Help! Character restoration demystified?

#0 - Oct. 9, 2010, 1:47 a.m.

Hey everyone,

I do not frequent these forums. In the past few years of playing this game, I think I have only posted maybe twice. But now, like so many others, my account has been hacked, and I am still eagerly awaiting a response after contacting customer support three times now. So perhaps you guys can demystify a few things for me that I don't understand.

On Wednesday, I was informed by my friend that my character was online and being hacked. I immediately went to Battle.Net and attempted to access my account. Then I discover some unknown person has added an authenticator to my account without my knowledge!

I immediately contact Blizzard customer service, and after waiting patiently for 20 minutes to speak to someone, I was greeted by the most friendly customer service person ever. She assured me that my account would be up and running in no time. I told her what happened, and she told me the good news was that Blizzard was already aware and had already begun the process of restoring my items.

While I was on the phone with her, she told me that whomever had hacked into my account was doing it again! (This person hacked in apparently before we were able to lock it down). She then stated that it looked like ALL the items that had just been restored had been stolen again in less than 10 minutes!

I found out my gmail account was compromised (didn't have a keylogger, so I have yet to figure out how), and I followed all the steps she recommended:
1) I changed to an entirely new e-mail address with a password so good even I can't remember it!
2) I changed my WOW password ... again
3) I added the free authenticator

Having done all these things, she told me that the Ticket to get my stuff back would now have to be "Escalated" and they would have to do an investigation, but that it could take TWO WEEKS or MORE!

So now it's Friday and I have yet to hear a thing. But I have received a half dozen e-mails from Blizzard--all with customer service surveys for me to take--and not with the news I was hoping for, that my account has been restored.

Friends who have recently (unfortunately) been hacked have told me the process for them took less than 3 days. So I don't understand why is this process taking so long? Why were they able to restore my items in minutes (while the hacker was still in possession of my account) but aren't able to do it now that I have rightfully secured the account?

Even the customer service representative stated they were aware the hacker was from China. So I guess I don't understand why there is now a need to complete an investigation and why in the world the process is taking so long?

I don't want it to seem like I'm ungrateful or non-appreciative. I realize that getting hacked was somehow my fault (I really am normally very careful)--but now I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that I was hacked, or now I have to endure the process of getting my virtual "stuff" back.

If someone could explain this to me (gently), I would appreciate it.

Nevalistis

#2 - Oct. 9, 2010, 2:22 a.m.

I took a glance into it, Aliayou, and it looks like this is what happened:

Account Compromised
Account Reported as Compromised via you calling in
Account Restored
Account compromised again
Rep locked account

This all happened within a very short period of time, and as a result, a second petition needs to be created for another restoration. It looks like one was on our end, but it somehow got lost along the way. I apologize for the inconvenience, and I'm glad you brought it to my attention. To best ensure that this situation is handled appropriate, I'm going to request that you use our Battle.net Account Recovery webform. It automates a few things, such as password resets and removal of any potentially malicious authenticators to get you back into your account as soon as possible, while notifying our staff that you require restorations.

Battle.net Account Recovery Form
https://us.battle.net/account/support/secure-computer.html

If you have not done so already, I also recommend checking out our Account Security Awareness page and going through the Security Checklist - there may be some security tips there you might not have thought of right away and other information to help ensure your account is as secure as possible.

Battle.net Account Security Awareness
http://us.battle.net/security/

Nevalistis

#13 - Oct. 9, 2010, 3:43 a.m.

If after you submitted the webform you were locked again, Aliayou, it is HIGHLY likely that your e-mail address is once again compromised as well. The most likely reason you would receive a lock in that fashion would be if there was someone maliciously trying to access your account again.

Regardless of one's knowledge in computer security, there are some things that can quite easily be missed, and you can never be too safe. In addition, I'd like to clarify my earlier statement: There WAS a petition submitted, it looks like it got misflagged in our system and closed prematurely. For that, I apologize - it was an error on our end. These things happen extremely rarely, and to ensure that your issue was forwarded properly, I did not want to submit another ticket on your behalf internally, as I believe that may have been related to the error.

I don't mean to cause you panic, but I must stress that computer security is the first step in retrieving your account. If we continue to detect "funny business" like unauthorized access, we will continue to lock down the account. Do understand that this is for your account's protection, and I am sorry if it has provided you inconvenience. You should be receiving e-mails related to your most recently submitted issue shortly, which will include directions on where to proceed from here.

Nevalistis

#18 - Oct. 9, 2010, 4 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Yes. Like I said, they are taking steps to resolve the issue now. I Just think they need to look at how they dropped the ball to improve the customer service experience for others in the future. :)

It would definitely be of great value if you could forward your experiences on to wowgmfeedback-us@blizzard.com, Aliayou. This will be sent directly to the supervisors of those you interacted with so they can be provided constructive criticism. <3