WoW Account Phishing

I received an e-mail yesterday, allegedly from Blizzard Entertainment. It said that I was receiving a 3 hour ban on my account, this was my final notice. Not having done anything to warrant a suspension and not having EVER received a warning I was a bit suspicious. There were links in the e-mail and I was told to click on a link and verify my account information. Blizzard has all my account information, they don't need me to verify it. This is one of the many Phishing Scams going on to try and get your account information.

What these people are after is your gold. They will log into your account, steal all your gold and sell all your items for gold. These are the gold sellers. This is why it is very important to NEVER BUY GOLD. This is where the gold you are buying comes from, someone's hacked account. They will also message other players, from your account, with "Special Deals" or tell them they are "Lucky Winner" in an effort to get them to log into a website using their credentials so they can hack their account.

Make the game better for everyone, don't buy gold and never go to one of the sites that you receive in a message, in game e-mail, or any e-mail that is not from Blizzard Entertainment, you will end up with a key logger and a stolen account. E-mails from Blizzard will always end in blizzard.com or battle.net, accept no substitutes.

Blizzard will NEVER put "hot" links into their e-mails with instructions to click on it to verify your account information. Blizzard will NEVER ask you for your account information in an e-mail, in game e-mail or in game message, they already have your account information. And finally Blizzard will NEVER ask you for your password, EVER.

Here is the e-mail I received, you will notice a couple typo's, formatting issues and mis-wording. I am sure all Blizzards e-mails are proofed before they are sent out. I have removed the links for your safety. I highlighted the formatting, grammar and spelling issues in Yellow and the part where they are asking for my password in Red.

Greetings,

World of Warcraft -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use:
Blizzard Entertainment -> Legal -> Terms of Use

A 3-hour probationary suspension is pending on this account, awaiting confirmation from a specialist. A final warning has been issued. The investigation will be continued by the Account Administration team to determine the any further suspensions. If the account in question is found in violation of the EULA and Terms of Use, further action will be taken. Be aware that any additional inappropriate actions may result in the permanent closure of the account.

Thank you for respecting our position on this matter.
======================================================================================================================================================================
** We request that you verify your legitimate ownership of the account here:

***Link Removed***

Blizzard staff will verify your account information submitted in two days, please do not modify your account information during this time . It will not affect your game uptime.If you are unable to successfully verify your password . using the automated system, please contact Billing & Account Services at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD (1-800-592-5499) Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm Pacific Time or at ***Link Removed***.Account security is solely the responsibility of the account holder. Please be advised that in the event of a compromised account, Blizzard representatives typically must lock the account. In these cases the Account Administration team will require faxed receipt of ID materials before releasing the account for play.

Regards,

The World of Warcraft Support Team Blizzard Entertainment

Core Hound Pup

I recently received a Core Hound Pup in the mail on all the characters on my account. The reason was, I recently purchased a Blizzard Authenticator for my account. The authenticator adds more security to your account by having to enter an authentication code every time you log in.

The Blizzard Authenticator is about the size of your average USB flash drive and has a ring to attach it to your key chain. It has a button on it that generates a code for you to use when you log in. It is really simple to go online and set it up for your account through Blizzards website. Once it is set up the extra step of authentication is automatically added to your account when you log in. The cost for the US Blizzard Authenticator is $6.50 and includes free shipping, shipped in the US. They also have a Blizzard Authenticator available for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. Players from Europe or Korea can purchase a Blizzard Authenticator from the European and Korean Blizzard Stores.

The reason Blizzard gives the Core Hound Pup to all the characters on your account is to "guard the guild bank". More and more guilds are requiring you be able to show them a Core Hound Pup before they will give you access to the guild bank. The reason for that is simple, if you have the Core Hound Pup you have enhanced security on your account and are less likely to be hacked. If you are less likely to be hacked, then you are less likely to get the guild bank cleaned out.

My account was hacked last year through no fault of mine. Someone sent a script to the Blizzard password reset bot and it sent them a new password for my account. You can go on YouTube and get the script to do this, it is pretty simple. So much for Blizzards security. With this extra step that script is now worthless if they are trying to hack an account with an authenticator, you will not have the code that is generated by the authenticator and will not be able to log in.

I got everything except a little over 1500 gold back when my account was hacked. It was a real pain going through everything to make sure I got it back and the loss of the gold didn't help matters either. Now I feel more secure, I hope it is not a false warm fuzzy feeling.