Account Banned

Q u o t e:
Is it possible for an account to be hacked even when the account was inactive? I haven't played in about 5 or 6 months and last time I was on my account was about to run out of time so I canceled it to stop the auto renewal payment. Then I came back to play again and tried logging in and it says my account was banned. It seems my account was used for farming gold because I logged on to the forums with it and went to new topic so I could see my character list and it has lots of level 1 characters with weird names and stuff my main characters still show to be there I'm hoping I get a successful account restoration but I'm betting they cleared my characters just for fun. I just think its bs that my account was inactive but still got hacked.

Well, if someone had your information - it wasn't inactive. YOU may not have known, but someone could easily apply time to a stolen account (usually with stolen credit cards).

I'd start from the beginning with this. Although after that length of time we may or may not be able to undo all damages, we can certainly have a look and see what can be done. Time is of the essence in a compromise - I do realize you probably weren't aware of anything until you came back.

I'm going to post below standard information most compromised players need to know, feel free to disregard any bits that don't apply in this case.

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If an account has been merged to a Battle.net (not your own), or if an email has been changed, or an authenticator added (and it wasn't you that added it), one of your first stops is going to be Billing. They need to get those sorted out first so the rest of the processes can continue.

Billing and Account Services
Phone Support - 1 (800) 59-BLIZZ (1 (800) 592 5499)
Live Representatives Available 8AM – 8PM Pacific Time, 7-Day Support
E-mail Support - Billing@Blizzard.com

Players in Australia should call 1-800-041-378
Players in Singapore should call 800-2549-9273
Players in Chile should call 1230-020-5554
Players in Mexico should call 001-888-578-7628
Players in Argentina should call 0800-333-0778
All other international players should call: (949) 955-0283

Our Billing Support page can be found at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20606

Now, it's very very important to figure out where the security breach occurred. If they CAN get back in, they WILL be back. That, unfortunately, you can count on.

These two stickies should prove helpful. I'd also recommend doing your scans with the launcher open and some junk entry in the account ID. We've seen some nasty keyloggers pop up lately that don't want to show on scanners unless the launcher is active.

I also highly recommend changing your email password once you are certain your system is secure. They don't need into a system once they can dip into an inbox.

Also, if you have used the same password/ID anywhere else, that is a very dangerous practice - especially on websites, or social sites like Facebook or MySpace. Please do not reuse the same password you've used anywhere else.

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

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

You may also want to look into getting an authenticator for your account. It's no substitute for good security habits, but it will keep anyone else out of your WoW account. Not to mention core hounds make adorable pets!

Blizzard Store
http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=c:6

Mobile Authenticator
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=26109

Even more core-hound goodness can be found here!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21726114509&sid=1


I do wish you all the very best.

Q u o t e:
I keep up with my bank statements daily so I know my credit card wasn't used to keep my account going past its time limit. What should I expect like is my account going to be deleted then get a "sorry you spent so much time and money on your account" email? or will I only lose the stuff that was tampered with?

That's what an investigation will determine, Humaladin. If you canceled, your payment info was wiped (indeed that's the way you change payment types as well) - it wouldn't have been your account being charged.