Hacked, Suspended, Insulted and Injured

#0 - June 4, 2009, 7:22 p.m.

Greetings and Salutations.

I am writing this from my brothers forum avatar as my account was recently "Temporarily closed". Since my account is "inactive" I have been revoked the right to post my problems on the forum. Thus I shall begin here. Early May 26th I somehow got infected with a nasty slew of viruses known as the Cutwail.L, the Tafert Worm and the Frethog Virus. Unfortunatly I didn't know of the infection until later, after already logging into WoW and doing some Argent Tournament dailies on my main character- Samej, 80 Undead Mage on Gul'danUS. Then the virus struck. My internet connection got disabled and I quickly backed up already protected files and re-partitioned my computer as well as reinstalling my OS, WinXP. I finished installing updates and utilities such as DirectX and Flash Player, then, as I was perusing my e-mail I came upon an e-mail from Blizzard. "Hmmm. Did I win a contest?"

Account Name: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Realm: Gilneas (I have never played on Gilneas)
Character Name: Sarahdesnmn (I don't have a character by this name)

Account Action: Account Closed
Offense:
(The offense was blank)
The actions detailed above have been deemed inappropriate for the World of Warcraft by the Blizzard Entertainment In-game Support Staff. After a thorough investigation, this account has been closed.

These activities violate the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask that you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html.

This World of Warcraft account has been closed by our staff based on a review of the account and all related policy violations, in accordance with the Terms of Use and our In-Game Policies (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20309). Any recurring subscriptions on this account have been suspended to prevent further monetary charges. If you have any questions about the infractions that lead to this closure, or if you would like to dispute this action please contact Account Administration.

To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/ .

Regards,
Duvarinn
Game Master
Blizzard Entertainment

------------------------
I was shocked.

I looked up my lvl 30 High Elf Lich Wizard (Samej lvl 80 Undead Mage) on the Armory and was also shocked to find him naked of all non-pvp items. Last account activity: May 27th.
Same as my alt, Aixx (lvl 65 Blood Elf Rogue on Gul'danUS).

My computer had been wiped of viruses, and I was hoping to get in some more dailies before bed-but now...
I was shocked. I didn't know whether to cry or, or...
I e-mailed Account administration with an e-mail & I filled out a webform. That was 5 days ago. They still haven''t gotten back to me.

Then, adding insult to injury, I get this when re-installing WoW-

The file "D:\World of Warcraft\Data\base.MPQ" could not be opened, because an error 108 occurred. If this problem persists, please contact Blizzard Technical Support. (OpenArchive::Execute)

Please Blizzard, please. Help me. I have been playing this game for so long to have to be stopped by some Viral Demon. Once again, some sample characters on the account:

Samej- 80 Undead Mage on Gul'danUS

Aixx- 65 Blood Elf Rogue on Gul'danUS

Selamair- 61 Blood Elf Death Knight on Gul'danUS

Thank you for your time.

Malkorix

#7 - June 4, 2009, 7:44 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Please Blizzard, please. Help me. I have been playing this game for so long to have to be stopped by some Viral Demon. Once again, some sample characters on the account:

Samej- 80 Undead Mage on Gul'danUS

Aixx- 65 Blood Elf Rogue on Gul'danUS

Selamair- 61 Blood Elf Death Knight on Gul'danUS

Thank you for your time.

First, I'd like to express my sympathies for any distress or ill feeling that this situation might have caused for you. An account compromise is never a good time, but you can rest assured that we'll do all we can to help get you back on your feet and enjoying World of Warcraft as soon as we can.

At this juncture, it is very important that you ensure that your computer is completely secure. You may find the following thread contains quite useful information for this purpose:

** Computer Security Recommendations **
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778038509&sid=1

After your computer is secure, it is equally important to change the password to your registered email address. It might be prudent to create a new email address that you use exclusively as the registered email address for your World of Warcraft account. When selecting the username and password for this email address, ensure that none of the information overlaps with that of your WoW account or with any other service you may use (guild websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc). Register this new address to your account and do not use it for anything else: no additional registrations, no guild websites, no newsletter sign-ups, et al.

After you've done all that, it's time to recover your account. You can typically recover access to your account via contact with our Billing Department:

Billing & Account Services

Live Representatives Available Mon-Fri, 8am to 8pm PST

[email protected]

But since it seems that your account was suspended due to actions taken while your account was compromised, it may be necessary to dispute the account action by contacting our Account Administration department via email at [email protected]. You can also report the compromise itself via this address. Be sure that any contact with Account Administration occurs exclusively from the email address registered to your account.

This thread covers the majority of the pertinent information related to an account compromise, including account recovery and reporting the compromise, as well as some of the complications that can occur:

** Account Compromise Info Center **
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14318909866&sid=1

A Blizzard Authenticator can bring not only a valuable layer of added security for your account, but peace of mind as well.
You can find out more about the Authenticator via this FAQ, the second link leads to the Blizzard store where you can purchase an Authenticator of your own:

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=24660
http://www.blizzard.com/store/search.xml?q=authenticator

Malkorix

#16 - June 4, 2009, 9:58 p.m.

I'm glad I could help set your mind at ease a bit - we'll certainly do all we can to help, as soon as we can, but let's make sure that your investigation is proceeding apace. Can you provide me with the name and realm of a character on the affected account?

Changing your email address password in and of itself may not be sufficient, by the way.

It really is best to keep this advice that I provided in mind:

Q u o t e:
It might be prudent to create a new email address that you use exclusively as the registered email address for your World of Warcraft account. When selecting the username and password for this email address, ensure that none of the information overlaps with that of your WoW account or with any other service you may use (guild websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc). Register this new address to your account and do not use it for anything else: no additional registrations, no guild websites, no newsletter sign-ups, et al.

For now, please check the filters and rules on you registered email address and ensure that they are not set to forward mail from us to a different email address.

Reythur

#37 - June 7, 2009, 6:11 a.m.

That is legitimate.

And it looks like someone just transposed the "ainment" part of Entertainment onto the website address. Hehe.