World of Warcraft Scams

[jormungar_worm]

As you know or should know. There is NO Cataclysm Beta for the moment.

Quote from: Nethaera (Blizzard Blue) As always, when there is a beta, we will announce it. Please be wary of any and all claims of a beta or alpha for the new expansion being held.

i know most people on this forum has an IQ over -9001.

So all forums, websites and youtube videos claiming to have Beta all are Fake and will keylog you.

Plus all e-mails from names like Blizzard
@Gmail.com
@Hotmail.com
@Yahoo.com

Are Fake

Occasionally, players may receive official-looking e-mails asking for their account name, password and other account information. These e-mails, which are made to look as though they come from Blizzard, sometimes threaten dire action unless the player provides his or her login information so that "Blizzard" may verify the legitimacy of the account. Do not fall for these scams!


REMEMBER: Blizzard employees will NEVER ask for your password.


•How can I tell whether or not the e-mail I received was fake? What should I do if it is fake?

For tips on how to determine the legitimacy of a questionable e-mail, please review the following support article:


Why is Blizzard asking for my account information in an e-mail?
Blizzard Support

If you determine that you have received a fake e-mail, please forward the e-mail to hacks@blizzard.com.



•Why am I receiving these e-mails? What can I do to ensure malicious parties do not have my e-mail address?

In most cases, e-mail addresses are gleaned from unofficial World of Warcraft web pages(guild websites, fan sites, etc) and social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc). As such, you may wish to set-up a new, separate email address and register it to your account. When selecting the username and password for this new email address, ensure that these variables do not overlap with that of your WoW account or any other login type (guild websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc).

Once this address is registered, do not use it for anything else: no additional registrations, no guild websites, no newsletter sign-ups, et al. Keep this address isolated.



•I replied to a fake e-mail and now they have my private billing information (e.g. Secret Answer, CD-key, etc.). What do I do?

Remain calm and change your password. Without having access to your registered e-mail address, an old password will not help the malicious party. To ensure that they know as little information as possible, we also recommend that you change your registered e-mail address to a new, secure e-mail. If you desire an extra layer of security, we recommend obtaining a Blizzard Authenticator (Blizzard Store).



•I clicked a link contained within a fake e-mail. Am I safe?

Sadly, we are unable to verify whether or not your computer is infected with a malicious program. As a result, it’s virtually impossible for us to determine whether or not your computer is “safe”. We strongly recommend that you review our Key-loggers and Computer Security sticky (World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> _____Computer Security Recommendations) for more information on how to locate and remove key-loggers and how to protect your computer from malicious programs.


For more information, please review the following thread:


Account Compromise Info Center:
World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> [[ Account Compromise Info Center ]]

In the following posts, you will find an ever-growing list of the phishing e-mails that have been reported on the Customer Service Forum.

Receive a phishing e-mail not listed in the posts below? Or have a question regarding the legitimacy of an e-mail?
Let us know by creating a new thread on the Customer Service Forum!


REMEMBER: Blizzard employees will NEVER ask for your password.

[jormungar_worm]

Here is a sample of an e-mail that is usually sent.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:

From: "WoWAccountAdmin" <WoWAccountReview@blizzardadmins.net>

Greetings,

It has come to our attention that you are trying to sell or trade your personal World of Warcraft account. As you may or may not be aware of, these actions conflict with the EULA and Terms of Service (TOS) of Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft. If upon further investigation you are indeed attempting to obtain monetary profit against the TOS agreement, your account can and will be disabled. Blizzard has the right to consider legal action if necessary, based on the severity of the action.

If you hope to avoid account suspension you should verify your personal possession of the account in question. We at Blizzard Entertainment take infractions of the TOS quite seriously and we must confirm the original ownership of the account. This is easily done by supplying your account information below.


Please use the following template below to verify your account and information via email.

* Account Email:
* Account Name:
* Account Password:
* Secret Question and Answer:


If you ignore this communication your account can and will be closed permanently due to suspicions of alternative ownership. We ask that during the investigation you give approximately twenty-four hours of inactivity after sending a response email. This should provide enough time for Blizzard to confirm your identity and that the TOS are being followed as outlined.

Blizzard Entertainment Inc
Account Administration Team
P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623

Regards,

Krondel
Account Recovery Team
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Here is another example of a phishing e-mail:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
It has come to our attention that you are trying to sell/trade your personal World of Warcraft account. As you may or may not be aware of, this conflicts with the EULA and Terms of Agreement. If this proves to be true, your account can and will be disabled. It will be ongoing for further investigation by Blizzard employee's. This action is taken because we at Blizzard Entertainment takes these sales quite serious.

If you wish to not get your account suspended you should immediately verify your account. We need to confirm you are the original owner of the account. This is easiest done by confirming your personal information along with concealed information about your account.
You can confirm that you are the original owner of the account by replying to this email with:

* First and Last name
* Address
* Zip code
* Phone number Daytime
* Country
* Account e-mail
* CD-key, or a photograph of your CD-key that is located on your manual for World of Warcraft.
* Account name
* Account password
* Secret Question and Answer

And attach a screen shot of the key on your instruction booklet ( if possible). Reply to this with the information within 1 week, or your IP will be banned permanently, which will not let you play and/or make an account. Feel free to visit Blizzard Support to contact us or for more information


Regards,
Account Administration Team

Blizzard Entertainment Inc
Account Administration Team
P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I can not stress this enough: No employee of Blizzard will ever ask for your password. Even if the e-mail looks legit, if it asked for your password it is not from Blizzard Entertainment.

[jormungar_worm]

And here we have yet another sample.

Outside of an initial mistake with the greeting the links look to be real. Unfortunately what you see isn't necessarily what you get.

The link to the Account Management site actually takes you to www.worldof v v arcraft.com/account if you click the worldofwarcraft.com\account link found in the e-mail.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
In attention of our World Of Warcraft customer,

Our automated security systems have indicated that access
to your online account was temporarily blocked due to to repeated
login failures. Our logs indicate that your account received 20
authentication failures during this time. It is most probable
that your account was subject to malicious attack through automated
brute forcing techniques. While World Of Warcraft were able to successfully
block this attack, we would recommend that you ensure that your password
is sufficiently complex to prevent future attacks.

You must click the link below and enter your password on the following page to confirm the reactivation of your account.

Links removed for safety reasons -EaTCarbS

- Verify that your contact information is accurate and update it if
necessary.

- Create a new, not-easily guessed, secure personal password; an
example of this may include letters and numbers.

- Please be sure to scan the computer system you are using to remove
all viruses, Trojan files, and key loggers.

- Maintain safe Internet practices and safeguard all World of Warcraft
account information for the most secure gaming experience.

================================================== ====

Website Support:

A wide variety of Account Administration questions and answers are available on our web site at: Links removed for safety reasons -EaTCarbS

================================================== ====
================================================== ====

Server Status Forum:

If you cannot log onto World of Warcraft, you may want to check the
Server Status Forum for current maintenance downtime and information at: World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Service Status

================================================== ====
================================================== ====

Game Masters:

Game Masters (GMs) are Blizzard Entertainment personnel that are available
in-game to assist you with your gameplay related questions, problems, etc. Learn
more about Game Masters, including how to contact them at Blizzard Support

================================================== ====
================================================== ====

Best regards,
World of Warcraft Account Administration Team
Blizzard Support
Blizzard Entertainment

*Emails to our Account Administration team may not receive a response for the following reasons:
- Use of profanity
- Spamming (sending the same email multiple times)
- Attachments containing viruses (these are deleted automatically)
- The message is a form of feedback or comment which does not require or request a reply
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[jormungar_worm]

Let it be known that you can not identify these fake e-mails by grammar alone.

If ownership of the account was in question we would not ask you to visit a website and enter your information. A password alone doesn't prove that you are the registered user of the account, just that you have the password.

Depending on the validity of the claim we would either reset your password new one sent to the registered address for your account or lock the account and you would need to fax or send by postal mail the retrieval form along with a copy of your ID (possibly with a request of notarization).

Here is a copy of the fake e-mail received.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:

"Greetings,

It has come to our attention that you are trying to trade or sell your World of Warcraft account. As you may or may not be aware of, this conflicts with the EULA and Terms of Agreement of Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft. If upon further investigation you are indeed attempting to obtain monetary profit against the terms of the user agreement, your account can and will be disabled.


Blizzard has the right to consider legal action if necessary, based on the severity of the violation. In order to avoid account suspension, you should verify your ownership of the account(s) in question. It is possible to have more than one accounts registered to one e-mail address; if you do, please verify both accounts.

We at Blizzard Entertainment take infractions quite seriously and we must confirm the original ownership of the account(s). This is easily done by supplying personal information about your World of Warcraft account. You can confirm you are the original owner of the account by verifying your information here.

If you ignore this email your account will be closed permanently for violation of the EULA (End User License Agreement).

We obtain this information due to a variety of circumstances; some of which are:
I) A post on an account selling/trading website
II) Suspicious behavior
III) Sudden Internet Protocol address changes


We look forward to your cooperation.




Regards,
Account Administration Team
Blizzard Entertainment Inc
P.O Box 18979, Irvine,CA 92623"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EaTCarbS]

NEVER click a link in an email.

ALWAYS type out WorldofWarcraft.com out

ALWAYS ALLWAYS ALWAYS

[LindlineOLD]

Stickied for PSA.

[Ridgegriffin]

makes me sick to my stomach thinking of these people ripping others off, pisses me off.
good thing i have a mac.

[LindlineOLD]

Having a mac won't save you here. Maybe from the keyloggers, but not from giving out your information. An authenticator will.

[ollee]

Oh heres an idea....don't be a dumb****...

[jormungar_worm]

How the Blizzard Authenticator works, and why it improves security.


=================NEWSFLASH==============
The Blizzard Authenticators are once again in stock!
Blizzard Store
==========================================


On 26/06/08, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Authenticator, a device that provides your WoW account with an extra layer of security. They sell this device in their Blizzard Store for €6. You may consider buying it, but is the extra security really worth the money? How much more secure does it make your account? This post will explain how this device works, and exactly why it makes your account more secure.


===How the authenticator works===

The Blizzard Authenticator is a token that you can put for example on your keychain. It has a little display that, once your press the button will generate a 6-digit number that changes every minute.

This number is used as a 1-time password. This means the password is only valid once. When you use it to log in, the code becomes invalid and any hacker trying to access your account later with the same number won't be able to log in.

A hacker wanting to access your account will now, in addition to keylogging your username and password, have to physically break into your house and steal the authenticator to see what number it displays. But hackers are clever people. Isn't there any way for them to know which number the authenticator is going to display? The answer is no, and here's why.

Every authenticator has a little built-in clock. This clock keeps track of the number of seconds since, for example the WoW release date, Tigole's birthday or whenever. Each authenticator also has a unique key, which it uses to encrypt this number of seconds into what looks like a completely random number. There is no way, without knowing the encryption key, to guess what number is going to be displayed at any point in time. Even if the hacker has all the numbers you entered before, he can't extrapolate that into what number will be showing next.

The hacker also can't hack into the device itself to find out it's key, because it doesn't connect to the computer in any way. Even if the hacker were the mailman who delivered the authenticator to your house, he would have to open it up and extract the hardware that contained the key. These devices are generally tamper-resistant and will purge themselves when opened.

So, if the hacker can't know your 1-time password, how is Blizzard going to know? The difference is, Blizzard has the key for every authenticator they made. When you log in, blizzard looks up which authenticator is associated with your account, and finds the matching key. They then use this key to decrypt the number you entered into the number of seconds the authenticator has been counting. They then verify that this number matches the current time.

Even if the time on your authenticator doesn't exactly match the time on blizzard's server, they still allow you to log in within a minute or so of the defined time, just in case the clock in your authenticator is running a little slower or faster than normal. This still does not allow hackers to use the number from a minute ago, because when you log in successfully, that number is then disabled and prevented from being used again.

If you still think someone may eventually find a way around it, this security measure is used by businesses and government agencies around the world to provide security, and they have a lot more sensitive information to guard than the login information to a WoW account. This is a tested method that has proven itself to be secure.