WoW account hacked? What now?

phekno

So in November I cancelled my WoW account because I wanted to move on. WoW is a great game and I had a blast leveling to 70, but the end game grind just wasn't for me. Anyway, the account was due to be shut off some time in December. On January 11th I went on vacation to Mexico and whilst there, had very little internet access. At one point, however, I was able to check my email and found two very interesting messages from Blizzard. The first indicated that my password had been reset and the second indicated that my account was on a temporary, 72-hour, suspension for "exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation." At the time I was a little busy vacationing to pay attention to the emails (i.e. I didn't even read them). When I returned, however, I was shocked at what I had found. I logged in to the Account Management site using the temporary password that Blizzard had provided when they reset my password, and proceeded to change my password to something else. While looking through the information the page presented, I noticed that it was now set up for the 3 month recurring payment plan (which I have never used) on a particular credit card (which I do not own). I have since emailed the Account Administrators (because you can't talk to them on the phone) to let them know all of this but have received no response. Out of curiosity, I checked on my desktop PC (the one I mostly played the game with) to see if I still had the client installed, and I did so I decided to login and see what was going on. I logged in to my main character (70 undead priest) to find that my bank (which was full of bags) was mostly empty, my healing set was gone and I was at the entrance of Dire Maul and my bags were full of loot. While I played the game I never went to Dire Maul, not once. Is that a typical place to do gold farming?

What the fuck happened to me?

Am I ever going to hear from Blizzard?

Am I completely fucked?

Bigity

When mine was hacked it took a week or two to get everything restored. Go change your password immediately and run a virus/spyware scan, etc.

Poketpixie

What Bigity said....and then get in touch with Blizzard. It's not a quick process but they're pretty good about restoring accounts.

phekno

I don't really want the account restored. Like I said, I'm pretty much done with the game. But, if I do get a free 3 months of it, I guess I could level up some alts.

Voro

You should keep those credit card details handy and perhaps see about who to contact regarding identity theft. It's possible that someone was dumb enough to activate it with their own credit card, but it's more likely that they used a stolen one. You really don't want to get hit with an identity theft accusation over 3 free months of WoW.

phekno

Very much agreed, hence the reason for this thread. My only question is who do I contact? At most I would have the first and last four digits, expiration date and provider (i.e. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, etc.) of the card. I don't think I can just contact Visa and say, "Ummm...I think someone stole this credit card number, but all I have is this info..."

Any suggestions?

Voro

Hmm. Well, I thought the billing information usually listed the name from the card, but I don't have an active subsciption to check. If that's not there, I guess you can't do much on the credit card company front. As for emailing their account admins, have you tried calling the number they have listed?

You may also call (800)-59-BLIZZARD from 8:00am-8:00pm Pacific Time‚ Monday through Friday‚ except holidays.

If their support takes as long as it used to, a 7 day turn around time for emails is going to be a pain in the ass. Best to talk to someone there and at least find out what the company policy is on handling this.

If you're in the US, this (ftc.gov) would be the site to visit regarding id theft. As expected, they don't really have info for this incident. I guess you could consult someone on their hotline (1-877-ID-THEFT) if you can't find anything out from Blizzard and you're still worried about what to do.

phekno

I called Blizzard's 800 number (800-59-BLIZZARD) and finally got a hold of them (after calling ~30 times). They, of course, have an automated system which gives you options as to what you are trying to accomplish. One of the options (press 3, I think) is something about receiving an email from the account admins saying that your account has been suspended. When you select this option, you get a recording saying that you need to email the account admins and that you can't be helped over the phone. Then it hangs up on you. That's why I emailed them.

I might try that FTC number and see what's going on there.

Dhalphir

Just press any old numbers until you get a human on the other end.

Try the billing department. Once you have a human on the line, they can "go ask" someone, and either find you an answer or transfer you to someone who does have an answer.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Yeah, just get back on the phone and hit whatever seems most likely to get you to a live operator. I had to do that once for a billing issue, and I got to a live rep fairly easily. Once you get a human, explain what happened, and ask who you should talk to.

If they tell you to try the email route again, just say you didn't get a response and ask for a human operator. It shouldn't be too difficult to get someone on the line who can help you, but you do have to be a bit aggressive about it.