Subscript ended :: hacking attempts begin

#0 - Aug. 13, 2010, 1:15 p.m.

I ended my monthly subscription, removed my debit card info, and changed my e-mail address / sign in name.
I then started getting these E-Mails, after some years of playing WoW with no problems, no phishing attempts, and not managing to encourage the attention of those thieves.

Something in the way Blizz-Activision handles our information is similar to the old 'Thrown away Credit Card Receipts' pulled out of the trash bin by ID thieves.
(I must add that I believe this is made much easier for thieves to do to you who have Real-ID enabled, which I do not.)

Here are the E-mails that were sent to me, minus my OLD email address info.
I still use that old E-Mail address for established business with others... thanks a lot for handling it with less security just because I changed it with you and thereby letting the thieves have it Blizz. :/

E_MAILS SENT TO ME:
(GMs; PLEASE REMOVE LINKS AFTER DOCUMENTING IF APPROPRIATE)

<removed>

I Did NOT share my account, engage in risky online behaviors, or practice unsafe computer interactions.
I scan my computer with;
Spybot Search & Destroy ---(after each block of usage, each WoW session, each browsing session, etc.)
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware ---(1 - 3 times a day)

Firewall is set to above average security
I use Firefox browser with the add-ons;
AdBlock Plus
No Script (fully engaged & micromanaged per instance)
Better Privacy (Flash Super Cookie remover, automatic)
Flash cache set to "0"

I type in
- my User name; with a copy / paste... never with keystrokes.
- my Password; with gibberish, then select/replace unconnected parts of it with actual portions of the password (contains letters, characters, and numbers)

All I did was End my subscription, remove my Payment info and CHANGED MY ACCOUNT NAME = EMAIL ADDRESS with Battle.net and my Blizz account. You people got it into the hands of the phishers.. some how.
And this isn't the first instance of this happening to one of us who changes our info with you people.

Orlyia

#1 - Aug. 13, 2010, 1:29 p.m.

Didn't come from us, Cold.

There are folks that contact us all the time that get these that have never HEARD of WoW. Yeah, I know - hard to believe, but they are out there.

To boot, these are tweaked to look like they came from EU, anyone on our service here in North America wouldn't get anything with those types of clues in them.

They harvest addresses many places, the web - from spyware, even shotgun and take a chance with random generators. Some of those are going to be good - and some of those good ones may play WoW.

If you've ever responded to any kind of phish, even unknowingly - or to tell them off - or 'unsubscribe' that email address will never be rid of this garbage, it will circulate on 'good lists' forever.

Orlyia

#4 - Aug. 13, 2010, 1:57 p.m.

That information is simply not accessible to any outside source, Cold.

And why would they deliberately go after the one they KNOW the player KNOWS isn't the right one?

Just doesn't make any sense.

You may have stumbled upon some Spyware, many machines have that. Some cookies even grab otherwise innocuous information like that. Normally not a direct threat - but it can lead to spam.