Hackers Attack World of Warcraft Gamers
Hackers are targeting World of Warcraft players, possibly looking for loot and items.
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sohpos Labs, is reporting that hackers are targeting subscribers of World of Warcraft in order to gain access to passwords and other account information. Apparently, subscribers are receiving an exclusive email invitation announcing a sneak peak to a new in-game feature: beast mounting. The free trial allegedly allows players to ride wolves, rams, horses, or any other beast that can carry a rider, but only for a limited time.
"Emails intercepted by researchers at Sophos Labs pose as official communications from World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment, but are really intended to lead players to a phishing website," Cluley explained.
By clicking on a link provided by the email, subscribers are led to a fake World of Warcraft site that requests login credentials. Hackers then obtain the account information, login to the player's account, and steal whatever virtual items players may have acquired. In-game items such as gold and armor can be sold off to third-party websites for real-world currency.
"Game players would be wise to remember that if something sounds too good to be true (free gold, free weapons, free expansions), it invariably is too good to be true," he added.
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This has been happening to MMOs for years! Why is this news now? Did someone at Toms get fooled and begin "investing"?
Give it a rest...why does everyone that posts on this site think they freaking know everything...it was an interesting story you douchebag..Toms should disable comments too many losers post here.
this has been going on for a loooooooong time....everyone who plays an mmo knows this, no offence.
yaaay! gooo hackers! screw wow!
Thank you.
Down with WoW up with Vanguard:SOH! (Warhammer isn't bad too =P)
Anyways, peoples have to be more careful! Probably best to look things up at the official website before doing something like that. Guess they learned it the hard way. =/
Always good to let people know about those type of issues time to time so they keep they're guard up. Nothing bad there can only help a few that can forget about those thing. Of course there is people that expect that everybody think the same way they. If the content does not please you there is always the option of other board or again to build your own!!!
While it is old news...for gamers, for some people it isnt, it is a viable article, as i got that same ingame message they are talking about...ofcourse i knew to ignore it. stupid gold farmers...
I think the joke is "Beast Mounting"
Maybe we need the Southpark team and "The Sword of a Thousand Truths"
Anyone who takes their WoW account seriously should just shell out the $7 or so for an authenticator key. It's about the size of a usb memory stick with a single button and tiny 6 digit screen. You digitally assign your key to your account, and every time you log on, you are prompted for a 6 digit code. You click the button on your key, and voila, a unique 6 digit code appears allowing you to log in.
Hackers could get your account name and password, but w/out the physical key, that info is worthless.
Anyone who takes their WoW account seriously should just shell out the $7 or so for an authenticator key. It's about the size of a usb memory stick with a single button and tiny 6 digit screen. You digitally assign your key to your account, and every time you log on, you are prompted for a 6 digit code. You click the button on your key, and voila, a unique 6 digit code appears allowing you to log in. Hackers could get your account name and password, but w/out the physical key, that info is worthless.
thank you....end of story
So people are getting duped because they are getting excited about beast mounting...............
Yeah... not cool.. and a bit disturbing.....
Aion ftw
CDS you seem to think your opinion is more valuable then others. If you don't like the comments don't read them...simple. Not everyone is against freedom of speech, in fact the Iranians are dying for it, think about it... Oh and Blizzard sucks and they have the worst community of any MMO IMO, they attract suckers...
Lesson: Don't play Wow
I don't understand why people bash WoW. If someone has an attraction to the lore, game play, Warcraft in general, or the community it creates, why not play the game? Isn't desirable content and PvP action determined by the individual playing...not the outsider's opinion? What's more, $13 per month to enjoy a recreational activity is a rather cheap expence compared to other pastimes or hobbies.
For 4 and a half years, Blizzard as done an incredible job at creating a digital universe full of diversity in many different aspects. For those who are drawn to other MMOs are attracted there not because WoW is a bad game, but because they prefer the services that other games provide.
However, with the interest of sticking on topic; people who hack for the intent of doing damage to others deserve to be caught and punished despite the software involved.
only stupid americans fall for that kind of stuff (free gold, free weapons wtc. ) so..... gogo hackers pwn WoW and all the noobs out there.
Actually, people aren't getting email, it is an ingame whisper that is poorly worded. Dauthus has it right - get an ingame authenticator.
@Ciuy - thats a really stupid comment. Everyone, and I don't care from what part of the globe you live in, likes free. But, they don't take the time to think.
How did this make the news? It's an old scam email that applies to any and all, not just WoW gamers.
People still play WoW? Why?! Its AWFUL. Warhammer Online for the win!
There are suckers everywhere (we can all fall victim when we don't pay attention) for everything. These kind of hacks/scams rely on us not paying attention. We get so busy and caught up with things sometimes that it can be easy to miss but this is an excellent reminder that we must keep up our guard at all times.
Anyone who takes their WoW account seriously should just shell out the $7 or so for an authenticator key.
Anyone who takes their WoW account seriously needs to go out more...
What's more, $13 per month to enjoy a recreational activity is a rather cheap expence compared to other pastimes or hobbies.
You got that right. $13 in one of my other hobbies will provied less than 60 seconds of recreation. Ammo aint cheap like it once was
what a frickin jerk im just telling the truth about the article.
im not being negative, its a very interesting article, especially if you don't play mmo's.
im just saying, i would hope anyone who plays WOW or any online game should know this information already.
Anyone who takes their WoW account seriously should just shell out the $7 or so for an authenticator key. It's about the size of a usb memory stick with a single button and tiny 6 digit screen. You digitally assign your key to your account, and every time you log on, you are prompted for a 6 digit code. You click the button on your key, and voila, a unique 6 digit code appears allowing you to log in. Hackers could get your account name and password, but w/out the physical key, that info is worthless.
Off topic but I wish DRM in games would do the same thing rather than connecting to the internet all the time
I almost fell for this kind of phishing when I recieved an Email to enter a chance to be part of a PTR beta of the WotLK expansion Only available to subscribers only. Being that I do PTR stuff I followed the link. To test the site out, I did a dummy login with false info.. Good thing I was cautious, they had the WotLK promo site down to a T. hate to see all those that got duped
I love it. "as future regarding this acount Trial mounts will be sent to the you account." Who falls for this garbage?
They are selling it because they can't do their jobs and safeguard the servers. You would think that if someone is trying to login to some ones elses account that lives in EU or US from India or China then it should set off some bells and they would block the login. Or even better yet. Block it all together by adding that to the blocked ip list on the routers. IE, why would anyone from China or India would be logging to someone’s account in the EU or US. Blizzard doesn't even have a clue how to secure the servers. It's like a hobby to them. Can't wait for them to go bankrupt. It will happen as more and more get sick of the hacking, gold selling and Blizzards outright BS. Try Aion, Warhammer or something else. Time for Blizzard to learn a lesson.