I got hacked

[Shania]

So what I want to know is how the fuck can my boxing toons get hacked, off clean pcs that are not accessing any sites other then wow, this 1, banking sites, etc. No malicious spyware, no viruses no nothing on any of the machines here, and we have 3 thats online.

No1 has access to the 2 main pcs other then myself and fiance.
ALL gbank hundreds and thousands of Gold gone, all toons stripped, all personal gold off many toons gone, mats, the whole lot.

This concerns me greatly as I cannot even begin to comprehend how its possible to get hacked when you do not go anywhere you should not for starters, run a clean pc, with virus scanners, maleware etc.

Never ever in the 5 yrs has this happened before.

[Kromtor]

clear history won't eliminate the trojans installed by shady porn sites when you roll the dice and install their custom players. tell your fiance this and study his facial expression.

[Svpernova09]

We have not been hacked. YOU have been hacked.

[Shania]

clear history won't eliminate the trojans installed by shady porn sites when you roll the dice and install their custom players. tell your fiance this and study his facial expression.

Thats pretty pathetic assumption, considering the pcs are in the main loungeroom where our children are, maybe thats something you need to get upto, doesnt mean all men are the same...

And I said my boxing toons were hacked, where has the "we" come from.

Honestly sometimes people can be down right idiotic and rude at the wrong fucking time.

[Multibocks]

Don't expect sympathy from people on this board. Soon as you mention "hacking" they start treating you like you have a communicable disease.

[MiRai]

Don't expect sympathy from people on this board. Soon as you mention "hacking" they start treating you like you have a communicable disease.
Haha, 'tis true... but what do people expect? People post here and ask WHY? or HOW? Well how the hell should we know how
someone got hacked? I'm certainly not using their computer, I have no idea what goes on in their household.

Numerous people have posted here time and time again that about getting hacked and the only thing we can tell them to do is
to get an authenticator [because 99 out of 100 people getting hacked don't use one] and to call Blizzard support to get their
shit back.

We don't have a magic phone number to reach Blizzard direct nor do know where the express line is for the restoration process.

Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

[Multibocks]

I think it's more rhetorical questions... Why me, etc. When I was hacked I did the same thing but I already knew the answers.


Also, you don't have to respond if it bothers you.

[ElectronDF]

Big question, but did you try to do more to protect your accounts than the hacker did to get them? Not just I didn't do anything wrong, but more did you actually do a step to prevent someone from hacking you? The biggest one is authenticator. If you have 5 accounts to lose, I can't understand why you wouldn't use a free/cheap item that limits/prevents hacking. Talk to customer service and see if you can get your stuff restored. But most important, change your password from a computer that don't normally use so in case there is a keylogger, it won't pick it up. But mostly, put an authenticator on your account.

[Shodokan]

There really is zero excuse to not have authenticators at this point. If you are a boxer and have been playing 6+ months blizzard will send you them for free (at least in my case), previous to that i used one that I had on my computer which is also free.

[katsurahama]

Authenticator. You use a free one on ipad/ipod/iphone. Since its free there is no excuse not to use one.

I got keylogged or something once on some other accts but they didnt have crap so whoever did it just used them to re-up via trial and spam for gold sites. I only found out about it because blizz sent me an email saying i was banned for spamming gold sites.

Sorry you lost your stuff.

[MiRai]

Also, you don't have to respond if it bothers you.
I didn't respond to the victim directly, I quoted your post and replied to it; but I guess by doing so I've indirectly replied to all victims --
past, present, and future.

[Ualaa]

Not much you can do now, after the fact.

As others have said, attach an authenticator to your account.
It can be the keyfob or the iphone application, or the dial in authenticator (although this last is not 100% yet, it's better than nothing).

Blizzard support will likely restore everything for you.
Be polite when you talk with them.

Sorry this happened to you.

You acquired a Key Logger somewhere.
That could be from opening an email, with a link in it... one of the fake Blizzard messages or whatever.

You could run Firefox with NoScript and AdBlock addons.
That is a little more secure, than say Internet Explorer.

Not really sure what to say.

Nothing will likely help now, but something might help in the future.

[Bollwerk]

No matter how careful or knowledgeable people are, there is no 100% proof against being hacked, other than perhaps having a completely hard coded read-only setup, but then you wouldn't be playing WoW. =)
The best thing you can do is take as many precautions as possible, including an authenticator and hope for the best.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I go to qustionable sites all the time (on one computer), anytime you are asked to download anything (if you are running Win7 with all updates) you don't click "no".

You ctrl alt del and shut down the process that is asking you. Don't click anywhere on that thing that pops up and says "the web site is ..... "

You should also, from time to time, check out start up processes.

AND YOU ALWAYS TURN OFF THE 4 services that have "remote" in them and telephony.

I have a total of 12 services disabled (I might list on my web site when I have the time).

How stupid is anyone who allows others to control their computer by a remote computer.

Just do those things and don't open email attachments, download latest updates and you don't need norton or anything.

[Shania]

Have one on the mail, ordered it earlier.

No virus on our pcs, so it was a real shock, 5 yrs playing wow, without authenticators and never been hacked until lastnight/this morning.

GM restored stuff. have to go through some toons and manually dressed them as they were stripped etc.

had to lodge many tickets over and over as they were only partially restoring items and gold, so had too keep reticketing to get them to keep restoring it all.

They never touched the other guilds funnilly enough that holds 500k maybe they didnt bother too look and was in a rush ........ they did leave the toons at Durator starting zones.

Took a long time too get all mats out of the mailboxes, still unfinished, least gbank now is neater then it was, while i was adding things back, decided too sort it for a rare change.

Shitty thing about ordering authenticator is you can only order 2 at a time, wont allow more to be added to cart so if you need more your slogged for another 20 bux for shipping/handling fee. QQ to that. Anyway thats thee drama for thee day. GG

[Khatovar]

It doesn't need to be an obviously malicious site. There's plenty of people who get them off bad ads on perfectly legit sites.

Do you use the same email address and/or passwords for WoW that you do for other things? It's always a good idea to keep your WoW information only for WoW. Otherwise, if someone snags your e-mail address from one game related site, they've already got half your information. Set up a brand new Gmail account and use that for WoW, then you can auto-forward emails from that account to your main email. You can change your email address and thus your battlenet login right from your account page. Do it on a secure computer, of course.

Most of the people I know who've been nailed didn't have it happen from their home PCs, they got nailed on work PCs where they weren't gaming, but they logged in to their battlenet accounts to post to the forums or whatever.

You posted earlier this week that one of your PCs died, maybe it was on that one.

Have you recently done clean installs? You could well have had a keylogger before and they just didn't get around to your account until now.

There's dozens of possibilities. The best things you can do is make sure you always keep your system patched, keep your AV updated and keep your accounts secure {WoW only email, complex and frequently updated passwords, authenticator}. This (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=33639) is a good thread for other suggestions.

[Ualaa]

I ordered four at once.
About a year back.
So that is probably a new thing.

[katsurahama]

You could run Firefox with NoScript and AdBlock addons.
That is a little more secure, than say Internet Explorer.

Amen to that.

I also keep download programs off the wow computer. Usenet, torrents, that sort of thing.

[zenga]

Switch to linux, the other advice given in this thread is well meant but inferior.

edit after posting this line i went for a smoke break and was already preparing my future defense/reply :P
so just let it be :)

[Shania]

No the pc that died, was my kids pc, thats not same pc that accesses our wow accounts, that only accesss her own, not same email, passwords, etc. And she has no browser acccess freely, so thats a good thing there.

We use another pc when we download torrents etc.

And no our wow email is only for wow. Not our personal mail use.

More pissed off about the authenticator then anything else, have to pay double shipping fee's. Thats crap.

Well least blizzard gets more of my money this way lol.

Thx for your replies, apologies for being rude earlier, been a bad week, back to boxing it is... trying to kill 1st boss in heroic Pinnacle.

[Kekkerer]

Actually there is a reason not to have an authenticator: can't log on at the same time with 5 chars from one battle.net account.

A common misconception people seem to have is that if they don't visit any websites they are not gonna get any malware/viruses. Just connecting your computer to the internet makes you vulnerable...

[Svpernova09]

Actually there is a reason not to have an authenticator: can't log on at the same time with 5 chars from one battle.net account.

A common misconception people seem to have is that if they don't visit any websites they are not gonna get any malware/viruses. Just connecting your computer to the internet makes you vulnerable...



This is not a valid reason if you value your account over the 2.5 minutes to log in.

[Littleburst]

This is not a valid reason if you value your account over the 2.5 minutes to log in.

I'm gonna be a retard and say it depends on which route you prefer.

1. risk getting hacked, logg in directly and risk having to put some good effort/time in getting your stuff back.

2. be prepared and get an authenticator, and spend a minute every time you log in.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Be thankful it was your wow accounts and not your banking and investment accounts.

[Multibocks]

I've oftened wondered why they dont steal that info...

[Kimchee]

Hacking into Wow accounts, wont get the police after you unlike taking banking information.

[Klesh]

I'm gonna be a retard and say it depends on which route you prefer.

1. risk getting hacked, logg in directly and risk having to put some good effort/time in getting your stuff back.

2. be prepared and get an authenticator, and spend a minute every time you log in.

@ 2.: It's about 30 seconds to get a new code.
@ 1.: I'd just wish Blizzard would charge a good chunk of cash to restore all those accounts which aren't protected by authenticators. They are wasting tons of manpower/cash (money from each and every WoW player) to restore some "retards" (to quote you again) stuff who thinks it's cool to get hacked every now and then.

[Littleburst]

@ 2.: It's about 30 seconds to get a new code.
@ 1.: I'd just wish Blizzard would charge a good chunk of cash to restore all those accounts which aren't protected by authenticators. They are wasting tons of manpower/cash (money from each and every WoW player) to restore some "retards" (to quote you again) stuff who thinks it's cool to get hacked every now and then.

/agree :)

[raylion]

So what I want to know is how the fuck can my boxing toons get hacked, off clean pcs that are not accessing any sites other then wow, this 1, banking sites, etc. No malicious spyware, no viruses no nothing on any of the machines here, and we have 3 thats online.

I don't know what virus checker you use but it may be worth reviewing if it's reporting no problems given the issues you've had. A few years ago I was using Norton and had a PC that had odd behaviour now and then, did all the usual things like virus checks etc to determine what the problem was which kept reporting everything was fine. I had done all kinds of things to try and fix it but to no avail, every now and then something odd would happen.

Anyway, long story short, I tried an alternative virus checker (Kaspersky) and it reported all kinds of issues with several viruses that Norton didn't see...I was horrified by it as I thought I was safe and clearly wasn't. I'm not a Kaspersky salesman but would recommend you try an alternative virus checker just to be sure nothing is on your PC.

Kaspersky is well regarded and offer a free 30 day trial...just for piece of mind it might be worth downloading for a one off virus check to see if there is anything lurking (or download any well regarded virus checker that isn't your current one).

[Khatovar]

Actually there is a reason not to have an authenticator: can't log on at the same time with 5 chars from one battle.net account.

Up to 30 seconds between logging in accounts is nothing, especially if you have multiple toons on each account that you do things with. While I'm "waiting" for login codes, I'm also getting my alchemy transmutes done on the accounts as they log in. Or pillaging my mailbox for sold auctions. Or reading a post here. Or checking the news. And it's certainly less time than I would sit around waiting for accounts to be restored.

[Kekkerer]

It's a matter of convenience, I don't want to wait 2.5 min after every login especially because I have multiple teams that have separate ISboxer settings and require restarting wows. Now I wouldn't compare a multiboxer to an avarage wow user, some of us are very adept with computers and have sufficient security built up to avoid the common hacks and exploits. If someone is out to get you and has breached your network then even your authenticator won't save you since that can be bypassed too.

[Kekkerer]

I would like to add that if your authenticator gets bypassed then it is far more difficult to prove that you have been hacked.

[MiRai]

It's a matter of convenience, I don't want to wait 2.5 min after every login especially because I have multiple teams that have separate ISboxer settings and require restarting wows. Now I wouldn't compare a multiboxer to an avarage wow user, some of us are very adept with computers and have sufficient security built up to avoid the common hacks and exploits. If someone is out to get you and has breached your network then even your authenticator won't save you since that can be bypassed too.
Unless you're a very special case... logging out to the character selection screen and choosing another character set is how
you swap sets without having to completely shut down.

[ElectronDF]

It's a matter of convenience, I don't want to wait 2.5 min after every login especially because I have multiple teams that have separate ISboxer settings and require restarting wows. Now I wouldn't compare a multiboxer to an avarage wow user, some of us are very adept with computers and have sufficient security built up to avoid the common hacks and exploits. If someone is out to get you and has breached your network then even your authenticator won't save you since that can be bypassed too.

Can you tell us how many times in the past 2 years you have needed to have all 5 WOWs on one BNet account? Pets are WOW account bound, same with mounts. What have you gained by having all WOWs on one BNet?

I use 5 BNets and LOVE being able to sign in all simultaneously with one code. I wouldn't go to 1 BNet until they allow it work the same way.

[ElectronDF]

I would like to add that if your authenticator gets bypassed then it is far more difficult to prove that you have been hacked.

You sign in on IP address 65.64.X.X for 4 years and then you sign in on 155.121.X.X once and sell everything you own. Hmmmmm. Wonder what happened.

[Fef]

Up to 30 seconds between logging in accounts is nothing, especially if you have multiple toons on each account that you do things with. While I'm "waiting" for login codes, I'm also getting my alchemy transmutes done on the accounts as they log in. Or pillaging my mailbox for sold auctions. Or reading a post here. Or checking the news. And it's certainly less time than I would sit around waiting for accounts to be restored.

Very much this.

[Kekkerer]

You sign in on IP address 65.64.X.X for 4 years and then you sign in on 155.121.X.X once and sell everything you own. Hmmmmm. Wonder what happened.

Authenticator bypass viruses use your IP as a proxy.


Can you tell us how many times in the past 2 years you have needed to have all 5 WOWs on one BNet account? Pets are WOW account bound, same with mounts. What have you gained by having all WOWs on one BNet?

I use 5 BNets and LOVE being able to sign in all simultaneously with one code. I wouldn't go to 1 BNet until they allow it work the same way.

Real ID whispers from friends when not using all 5 accounts, doing 5s with another healer (my healer is on the "main" account), rated bgs with 4dks and othe situational uses such camping recepies.

Now don't get me wrong everyone, authenticator is great for negating basic attacks but if you are able to push those off the table through network security then the authenticator just becomes a nuisance.

Edit: Now that more and more people are using the authenticator, the appropriate anti authenticator malware is also becoming more and more common.

[MiRai]

Can you tell us how many times in the past 2 years you have needed to have all 5 WOWs on one BNet account? Pets are WOW account bound, same with mounts. What have you gained by having all WOWs on one BNet?

I use 5 BNets and LOVE being able to sign in all simultaneously with one code. I wouldn't go to 1 BNet until they allow it work the same way.
This route isn't possible anymore. You can no longer attach a single authenticator to multiple accounts. Only people who are
old school and had it this way prior to the change get to keep it.


Authenticator bypass viruses use your IP as a proxy. Now don't get me wrong everyone, authenticator is great for negating basic attacks but if you are able to push those off the table through network security then the authenticator just becomes a nuisance.

Edit: Now that more and more people are using the authenticator, the appropriate anti authenticator malware is also becoming more and more common.
People throw this excuse out there like it's a common problem and an argument on why authenticators are no good. Getting
hacked with an authenticator is still a rare occurrence today. Blizzard never stated that attaching an authenticator to your
account is a 100% deterrent and anyone who thinks their computer is impenetrable needs to be taught otherwise.

I am wondering if the statement in bold can be backed up with any hard evidence? I frequent the official WoW forums a lot
and the majority of the "I''VE BEEN HACKED!!!!" threads are started by someone like this (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325096744) who:

Cannot find the location of a program via an internet search engine
Still cannot find the location of a program after numerous people have posted links to it in his thread
Has no authenticator
Fits the typical WoW General Population, and Blood Elf, stereotypes

[Ualaa]

If your accounts were already on five different B.Net accounts.
And you had a single authenticator attached to all five.
There's no reason to change, at least from a security point of view, until the keyfob battery starts to die.
Sure there are B.Net heirlooms coming, which can be traded across accounts soon... which might be worthwhile.

Current authenticators can only attach to a single account.
So having five B.Net's is no longer an advantage.
You would either need five B.Net accounts and five authenticators, and to track which device goes with which account...
And still have to enter five keys.

Or you could have one authenticator, attached to one B.Net, with all your accounts on that one B.Net.
When you push the authenticator, it generates a code which is good at 13 minutes after pushed, but has expired by 14 minutes after pushed.
Codes have to be entered in the correct order they were generated.
So you could push and receive a code as you're booting up.
And likely have all five codes ready to go, before it is time to enter them.
Then enter A, press enter; PiP switch to B and enter it, press enter; etc... and log all five in, fairly quickly.

[MiRai]

When you push the authenticator, it generates a code which is good at 13 minutes after pushed, but has expired by 14 minutes after pushed.
Another ninja nerf that Blizzard did... unfortunately, codes are now only valid for about 30 seconds.

[Ualaa]

Well... hopefully the phone based authentication gets much more secure soon.

The one where if you try to log in from a different IP address...
You have to call in with a code that is sent to your phone, or that you access from your fixed phone number.

Once that is secure and working properly, it has to be the best for boxing.
No codes to ever bother with, when playing from home.
The ability to play on another IP (say laptop, while on a business trip).
But still have security on the account.

Too bad this doesn't seem too secure yet.

[Liquidity]

Well... hopefully the phone based authentication gets much more secure soon.

The one where if you try to log in from a different IP address...
You have to call in with a code that is sent to your phone, or that you access from your fixed phone number.

Once that is secure and working properly, it has to be the best for boxing.
No codes to ever bother with, when playing from home.
The ability to play on another IP (say laptop, while on a business trip).
But still have security on the account.

Too bad this doesn't seem too secure yet.


I used the phone app authenticator since it was introduced. never been hacked while using them. I was really happy when they announced the above new authentication method, no need to enter anything. I switched my account as well as my son's account. Four days or so and my son's account was hacked. Switched back to iphone authenticators, iphone authenticators have always kept my accounts free from hacks.

[Ualaa]

Unfortunately, have heard of a dozen or so people who have been hacked with the code associated with the phone service.
The new one, not the phone application that is a digital authenticator.

Would love them to get this actually working.

[Khatovar]

Unfortunately, have heard of a dozen or so people who have been hacked with the code associated with the phone service.
The new one, not the phone application that is a digital authenticator.

Would love them to get this actually working.


Yup. There was a blue post on it just the other day

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/167048/dial-in-authenticator-hack

[wakasm]

I was hacked while using the Phone Authenticator within a week after a reformat of Windows 7. I'm fairly tech savy and keep my inter web surfing somewhat peril free. I've never had any issues using the normal Authenticator method. I'm fairly confident i got key logged while googling for a specific mod. It can happen REALLY easily if you aren't paranoid about it 24/7.

[Catamer]

the main reason is that Authenticator has been around for a long time, they are cheap and worth every penny, if you have an iPhone there is even an app for it so you don't have to buy one. it can be tied to multiple accounts and as far as I know you can logon to multiple accounts at the same time if you used multiple email account names, if all of the accounts are under one email then I believe you have to wait 30 seconds to logon each account using a different Authenticator number. It's a small price to pay for security.

[Catamer]

what kind of network do you have? I used to have mix of wireless and hardwired and I got all of my email hacked. I have not had a single problem since I shutdown my wireless and put real passwords on my PCs. letting someone use your wireless network lets them jump your firewall. if you have poor passwords on your PCs (such as no-password ) they can easily get lots of information directly from your PC.

[MiRai]

the main reason is that Authenticator has been around for a long time, they are cheap and worth every penny, if you have an iPhone there is even an app for it so you don't have to buy one. it can be tied to multiple accounts and as far as I know you can logon to multiple accounts at the same time if you used multiple email account names, if all of the accounts are under one email then I believe you have to wait 30 seconds to logon each account using a different Authenticator number. It's a small price to pay for security.
As stated earlier in this thread, you can no longer do this unless you already had it this way prior to the change.

[daviddoran]

I heard that some hackers don't go after individual computers, but low security bulletin boards, and put the trojan there and gain access to all the email addresses and passwords therein, most people use the same passwords for everything. I'm not saying this happened to you, but it's a common occurrence.