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.
