hacked and closed

[jstanthr]

today while at work a hacker tied all 5 of my accounts to his own battle.net account. how i don't know, nor would blizz tell me the email addy. didn't have not one thing in my main email account saying anything about it either. well, the entire time i was at work a few guildys picked up on what was going on and started opening tickets to let gm's know what was going on, well about 11 hours later when i got home, i log into vent and they rush me to tell me what was going on, this is when i tried logging in and found out about the battle.net thing. so i get on the phone to blizzard it was around 7pm est (4ish pacific) and im on hod for around 30min or so then i get "keith" after verifying all the accounts were mine, he unbinds them from the hackers battle.et acount and tells me its best that i make one of my own, that it is more secure and tie all of my accounts to it, so i do and i see the emails coming in telling me about it, the email that was from battle.net to set the password and such i went to a neighbors pc and set the password as keith said that would be most secure, since i knew i obviously had some sort of virus, it was called infograbber.gambass by norton 360 and said it couldn't be fixed, so i knew i had to format and reload, so i start the long proces, i get xp back in and running, drivers loaded, and i install wow original, it finishes, and i try to log in so it can initialize tbc installation, and whats this, it says my account is CLOSED, i rush to my email, and sure enough, 3 of my accounts were closed i was a 3boxer first, i had 80pally 80hunter 3-64shams 3-59druids 3-45priests 3-46mages, well 3 of everything actually, and i had jst goten the 2 new accounts like 3 days ago, and those are the 2 that didn't get banned, well needless to say, blizzard was closed, udthink over 200million a month in income, theyd have 24hour support. as soon as the lines are open im caling em i'll post back to let u guys know what they say, but some1 from blizz CLOSING 3 accounts 2 hours after they were restored from being hacked is ridiculous, seems like they need to buff up inter department communications a lot.

[Otlecs]

That really sucks, but I think the account closure thing is part of their standard process for dealing with hacked accounts. They seem to get it in the wrong order quite alot of the time though!

You'll probably also find that you have trouble setting up a subscription plan when you DO get the accounts back! I've seen alot of reports around here that people can't select credit card payment methods after being hacked, which necessitates yet another call to Blizz to fix up.....

Anyway, I hope you manage to get Blizz to undo whatever damage the hackers did to your characters.

And get an authenticator! :D

[Fef]

What Otlecs writes is true.

I had one account hacked few months ago. I also got it suspended because its security had been compromised. You will get yours back once you get the chance to explain your case. You just need to be patient.

I think it is standard procedure that credit card subscription is disabled after an account was suspended. I had to call Blizzard to have the option re-activated after 3 of my accounts were temporarily banned for "online trading activities" (I didn't do anything wrong by the way, as was later admitted by Blizzard).

[Simulacra]

And get an authenticator! :D/agree - absolutely positively the best thing you can do

It sucks I know and I've been there a few times so I know how you feel, plenty of people here do to. But on the bright side you WILL get your stuff sorted out. So go spend the six bucks or so on an authenticator, it will never happen again.

[jstanthr]

ok, they alredy made me get a battle.net thing, which looks like its gonna add a few more steps to logging 5acn'ts at same time, how does that authenticiator work for boxing, does it further complicate logging in? is there a way to setup keyclone to recognize the battle.net thing and autochoose for u? jst lookin at my options here, went to blizz forums to readup on stuff and it made me rechoose my display since the one i was using got "closed" and i noticed some lvl1's on a weird server that i did not make, im guessing those are the ones that got it banned. but the person was on my acn't all day, as if to try and "be nice" the asshat decided to level my mining on my paladin, from 320ish to 450 that struck me as quite odd. i guess so he could mine and make more g, but he totally stripped all my toons of what was saleable "according to armory" and ike my pallys gear was changed and she had on like 2tank t7 and 1 of the holy t7 and a ret t7 don't know why he done that, but he done same to hunter, sold what i had, put on my old brutal axes from my bank, sold my kt gun, and equipped my epic 60 bow from the mc/ony/bwl quest things. guy spent a lot of time screwing me ovr, all while like 6 or more of my guildys were following him around with open tickets, lol. sad part was my hunter was gm of forsaken and my bank toon had his own guild too, both of which got wiped out. i hope they replace all that stuff too, i can rebuild my bank toon guild, but forsaken is uldar raid guild, with 6 tabs, as u can imagine there was quite a bit of stuff, im sure they have something in place to fix things like that.

[Smoooth]

The authenticators have been sold out for at least 2 months since I started looking for them. There's some on ebay but they are charging a ridiculous amount for them.

[Fef]

I know for sure there is an electronic version of the authenticator available for the iPhone. And it's free, I think. Perhaps it is also available for other smart phones.

[Aethon]

Sadly, not yet. I've got a BB Storm and have been waiting for a while.

Last I heard as of 4/9/9:



Hello,

At this time, the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator is only available for iPhone users. Blizzard plans on having this application available to other mobile devices and phone service providers in the future. Please check the website periodically for future updates. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Eric P.
Billing and Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
World of Warcraft Community Site

[Ogloo]

If your accounts are still banned, you may want to think about this. I had my accounts hacked, and it said they were closed, but that is only temporary (WOW IS ACTUALLY watching over you hear), it is locked so the hacker cannot get on and delete stuff. (or more stuff). This is a temporary bann that lasts like 3 days or untill you have totally got control of all the accounts. You should contact blizzard about this again.

[Otlecs]

The authenticators have been sold out for at least 2 months
That really sucks. I've never quite understood why Blizz couldn't get on top of the supply and demand problem with these.

They're still available over here in Europe though, so if any EU players don't have one yet, let this thread serve as a warning :evil:

[DrChaos]

sisters account was hacked 3 days ago. 6 guild tabs. all gone. e verything. over 30k in gold alone from the guild bank. the guy from blizz on teh phone said they do not make it a point to restore gold but he would send it to a "gold specialist" to see what could be done. they transferred her main account to another server and stripped it clean. As you know you cant vender pvp gear so they had to drop it to destroy it. just to be asses I guess.



still nothing from blizz in game or email.

[ElectronDF]

The biggest thing that would affect me is HOW. I don't have an autheticator since I am scared what happens if I ever play away from it. I think I would love a way to block signing on away from the computers you allow. My bank does this. "You are trying to sign on a computer you have never used before, please answer a secret question to continue." Just ask a question that is simple if I use a computer I haven't used before. Shouldn't take long, never gets lost and my guess would protect you.

Back to the question. HOW? Did you not notice a bad website? Do you open mail on your computer? Do you download installers for programs, or just zip files? Do you update your OS when patches come out? You mention the anti-virus, but was it running in the background? Do you have it full scan your computer daily? Do you share your computer with friends/family that might do something questionable? I am not saying it isn't possible, but how the hell do some people get ganked and not others, why doesn't this happen to 90% of the people other than authenticators?

I feel sad that it happened to you. It isn't fair. I wish there was an easier way to protect things so it wouldn't happen. I would probably cry a few days for loss of guild bank and all chars stuff.

[falsfire3401]

authenticator is a 3" by 1" token, sorta the size of a typical car's keyless entry remote. You can plop it on your computer, stick it in your pocket, or attach it to your keychain and take it with you wherever you go.

I have one and love the security of it. All my accounts are in a b.net account with the authenticator tied to it. Best $17usd I ever spent (have to pay shipping to get it to Canada...at least they charge a reasonable $10 shipping now instead of $80 like originally)


Only problem is now the wife knows that she can just hide the authenticator if I get wife aggro and prevent me from playing...maybe I should keep it on my person at all times to prevent that lol...I just leave it on my computer desk at home.

[Aethon]

Well, there are many, many ways to modify a virus so it bypasses current definitions, and of course, many types of binders to do so.

The biggest risks are .wmv and .wma files, as for some stupid reason, Windows media play decided to let their files have certian background rights, like installing 'codecs' silently. The thing is, what hackers put into the codec needed portion is simply a pointer to a website with their virus.

And, I'll be honest, I'm sure not everyone that says they were hacked was actually hacked. Think of how many account trading/buying sites are out there. And they're not out there because people don't do it. So, say Joe sells his account, then either regrets it or something more malicious, goes onto the forums and claims he was hacked. Since he'll be able to answer all the right questions, he'll (usually) be able to get his account back.

No I don't really believe anyone on this site would do something like that, as we already get enough 'publicity' in game, but I do know a little bit about human nature, and a great portion of the populus wouldn't think that Blizzard owned their account when they were the ones paying for it for however long.

[jstanthr]

as to the "how" i have no clue and thats the scary part, i do this sort of thing for a living. im a datacenter analyst for cisco and have been in the feild for over 20 years, ive build entire networks for the DOD but yet i let myself get hacked by some gold theif? sad to say but the game has changed. (not refering to wow there) microsoft is actually the main reason all this stuff happens. the way the "infostealer.XXXXXX" series of viruses work is due to a stack overflow vunerability in the way windows itself installs applications. this wasn't even a problem until, like most viruses, Microslut releases the vulnerability on its knowledge base, and cisco followed suit due to the fact that it was a networking issue, this certain overflow error allows data to be sent wih no hopes of ever being able to track it. normally when data is sent from a pc there is a record of the transmitting and receiving ports, and its relevant ip addresses on both ends. since this is concidered an "overflow" error the data doesn't really exist and is never registered on anything. after i finally found the virus and all of its components, i loaded it into a secure sandbox applet to watch it, so i could see where the particular one i had was sending the data, i could see that it was sending packets in short bursts like around 50-100characters in about a second. since it was in a secure sandbox, all it done was send ascii charachters to the hacker that were of no relivance, all of this i done at work, i took out my hard drive from my pc, i put a new one in, and reloaded everything so i knew the virus would be gone. and as far as how i got it i have no clue, the ONLY things i do on these pc's is wow, db.com, blizzards sites, and thottbot/wowwikki. those are the only sites i EVER go to. here is what i "think" happend. earlier the day before 2 people randomly logged into my guild vent, im the gm of the guild and i own the vent, and one of the officers in my guild noticed they logged in and their names didn't correspond to anything in the guild, and he asked them what they were doing there, and they said, they just stubled across the server and thought they would use it. not likely- its a typefrag server and isn't listed anywhere, and what is the likelyhood some1 could guess the server/port/pass and be right on all 3 and hit a working combo, highly unlikely. he came to me and told me he kicked and banned them but they were still there, so i myself permabanned them from the vent server, i think that somehow they got a list of the connected ip's to that vent and knew that i wsa the highest value target that was logged in i think he scoped me out when he hacked one of my guildys accounts, and got my ip addresss that way, and then attacked that vulnerability with the infostealer.gampass exploit and that was it. if that is how he done it or not i don't know, but it seems to me like the only way. and that puts lots of people at risk, a hacker that can get u when you don't even go to a website. by hacking ur ip from the outside in and planting his viruses. all i can say is make sure u got your firewalls turned on and hope for the best, i got a feeling it'll get worse before it gets any better especially concidering what china just done with making trading virtual currency to real currency being illegal and all. i just don't see how they could police something like that i can just hope they kill it all, lol.

[ElectronDF]

So the bad guys can just pick a random IP address out of the air and put a keylogger on your computer? Again, why haven't they done this to 90% of the people on the web, they would be gazillionaires. Is there no chance that you used your handle in vent the same as your account name? Is there no chance that you downloaded a helpful program for vent or WoW to help with your guild?

Again, the questions. You said you caught a virus, but was your anti-virus running the in the background (continuously monitoring)? You have a port open in your firewall/router for webpages, vent, etc. and they used what port to get in on? I was under the understanding that firewalls kept people out except on specific ports. You work for security people and you use what for browsing web pages and what malware blocking do you use? I understood that techies like firefox or opera or something. And they seem to brag about adblockers and noscript and such. Any of that working for you or just use IE with javascript enabled?

I mean damn, again, if what you say is true, we are all screwed. Sure we get a authenticator to stop WOW theft, but nothing stops any other misuse of our computers. If people have used computers for 10+ years and had no problems, then there seems like there should be a misstep that someone made if something goes wrong. You getting ganked is bad, but that doesn't help much if we don't have any info on what we can do to protect ourselves.

I admit, I had my alts on follow and they have fallen to their deaths. I have seen that my CPU was warm and thought, it must just be the room temp that heats it up and fried a chip. Yeah, the cooler fan's bearing/sleeve was going out. I have went to a few bad webpages and gotten like 10, then 20, the 30 pop windows that I almost couldn't stop from opening. I got pop-blocking right after that. I have screwed up, but at least I knew what happened. How come everyone, almost everyone's story that gets their accounts ganked, never ever did anything wrong? Does that make sense?

[Duese]

How come everyone, almost everyone's story that gets their accounts ganked, never ever did anything wrong? Does that make sense?

Because often times when we know that we got hit (went to a bad website, downloaded some bad software, etc.), the first thing we do is clean it out because we know we have a virus. It's like playing with a loaded gun, we know we have to keep the gun pointed away from us and the safety on. We are careful and make sure to put the gun away safely.

On the other hand, if you are playing with a rubber ball, you aren't playing safe because you assume that the rubber ball is safe. No, the rubber ball couldn't be sleeping with your sister, kicking the dog or drinking all your beer, so you aren't as overprotective.

I have no reason to look for a virus when I am not doing anything that I deem as risky.

I got hit with a hacker about a 2 weeks before Wrath launch. When I found out, I immediately checked my computer and sure enough, their were processes on it that I didn't recognize. I hadn't installed anything, only had been to thotbott, allak, wowhead and the o-boards. Just blows my mind.

[Klesh]

As far as I know, WoWhead, Thottbot, Allakhazam and others had trouble with malicious ads infecting systems in the past. That's why it might be a good idea to block ads and use some script-blocking tool as often as possible (Firefox + Adblock + NoScript for example).
And well, don't browse the web with your local admin user.

[spannah]

As far as I know, WoWhead, Thottbot, Allakhazam and others had trouble with malicious ads infecting systems in the past. That's why it might be a good idea to block ads and use some script-blocking tool as often as possible (Firefox + Adblock + NoScript for example).
And well, don't browse the web with your local admin user. ^ this.

And really if you can install keyclone or whatever other software to multibox, then installing firefox ('http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html') with adblock plus ('https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865') extension is not just for techies ;)

While you are at it also install avast ('http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html') ... free anti-virus with free daily definitions

I you want to be really secure then grab VirtualBox ('http://www.virtualbox.org/') and install Ubuntu ('http://www.ubuntu.com/') as a virtual machine for your browsing needs :D

[jstanthr]

no im not saying i done nothing wrong, im not at home, im running my mobile setup from the road. im piggybacking the connection via wireless router and directional ant. to the datacenter were working at from the hotel across the street. im sure there were many ports open that commonly aren't basically for managing the switches and routers while im in the datacenter. im sure thats probably how he got in, and as far as virus protection goes, norton 360 is running all the time, but if its a new variant or anything like that, it may take some time before its even recognized. going through all that transpired while i was being hacked i feel that i was more targeted specifially than it being just a random pw hash the guy caught. another member in my guild was haced in exactly the same manner, with the same little odd things (levled mining to 450 on both of us) and like i said in one of the earlier posts i made there was a strange user that logged into our guild vent that said he just randomly stumbled upon the vent, without being given any info, i banned the ip address and he still came back like i never banned him. it stuck on the second time tho. there are many ways that i see it possible for him to have gained access, but as far as getting it from a website i don't think that was it, the guy was pro, he knew exactly what to do and when to do it, he initially logged onto my accounts within an hour of me leaving for work. i thought that was odd. but anywy this time he'll be tracked down, and his isp notified, doesn't matter what country he is in hacking is still illegal, and if its across borders, it becomes federal, might take some time, but he'll get burned.

[jstanthr]

How come everyone, almost everyone's story that gets their accounts ganked, never ever did anything wrong? Does that make sense?Did you read the entire post i made before you said that? nowhere in there did i say i did nothing wrong, i mentioned several possibilities, i never said it appeard from thin air.

[Klesh]

You should definately get an authenticator as soon as possible. Everyone should.
Entering a 6 digit code each time you log into the game isn't that bad compared to getting hacked. Especially since you can use one code to login with all of your accounts at the same time.

[warwizard]

I had my main account accessed, know how?

I had logged into a friends computer to show him my account, when you log into another computer it creates a folder under the WTF tree with your account name and character name. From there due to my own stupidness on not changing passwords enough they were able to brute force their way on and wipe my main account clean.

My second account at the time, same password, same computer was not touched. This is how i know where they got in from.


As for the likely hood of that guy hacking the vent server and getting your ip address is very slim, the next fact of getting past your hardware firewall/router is also very slim. It sounds like something on a wow themed website installed and snagged your account info.

Norton is crap, get a mcafee or kaspersky, hell even AVG is better than norton :p


Along with that are you browsing from IE ? Or Firefox? Firefox + No Script + Ad Block + Flash Block = Secure browsing.

Running Vista with UAC enabled might be a pain in the ass, but it sure as hell works!

[Ualaa]

Set one of the tabs of your homepage to the Blizzard store, specifically the authenticator page.
I'd recommend this for everyone.

As soon as they're available, pick up at least one, a few would not hurt.
They're dirt cheap. It cost more for shipping to Canada then the authenticator was priced.

A guild officer was hacked recently, they cleared out the guild bank.
The hacker actually did a server transfer and sold everything on another server.
Apparently the credit card on file was good enough, did not need to re-enter any information.
So he had to pay for the transfer of his stolen character.

Blizz has restored most of the stuff, but the Orbs and Abyss Crystals they did not restore.
Just the relatively cheap things.
They gave him back all of his gear.

Initially they told him, you can only server transfer once every month.
So it will be a month before you can transfer back to your original server.

The hacker was good enough to go and unlearn his trade skills.
Blizz has restored them, minus all rare recipes, which are permanently lost until re-learnt in game.

Fun stuff.

Get an Authenticator, even if you haven't been hacked.
You don't want to go through this kind of crap.
And its a very easy and cheap preventative measure.

[jstanthr]

ive called about the authenticator almost every day, they finally today told me they should have a batch in around thursday, id get em quick tho, im sure they won't last long.

[Caspian]

you know if these gold hackers were as persistent at going after real money as they are at going after fake money the world would be in trouble.

Wait...
The reason they don't go after real money is that is a crime. Steal enough cash the US FBI starts making calls and even China would be prone to cooperate to an extent - if hundreds or thousands of bank accounts were hacked a day.

Fake money the real world doesn't care about. Try reporting it as a crime in the US - or just about any country. You will get laughed at. You don't "own" it, it is not a crime. Blizzard owns it and even if it is taken from us, it is still in Blizzard's domain and never really stolen.
So in order to really be able to shut it down, it has to be a crime.
For it to be a crime the "thieves" must steal some thing of value.
In order for out gold/items/virtual possessions to have value we must own them.
The only people with any real pull to be able to help us do not want us to own their (our) virtual property.

In order to shut this down. virtual theft must become a crime. In order for it to become a crime, people willing to report it as theft must actually have ownership.

Another thing that gets me about gold thieving is the abuse hurled towards the victim. If you leave your keys in your car and some asshat takes it, they go to jail. You were dumb for leaving your keys in your car but they still committed a crime. If you wanted to get into my house, all it would take is hopping a fence and tossing one of my potted plants through a window. I put the pot there, I did not put bars on my window. Sure my alarm goes off but if you are not a moron, you can still get out of my house with 4k in computer stuff before the cop can put his doughnut down to answer the call to get to your house. Who is more at fault? Me, who generally did the right things - good neighborhood, alarm, double paned windows, pet attack Liger named Sam. Or douche bag who decided he need to break into my house to get his next fix or meal or whatever reason he has?

Gold thieves, no different. The OP, from what he said did most things right. Even if he didn't, why is he being attacked (and this thread is nowhere near as bad as I have seen some) instead of the pent up anger and frustration being focused at the actual thieves or at the the only authorities that can do anything - Blizzard. As bad as this is becoming they either need to start cutting this off at the source, gold buyers and sellers or llet real law enforcement start going after these thieves or


I have been playing WoW 4 years today (well yesterday the 4th of July) I have, as a guess, 400-500 days played across all toons and accounts (a lot of that is multiple accounts at once but still). If I went aywhere and took or destroyed something that was 400-500 man days in creation I would go to jail. Your hobby is making toothpick sculptures? I go play Godzilla, on purpose, on your scale model of the New York Skyline, I go to jail - or at least get a court date and probably have to pay you back for your time.

We need to look at getting the system changed or getting Blizzard to actually fight this proactively instead of focusing on it when it comes time to restore someones account.

[slongz]

I agree with this 100% yea he got hacked but it wasnt his fault some moron is installing viruses to steal info and sell gold. and just to be a arse it sounds like by deleting things that he cant sell seems kinds personal.
Ive never been hacked and hope i dont but you can do anything you like to protect yourself and your never 100% safe.


you know if these gold hackers were as persistent at going after real money as they are at going after fake money the world would be in trouble.

Wait...
The reason they don't go after real money is that is a crime. Steal enough cash the US FBI starts making calls and even China would be prone to cooperate to an extent - if hundreds or thousands of bank accounts were hacked a day.

Fake money the real world doesn't care about. Try reporting it as a crime in the US - or just about any country. You will get laughed at. You don't "own" it, it is not a crime. Blizzard owns it and even if it is taken from us, it is still in Blizzard's domain and never really stolen.
So in order to really be able to shut it down, it has to be a crime.
For it to be a crime the "thieves" must steal some thing of value.
In order for out gold/items/virtual possessions to have value we must own them.
The only people with any real pull to be able to help us do not want us to own their (our) virtual property.

In order to shut this down. virtual theft must become a crime. In order for it to become a crime, people willing to report it as theft must actually have ownership.

Another thing that gets me about gold thieving is the abuse hurled towards the victim. If you leave your keys in your car and some asshat takes it, they go to jail. You were dumb for leaving your keys in your car but they still committed a crime. If you wanted to get into my house, all it would take is hopping a fence and tossing one of my potted plants through a window. I put the pot there, I did not put bars on my window. Sure my alarm goes off but if you are not a moron, you can still get out of my house with 4k in computer stuff before the cop can put his doughnut down to answer the call to get to your house. Who is more at fault? Me, who generally did the right things - good neighborhood, alarm, double paned windows, pet attack Liger named Sam. Or douche bag who decided he need to break into my house to get his next fix or meal or whatever reason he has?

Gold thieves, no different. The OP, from what he said did most things right. Even if he didn't, why is he being attacked (and this thread is nowhere near as bad as I have seen some) instead of the pent up anger and frustration being focused at the actual thieves or at the the only authorities that can do anything - Blizzard. As bad as this is becoming they either need to start cutting this off at the source, gold buyers and sellers or llet real law enforcement start going after these thieves or


I have been playing WoW 4 years today (well yesterday the 4th of July) I have, as a guess, 400-500 days played across all toons and accounts (a lot of that is multiple accounts at once but still). If I went aywhere and took or destroyed something that was 400-500 man days in creation I would go to jail. Your hobby is making toothpick sculptures? I go play Godzilla, on purpose, on your scale model of the New York Skyline, I go to jail - or at least get a court date and probably have to pay you back for your time.

We need to look at getting the system changed or getting Blizzard to actually fight this proactively instead of focusing on it when it comes time to restore someones account.

[Gramzngunz]

Well this thread and the fact that a friend of mines account was just hacked has caused me to order my own authenticator. The blizzard store was out so i ordered one on ebay for a little bit above the normal cost.
Maybe I should have waited for the Blizz store, but you can't put a price on peace of mind :D

lol, also to the guy who said he was worried his wife would hide his authenticator, I think you need to put it on one of those cool leather straps around your neck like you see in movies w/ the main character having some strange key sense birth that he always carries w/ him. I plan on using my key chain.

[Cruelty]

I have seen so many of these stories on all wow boards and always the victim claim they were hacked by some pro that knew exactly what they were doing. Now if this were true do you think someone with those skills is going to spend the time and effort to steal wow accounts that are only worth a couple of hundred dollars / pounds at the most.

Now I am not saying this guy is lying about anything but I find it strange that he claims to work for cisco saying he uses his computer to do his work and that is how they may have got his wow account details, now I have worked for a number of various small and big companies in the IT sector and none of them would allow the use of a work laptop to play games or to actually even install your own software. Second none of them have ever used Norton 360 for their anti-virus protection, it is just crap from start to finish. Now I am willing to admit that some companies may allow you to do these things but in my humble opinion they are asking for trouble and I do not think that a company as big as cisco would be one of them.

As for getting a virus / trojan or any other little nasty password stealing software when you claim you never installed anything I still find hard to believe. I am either the luckiest person around or something as I use firefox but dont block adverts or scripts, I only have avast home edition and the built in firewall in my router and have never had anything like this and I visit all sorts of sites daily.

I have five accounts all with same password accounts names only change by a single digit, maybe it will happen to me one day, but I am fairly sure I will know how it happened and am sure it will not be some elite hacker getting into my system because it would not be worth their time and effort.

I do feel sorry for any one that this happens to and hope they get it sorted out soon.
Sorry for the rant and don't take it personally this is aimed at all the people that claim they were hacked by some elite hacker.

[Tonuss]

That really sucks, but I think the account closure thing is part of their standard process for dealing with hacked accounts.

And get an authenticator! :D^ ^ ^ This ^ ^ ^

Closing an account is part of the process that Blizzard uses when the account has been compromised. This prevents the thief from continuing to mess with the account, and it forces you to make sure you've got the account and your computer secured before you log in again. It sucks, but it's better than getting your account back, logging in, and having it stolen all over again. And again, and again.

And yeah, get an authenticator as soon as possible, though that could be a while. I got lucky, when I wanted to buy mine the Blizzard store had just announced that they were restocked, so I got it very fast. Keep checking to see when they have them available again. You only need one for all of your accounts. It does add an extra step to the login procedure, but if you're using keyclone or similar software you can enter the authenticator key once for all accounts upon login.

As for "whose fault is it," I don't think that applies anymore. There was a time when getting a virus or trojan from surfing the web meant you went to one of several specific types of sites (porn, warez, etc). But nowadays so many sites get content fed through them from other sites that even if the site you visit is 'clean' you can get infected through a flash or animated banner ad. I still think it is beyond retarded that a browser app can drop executable files on my hard drive and modify my startup files WITHOUT TELLING ME A THING. That should never happen, period.

I browse using Firefox with AdBlock Plus and NoScript. The downside is that I wind up blocking legit advertisements that help sites like this one keep operating. But the risk of malware infection has gotten so high that I don't have a choice. (And I also do not regret blocking any of those seizure-inducing flash ads that some sites display.)

[DrChaos]

update on ym sis account:

today she logged in to see her char back on the server, everything was replaced. gear had the same enchants. guild bank was restored with everything and they threw in 700 cooking spices (go figure) but they did not replace over 30k gold that was taken.

[Iceorbz]

So how irritating is it to log in with the authenticator?

I have the app for my Iphone, took me about 30 seconds to get :P. But I have not yet attached it to my bnet account.

[Klesh]

It's a 6 digit code you have to enter each and every time you log into the game. You can use the same code to log into multiple accounts using keyclone or whatever you prefer.

But seriously, it shouldn't be a matter of convenience, cause getting hacked is way more trouble than entering a code to login.

[zanthor]

315498

How much of an inconvienance is it to type that number?

You seriously hit a button, type 6 digits, and you're in.

[moog]

315498Quick... hack him... before the numbers change!!! :)

[Catamer]

I love my authenticator, i log onto 5 accounts at once using the same 6 digit authenticator number. I've logged onto as many as 9 accounts at the same time ( I don't ahve a battle.net account yet )
I see these horror stories all the time but I've never been hacked.

[Vecter]

So how irritating is it to log in with the authenticator?

I have the app for my Iphone, took me about 30 seconds to get :P. But I have not yet attached it to my bnet account.

The iPhone authenticator is quite easy to use. However I found it annoying when I am setting up chars for the first time as logging out and back in requires unlocking the iPhone, and refreshing the app. No not a huge deal once you have stuff setup and you don't logout and login frequently. I have since purchased an actual authenticator and it's smooth sailing.

Both are worth the effort though as getting hacked causes a lot more issues than having to type in 6 numbers.

[TeK23]

If your account is every hacked or stolen, etc... This is what you do:

1. Call up blizzard support and tell them someone has hacked your account. Please lock it and request photo ID.
2. While on the phone with the support guy tell him to please change your email address (create a new email account). Some hackers, will actually hack your email and if you never deleted your email messages from blizzard, they will have your login and sometimes password. They can also do a password reset and gain access to the new password through your email.

3. Request they send an account retrevial form to your new email address. This form will require a photo ID and you can change your SQA, etc... through the form.

This is the only way to change 100% of your information besides your first/last name and hacker will no longer know your account info if it was compermised. :P

Then get an authenicator :P