get them thar one of those fancy class action lawlsuits.
So happy I cancelled, it's warcrap and there ARE better games out there to play.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1533626-100x100.png\")
WoW has done nothing but steal all of it's ideas from other free to play MMOs since it's Lich King expansion, including all the new \"features\" Cataclysm will have.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523277-100x100.png\")
It is a video game. Get over it.
Disemvowel this fool.
This might be like saying \"Sheesh, I understand that painting took you 1,000 hours of to create and you were proud of it, but it is canvas and paint, get over it!\"
or
\"I realize that 57 Chevy was your proudest achievement when you rebuilt it from scratch, but sheesh, it is hunks of metal and oil, get over it\".
It is a video game. However, it is also a hobby that the friend of the OP [and probably the OP] has invested a significant amount of time and money into. If you're into sailing, and someone steals your boat/ship/whatever, would YOU think it reasonable for someone you asked for help to say, \"It's just a boat. Get over it.\"? I should think not.
Think first, speak [type] second.
This line of \"reasoning\" would make Consumerist pretty pointless.
The Consumerist: It's a _____, get over it.