Adellm, You’re Being Hacked
Your toon quit the guild and is having fun with your flight form. We tracked him around Shatt and talked to him so much he /ignored us. Then the rest of the guild started bomb-whispering him, and now he’s ignoring the whole guild.
We asked everybody in Shat to start whispering him, telling him to put the account back. It probably won’t do any good, but what else can we do.
We’ve put in a ticket, we’ve put a post on the guild forums, we’re trying to contact you!
Just like your wife was a few days ago, Adellm, you’re being hacked right the F now.
Update #1: GMs contacted and they respond.
Edit #2: Adellm Gets His
Adellm saw the post on the guild forums and this blog about his being hacked, so he changed his login info via the admin panel on the WoW site, and got his toon back. Of course, he found his stuff gone. However, the GMs were able to get him all his gear and gold back! Unfortunately, he lost all his gems and enchants, so the guild is reequipping him as we write this. The really big Bad Thing was that the hacker unlearned Adellm’s professions before he was usurped, and the GMs say that’s one thing they cannot fix.
Adellm said the quick-action we took in reporting the situation to a GM was essential to him getting his gear back so quickly. We’re thrilled to have been any help at all.
Adellm is saved! /danceparty
kunukia on 29 Jun 2008 at 10:49 am #
That sucks…
Elysiane on 29 Jun 2008 at 10:50 am #
Ugh, that’s horrible. Hope he gets his account back safely.
jumb on 29 Jun 2008 at 10:51 am #
Ergh, why blizzard don’t just block all Chinese connections to the US servers and forums is beyond me.
Fahr & Bacon on 29 Jun 2008 at 11:01 am #
What a crapper. Good luck though, you may need to have Adellm do a clean sweep of everything before changing passwards and such. Good luck. I feel for you.
Pike on 29 Jun 2008 at 11:35 am #
Good luck AC
The Wild One on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:05 pm #
As someone who’s been there, been f#$ked by that…
Good luck, brother, I’m pulling for you.
Hathorn on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:39 pm #
That sucks. I hope he didn’t buy gold or do anything to bring it upon himself…
So close to when the Blizzard Authenticator was going to come out too…
Fahr & Bacon on 29 Jun 2008 at 12:53 pm #
I hope Bahkteva is good to his word, looks into the situation immediately and locks the account down soon. At least that would save some of Adellm’s items and such.
I have to assume that since so many of AC is reporting the issue and it sounds like a couple of you were on with GMs while the bastage was blackmailing and screwing with gear, it has a better chance of ending better than otherwise.
Good luck to you, your guild, and especially your guild mate. May the right GM be involved and take care of it.
~Fahr
willstream on 29 Jun 2008 at 1:05 pm #
A bunch of my guildies are all roommates. The other day one of them logged in while he was at work. He doesn’t work on a computer so the roommates that were home knew something was wrong. The first thing they did was contact Blizzard CS, and were told that the account owner would have to contact them. (Standard security procedure, can’t have a jealous spouse or angry friend call in claiming a hack as a prank or out of malice) As a safety measure one of them knew his log in info, but the hacker had already changed the password. So they took the matter into their own hands. They followed him to Shadow Labs and actually got him to group with them. Then they proceeded to tell the individual that he had stolen their friends toon, he worked hard for it and what he was doing was wrong.
We think it was an individual who happened to get a hold of, or figure out the info because he said things like “I like not this game, don’t want to play” and after about 15 minutes actually gave them the password he had created. So another roommate was able to log in kicking the hacker off and then change to a new password and secret question etc.
Obviously they were VERY lucky, this guy was clearly not a pro-hacker. But it does indicate that there is probably a good amount of “casual” key-logging or pass-cracking going on and that sometimes the guy logging in may have simply been given or bought the info from somewhere else…
mwahahah on 29 Jun 2008 at 1:40 pm #
lol…
“Do you know who i am? I can publicice your name to so many ppl you’ll never GM again!”
[good luck on saving ya guildie...]
maybe an idea to buy the keygen thingy from blizz?
Thunderpaw on 29 Jun 2008 at 1:58 pm #
When one of our guild members was hacked, it took awhile, but there was a nearly full restoration of all their equipment. Along with the contents taken from the guild bank.
Good luck.
Ren on 29 Jun 2008 at 2:11 pm #
Something people need to understand is that all GMs follow procedure. They cannot “change it on the fly”. They do exactly what Blizzard tells them to do, and this will not change until Blizzard themselves changes what they will allow their GMs to do. So, blame the company, and not the individual GMs who are just doing their jobs properly.
Fiordhraoi on 29 Jun 2008 at 2:52 pm #
Update:
Adellm’s gear was sold, but apparently the GM that BRK talked to made a “snapshot” of his items when he was contacted. Adellm was restored to that snapshot. There are a few casualties - his gear doesn’t have enchants or gems, and his badges were already spent on 15 nether vortices (which, ironically, are still in his bags). But for the most part, it was a very quick and smooth restore, only took an hour or so from when Adellm first got back.
Sumeko on 29 Jun 2008 at 3:09 pm #
I was just hacked about two weeks ago. I guess that I got really lucky. My top end gear, they didn’t touch other than to destroy all the durability on it. I don’t know if it was because I caught them early enough or what, but they had a good 9 hours or so on my account. They also ran heroic Shadow Labs enough to get me exalted with Lower City! Everything that was restored had the same enchants and gems that were on it before, so I got SUPER lucky with that. They also didn’t drop any of my professions, which I’m very thankful for.
I *immediately* reset my PW and relogged to bump them off and then hopped on my laptop to change my login password. Most of my gear and wahtnot was restored by the first GM within the day and I got the contents of my banks back in another couple. After a very little amount of back and forth, everything was back to where it was before the hack. In all actuality, they probably over-restored my account by the time everything was said and done, and I got the reputation to boot! I never had a lock placed on my account and I went back to raiding (albeit without consumables of my own and after getting a friend to give me a loan to cover repairs/arrows) the next day.
The GM that I was in contact with was very professional and nice. I made sure to thank them profusely afterward ^.^
After having been hacked, i definitely feel your guildie’s pain. GJ on stalling the scammer and calling the GMs down on his happy bum. I really wish they could track who these items/cash are going to and crack down hardcore on them.
Sumeko of Bonechewer
Dijin on 29 Jun 2008 at 3:38 pm #
One of my guildes was hacked last week, he was de’er so they robbed him of everything, all his gear and everything in banks/bags gone.
Blizzard have only given half of his gear back with no enchants or gems and have said thats all they are gonna give him. So he is left with half an equipped toon, no gold and empty bags. They havent explanied why they can only give half of it back and I can see no reason for it and have said they wont dicuss it any further.
Very unimpressed with Blizzard myself - but this was on an EU server maybe your American GMS are nicer…
Xanthelei on 29 Jun 2008 at 3:56 pm #
F- man, your whole guild is under attack it seems. RTR has gotten very lucky in that we haven’t seen anyone get hacked, and all our people are still obviously in control. Just reading the logs is almost enough to make me get that authenticator… I guess I just don’t visit the ‘right’ sites to get a keylogger? Not too sure I want to rely on that, though.
Glad to hear he at least got his gear back, even if it’s sans-enhancements. It’s a heckuva lot better than just having shards.
@Dijin - At least on my server, they aren’t. I play on dial up and was in the Exodar of all places when I got lagged out. I had just started casting Prospect (on my shammy alt) and when I logged back in I found myself minus 5 copper ore with nothing to show for it. Minor annoyance, sure, but it was also a small fix - just send me 5 more copper ore and I’ll prospect that. GM in game said he couldn’t confirm I had ever had it (even though I had just grabbed all that ore from the mail box not 2 minutes before lagging out), but when I asked for a non-server GM to help via the forums he found all the evidence he needed to send me more ore.
Hmmm…
Kevin on 29 Jun 2008 at 4:43 pm #
Chill, BRK.
I’m almost positive everything (or almost everything) is logged. And if not, Blizzard at least stores instances of your character so it can be rolled back to a previous point. The GMs will be able to recover any lost items whether or not you prevent the hacker from sharding/vendoring them.
Additionally, If GMs were required to lock an account after every hacking report, I think it’d cause more harm than good. People would send in fake reports just to get people temporarily locked out of their account as a prank or worse.
I’ve been in Adellm’s situation. It does take some time, but everything will be returned to normal. Just make sure he gets his computer cleaned up so it doesn’t happen again.
samownall on 29 Jun 2008 at 5:11 pm #
So many people getting hacked at the moment. 3 of the people I play with have had their accounts hacked but got them back so I hope you get yours too!
I just posted an article on mage pvp on my blog if you are interested at World of warcraft blog
wasntme on 29 Jun 2008 at 5:19 pm #
I agree on the “Chill BRK”….
I have been there before and yeah it does suck. Blizzard WILL investigate and they WILL fix the problem. It will take some time though. There are millions of accounts and only a limited number of people to help fix problems.
On another note a guy in my guild got suspended for posting screen shots of a GM discussion on the WOW General forums (it wasn’t about anything big either). Just FYI…
<3
The Wild One on 29 Jun 2008 at 5:23 pm #
Good to hear your guildie’s not going to be a total loss.
When my account got hacked a couple years back, I lost a rogue in full T2. Completely deleted.
The GM who handled it said they could restore the toon, and they did, MINUS all her gear.
I was so angry at the whole ideal that I just recently started playing the rogue again. Now I’m still undergeared, but it’s because I’m a new 70, NOT because one of these bastards got my account.
Good job holding the miscreant until the GM got there. That’s probably the biggest thing that saved that account.
@wasntme:
“…Blizzard WILL investigate and they WILL fix the problem…”
That’s a broad and incorrect assumption. There have been many cases where they have done NOTHING. I love WoW as much as the next guy, but Blizz’s GMs leave a LOT to be desired on the best of days.
hydra on 29 Jun 2008 at 6:08 pm #
Why unlearn someones professions? That is just mean. If they deleted the toon, I think the GMs would have been able to restore it with the professions. Maybe not. But that is just …. grrr.
pah on 29 Jun 2008 at 6:21 pm #
Funny how people expect blizzard to throw money at retrieving items that are lost through the user’s inability to secure their pc/not buy gold/not get powerleveled
kunukia on 29 Jun 2008 at 6:28 pm #
@Xanthelei Wait…you are worried about 5 copper ore? I wouldn’t even bother a GM for that! Sorry, but even if it is fixable, it just seems quicker to run mine a couple nodes, and not to waste their time.
I have to say that I have never had a keylogger or any really bad disaster, but I did once lose a level 65 quest that I was turning in right as the server went down, and had to do it again. Glad this is resolving well.
Chromaoran on 29 Jun 2008 at 6:37 pm #
1) In retrospect do you really think the attitude shown to the GM was satisfactory?
2) Why has this guild member had repeated security breaches?
3) Has the guild member now fixed his personal security issues and taken action to prevent a third episode of “how terrible is Bliz”?
4) Does his guild make it clear to not use the same password on the guild forums as the Bliz password?
Pixelated Executioner on 29 Jun 2008 at 6:51 pm #
This kind of thing really sucks. I’ve had a few friends get hacked, and it’s just unreal how easy it is.
I’m glad to see that Blizzard is taking a bonus initiative to make it harder to hack accounts (Blizzard Authenticator), but this kind of thing should have happened ages ago.
In the days of EverQuest, there were a lot less hacking issues, but the game wasn’t as widespread for popularity. I guess hacking EQ accounts wouldn’t have been profitable.
Glad to see Adellm got his stuff back - and doubly glad to see the guild step in and help him out to replace some of what he lost in gems/enchants. That kind of solidarity in a guild warms the heart.
Curtis on 29 Jun 2008 at 7:18 pm #
Wow. Unlearning professions? That’s not a professional hacker. That’s a ninja hacker. A ninja griefer hacker. That’s gotta be about 10k in gold to relearn those professions wouldn’t you think?
Papaoomowmow on 29 Jun 2008 at 7:24 pm #
As I age….more and more…..I REALLY like happy endings.
; - )
Saresa on 29 Jun 2008 at 7:51 pm #
That sucks hard BRK. The exact same thing happened to us the other day when we were in a raid… someone was literally booted off half way through, then they logged back in, dropped raid and vanished. We tried talking to the hacker (and I will admit, I lost my temper a smidge when they refused to respond and may have used some foul language), but he still sold all his gear and abandoned his professions. Thank goodness he had a ‘relatively’ easy couple to level (alch and herb), not something nasty like mining and engineering or enchanting and tailoring!
Glad to see you guys thought fast enough on your feet to save most of his stuff!
Wow New Protection | WoW Macros: World of Warcraft Macros on 29 Jun 2008 at 7:52 pm #
[...] read at least five user account had been hacked and completely looted. Some of their story is at BRK and Hunter’s Mark. The ideas of using physical item to avoid hacking also have been discussed [...]
huntard4ever on 29 Jun 2008 at 8:05 pm #
um brk wats ur chat mod and that sux ballz
jumb on 29 Jun 2008 at 8:51 pm #
Well done on being on top of things like that. I hope my guild is this good to me if this ever happens.
River on 29 Jun 2008 at 9:17 pm #
Just FYI: One of my guildies had their professions unlearned and, it took a few weeks, but she DID get them back. So have him press the matter as they can be restored.
Axeminster on 29 Jun 2008 at 9:41 pm #
There seems to be a vast disparity in terms of the response that people in similar situations get from GMs. A Pally guildy of mine had his toon hacked and deleted, and was told in no uncertain terms that he will not be getting it back. He is now levelling a rogue, and happier for it so he says, so cool on him. It just seems strange though, that some people have absolutely no problem getting a deleted/hacked toon back, while others hit a brick wall. Curioser and curioser. . .
Merced & Expendable on 29 Jun 2008 at 11:01 pm #
If one of my characters got deleted and wasn’t restored to how it was, i’d quit wow and never play it again. it’s just silly that they wont restore it. It’s completely within their means to do so, and for them not to is very disrespectful of their customer.
On a side note, that authenticator should be free, or at the very least it should be free though a promotion. Such as: pre-pay for six months and get an authenticator for free. I’d totally be down for that.
Skulane on 29 Jun 2008 at 11:19 pm #
Ya a guild member of mine got hacked we were fortunate enough to only loose some epic gems from the gbank and the gms were quite on the ball and he had his acount back up in no time flat
Awlbiste on 30 Jun 2008 at 1:50 am #
Unlearning professions is just mean. I don’t even think your run-of-the-mill gold seller hackers unlearn professions.
Where’s my BRKAKIPSNoM?
Boudi on 30 Jun 2008 at 8:25 am #
A similar scenario happened to my former GL. She was online at the time she was hacked, and she and the hacker kept kicking each other off. Luckily after about the third time she figured out what happening and quickly went and changed her password. Phew.
I’m so glad Adellm got eveything back. It’s such a shame about his professions. Why do hackers do that? It’s not like it makes them money. It just seems spiteful.
BM on 30 Jun 2008 at 9:12 am #
I understand and im glad everything worked out. Blizz was less than helpful for me in my situation tho. I got hacked and all they gave me were crap greens and no gold.
Quick thinking on the part of AC to help minimize the damage.
Bravehawk on 30 Jun 2008 at 4:22 pm #
It’s time to drop every addon that does not use the WoW Ace Updater, IMO. Or possibly Curse’s updater, BUT 2 of our guildies have been hacked and while they do not share account info, they have gotten addons from Curse and that’s the only thing the 2 had in common before getting hacked. We think there’s some type of key logger in a Curse Ad or possibly in some of their addons.
Now we see a gnote reminder every 4 weeks about changing our passwords and I encourage everyone to come up with ’super passwords’ and change them every 4 weeks…we also make sure our officers restrict raiders/pvpers to consumable only tabs and have officer only tabs to help guard against hackers.
Krieger0187 on 01 Jul 2008 at 12:38 am #
damn, glad to hear it had a semi happy ending BRK/AC…I know I had a guildie of mine get hacked, and he couldn’t get the toon restored on the fact he and his wife had at one time (like pre BC) shared the acct, so she could try the game…well, she made a toon…and leveled it…eventually they seperated her toon off his acct and she got her own acct…but his uber warrior was no more than a memeory, all because they shared acct info.
GIVING ANYONE your acct info is against the EULA,and don’t think blizz HAS to do anything in that case..you broke the EULA
Glad to see he got his gear back at least…
bearcatomen on 01 Jul 2008 at 2:04 pm #
Unlearning the proffesions is good business for the hackers. It creates more demand to purchase gold to re-level the proffesions back to 375. Not saying BRK’s friend ever bought gold, but I bet some gold buyers go out and buy more after getting hacked.
Guild Hacked - The Warlocks Den Forums on 26 Aug 2008 at 12:02 pm #
[...] Hack: Part I and Part II Bigredkitty about hacks that Aetherial Circle has suffered: accounts of Fighting Back and Guild Bank I and II: Posted in Ramblings Comments 1 Total Comments [...]