WOTLK Beta

[Quix]

Blizzard invites for BC beta looked more like this:

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Beta Test
Welcome to the beta test of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade!
We’re excited to have reached the beta-testing stage for the expansion, and we’d be grateful to have your assistance in finalizing the content. There are a lot of new things to see and do in Azeroth and Outland, and we look forward to receiving any feedback you can offer on your overall expansion-beta experience, including quests, spells/abilities, monsters, zones, aesthetics, and more. We would also appreciate reports on any bugs you may find.
Read on to learn how to participate, and thanks in advance for your support in helping us put the finishing touches on the expansion.
Getting started:
You will need to upgrade an existing retail World of Warcraft account to connect to the Burning Crusade beta realms. Upgraded accounts will carry over to later testing phases for the Burning Crusade.
Please begin by logging in to the website below with the account name and password of the retail World of Warcraft account that you play on. From there, you will be able to upgrade the retail account to an expansion beta account, which will allow you to copy characters to the test realms, download the installer, and access the beta-test forums. Upgrading to an expansion beta account does not affect your ability to continue playing on the retail realms as well.
The key cannot be replaced, so please ensure you use it to upgrade the account you wish to use for testing.
ZXXX-XXX- Redacted for my Security XXXXR
After you have created an expansion beta account, we invite you to copy characters to our expansion realms. You will be able to bring over up to 4 level 55+ characters to travel through the Dark Portal.
Go to the following URL to copy up to 4 characters to the beta test realms: https://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/game/
Sending us feedback:
Bugs & Suggestions
We’ve set up an in-game method for submitting game bugs and suggestions, without the need to send us an email or exit the game. To do so, enter the chat console by pressing the Enter key, then type “/bug” or “/suggest” (without the quotation marks).

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The above is from my actual invite for BC. Things I note that tell me your WOLTK is a fake:

1. The email was in plain text.
2. Spelling & grammar correct & professional, It looks like everything else they write.
3. link was a secure blizzard owned website that could be verified with any "whois" service
4. They DID ask for my WoW account info, but the link was also posted by a blizzard poster on the wow forums & was a simple address that you could type in, & if you go there now, you can still see that its on the bliz domain & active.

[Evilseed]

By the way, there is a WOTLK beta going around. I know because I am in it

[Con7ent]

Yep way too many Grammatical errors to be legit. Blizzard is always very keen on phrasing things with professionalism, especially when they are telling you that you're screwed over in some e-mail

[Con7ent]

By the way, there is a WOTLK beta going around. I know because I am in it

Don't you mean Alpha?

[Tonuss]

Sender addresses are easily spoofed, and web links can be made pretty confusing, I know that there are ways to put a legit web address into a URL that goes to another site (though you also have the other site's address in it, something like www.blizzard.com@www.hackerzomg.org ). You can usually see the actual email address by right-clicking the link and selecting Properties or viewing the email's source. Alternatively, you can manually type in the web address as they print it, making sure you're going to a legitimate address (ie, not using the "1" for an "L" in "world").

Asking on the Customer Service forum (or a GM, as you did) is also a smart thing to do. It never hurts to be sure.

[wrs]

I was in the BC beta, and they just sent a link for d/l of the beta client and a key code. Any email that wants you to verify your account is most certainly a scam.

[Vyndree]

Blizzard will NEVER ask you for your username and/or password.

You should NEVER enter your username and/or password into anything other than the official World of Warcraft client and/or the OFFICIAL forums.


Via the official forums customer service STICKY:

We'd like to advise our community of an e-mail that is being sent to some players pretending to be from our Account Administration Department and threatening immediate suspension or closure if you do not confirm your account information.

These e-mails are not from Blizzard. All account actions and inquiries will have the return address of Wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com; these phishing e-mails, in most cases have the return address of something close that may be overlooked if you are not paying close attention like: blizzzd.com.

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



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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 http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowbilling/ to contact us or for more information


Regards,
Account Administration Team

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

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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.

Furthermore...

Also, from the Wrath of the Lich King forum:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...21016012&sid=1



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Q u o t e:
Please be aware, there is currently no Beta or beta sign-ups going on for the next World of Warcraft Expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Should a Beta phase begin, we will post a notice on the official website.

As always, please be careful about giving out account information or passwords.
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For emphasis...

No employee of Blizzard will ever ask for your password.

[Xorn]

This notice is so small I can barely read that. :/

By the way, you have to type in your password / accountname to upgrade your account for the alpha BUT this happens only on the official page and, if I am not mistaken, blizzard does not invite somebody until now, every invitation comes from a blizzard employee. Family & Friends Alpha as it was called.

[hardc0re]

Think its fake but.. I really hope i get invited to wotlk beta since i wan not in the bc beta and i have 5 accounts on my mail.. "hope hope"