Is this email legit?? Cata Beta

#0 - Aug. 11, 2010, 7:47 a.m.

sooo, i got this email from someone, it says blizz, but idk and ill explain why, the email was the following, "world of warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Test Invitation!

Get those opt-ins ready for the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm closed beta! The sundering of Azeroth is nigh, and you don’t want to be left out in the cold of Northrend when you could be enjoying the sun-drenched beaches on the goblin isle of Kezan. To ensure you’re opted-in and eligible as a potential candidate, you’ll need a World of Warcraft license attached to your Battle.net account, have your current system specifications uploaded to the Battle.net Beta Profile Settings page, and have expressed interest through the franchise-specific check boxes.

Get the Installer - Log in to your Battle.net account:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account

** IMPORTANT ** To avoid graphical bugs and other technical issues, please ensure your video card drivers are up-to-date.

Enjoy the game!

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowindex/"

now for the part of why i think it's not from blizz, when i clicked the link "http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account", this pop-up came and told me that, "This web site at <removing malicious URL> has been reported as a web forgery." i have no idea what that is but im confused beyond my understanding, help >.<

#1 - Aug. 11, 2010, 7:50 a.m.

That means where the link says it goes, and where it actually goes are two different things.

That's actually very common in a phish.

You can redirect a link easily in an email....NEVER TRUST WHAT IT SAYS

This is what is commonly referred to as a phish. That quite literally means someone is ‘fishing’ for information and hoping they get a bite :)

If you look at the top of this forum you’ll see a library of ones that are commonly used (or close variants thereof) under “Fake Emails from Blizzard”

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=965511383&sid=1

The proper email to report these is [email protected] – you can forward the email, headers intact to that address.

Phishes rely on two primal human emotions and hope they get you to react before you think through what is being asked, greed and fear. They’ll either try to entice with an offer or intimidate with a threat.

We never ‘threaten’ an account action. If we have sufficient cause to think an account has been tampered with or needs locked down, we do it first – we don’t threaten with an ‘or else’ email.

WoW accounts are certainly not the only target of phishers. They send them out purporting to be banks, credit card companies, shipping companies – all aimed at obtaining information the thief can use to your detriment.

We will also NEVER ask for your password, or ask you to sign into some website somewhere not under our domain to login.

One way to check any email is to open up the header in your email program and check to see the actual route and sender. This is done in various ways, depending on your email program, but all can do it. Internal email addresses (what you see at the top of an email) can be spoofed very easily. Where it says it came from under sender is not necessarily true. The header of that email will show the true sender. Many spam programs actually use a comparison of these to flag suspicious emails.

Links in an email are also incredibly easy to spoof and/or redirect. Just because the URL looks legit doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where it really goes. Before clicking ANY link, in ANY email, mouse over the link and look at your bottom browser bar to see where it is reported to actually be destined.