Blizzard: WoW Seeing Unusual Rise in Unauthorized Logins
Blizzard has disabled access to the Auction House via the Mobile Armory app.
Blizzard warned World of Warcraft subscribers on Monday that there has been a recent increase in unauthorized account logins via the website and mobile armory app. The company is currently in the process of notifying any account holders who were not using a Blizzard Authenticator and whose account showed signs of unauthorized access. Affected subscribers should expect an email soon describing how to reset their account.
"As a result of these activities, access to the World of Warcraft auction house via the mobile app has been taken off-line temporarily," the company said. "Upon request, our customer support team will restore in-game items and gold for any accounts impacted."
Blizzard's notice appeared after a number of World of Warcraft subscribers said on June 22 that the Mobile Armory had been used to fraudulently spend large amounts of their gold on extremely overpriced white-quality items on the auction house -- a way to launder gold to the posting player. The reports stemmed from both the United States and Europe, with players losing hundreds of thousands of gold. Many of these players even have Blizzard Authenticators attached to their accounts.
"This just happened to my account tonight, while I was logged in. I felt my phone vibrate so I took it out to see what it was, somehow, magically my Mobile Armory app had been opened and as I tried to swap toons on my wow account, it prevented me from logging in because my mobile armory was logging in," said one player. "In the time it took me to manually log off the mobile armory, someone had purchased Simple Wood from the AH using the mobile armory, taking me for all my gold."
"It's the mobile armory app on your smart phone. Seems they were all targeted in the night. I work graveyard shift and managed to see it happen," admitted another.
Naturally, Blizzard suggests that subscribers change their passwords periodically, and use the two-step authentication process to protect their account (SMS or Authenticator). To better protect themselves, customers are encouraged to read the company's security tips which are outlined here.
The issue most likely remains with the user. Whether it was a nasty add on installed that carried a friend with it, a cheat that carried a nasty friend with it or as described above you "trusted" your best online friend. "Ohhh it couldn't be little Timmy we knew each other for years" If I had a dollar for every time I heard this...
Ive played games online for over 15 years and never once have I had a security issue or an account hacked. I played KO when it was Hot and had over 10K worth of items... Never once was it compromised. When I quit I sold all my gear and profited quit nicely. I know we are all IT experts and want to put the blame on someone else..... Just my two cents.
+1
This very much so. People think the smartphone authenticators are as effective, and safe, as the dongle and that is simply not true at all.
In 99% of situations yes, but for years Blizzard has failed to do anything about those hacking accounts from China who use proxys that can be filtered out of Blizzard did just a bit better with security.
I also remember when they added ads to their forums (forums btw only paying customers could post to so there was never any legitimate reason to put ads on it), the ad company they used actually put gold selling ads on the official Blizzard forums, and these pushed malware to the end user. Many people had their accounts broken into because of this, and all they did was go to the official blizzard forums. Took days for Blizzard to admit that it happened as well.
But no Blizz, I won't go back even if my WoW account is hacked, sorry.
Cheers!
LOL how the heck they gained the login and pass of an unsubbed account is beyond me. I however have the feeling that Blizzard is responsible for the lack of security because hackers are pulling account info off o their servers!
Outdated yes, but 10 years later there still isn't a game that touches it.