Account hacked

Support Customer Support
1

Whew, here we go

I took a break from WoW in shadowlands era and had taken several prior as well. During one of those occasions (around 2010 maybe?), I received an email about a password change. I was busy with college and for some reason ignored it or forgot—it was some time ago. My account was a) been merged with another account and b) banned.

The general events followed: First, I emailed blizzard (I may have called too but I can’t remember). I was asked for password, account name, real name, etc. After a few days, my account was restored pretty quickly. I don’t know how my info leaked but I was pretty dumb back then so /shrug.

Fast forward 10 years later. I’m taking a break from shadowlands and am switching phones in the process. Somewhere along the line my authenticator was removed and sadly I didn’t notice until months later. My old email address for WoW is not one I check regularly and…I am hacked again. The general gist is what followed:

I contact blizzard but am still somewhat confused with the state of things. After some work with the gms and IDs the account is restored but promptly hacked before I can add a new authenticator. So when I check the account the next day… it’s gone again. New ticket. After a day or so – the account with my old email is restored…except this is a new account with a similar battle tag and a WoW starter edition. New ticket. This time, blizzard has decided to ban the account for 6 months.

Here is the response:

“Im going to be real with you, this account has been sold and traded lots of times so we are going to suspend it. I know this is not the answer that you are looking to hear, however with the history of the account we cant take the risk to have this continue. The wow accounts have been suspended for 6 months, the rest of the games have been subsequently banned.

I know this may feel extreme, however its your responsibility to keeo the account secure and safe, that means monitoring personal emails and regularly scan your machine for malware etc. Since this account has been hacked on more than one occasion and still is having the issue we have come to this decision.“

I was frustrated and pushed back but there was nothing that could really be done. The decision was final. I never received any follow up and it seems that the stolen account stayed with the hacker. I’m still confused by the reason for this decision. I don’t agree with the ban being that my biggest crime is being bad with my authentication tool. But my account was never given back to me.

Now: 6 months later. I figure I’ll try one more time. The general response was that they were unable to verify ownership and that decision was final. I’m really confused by this and have no clue where to go from here. It seems that my account was admitted to having been sold several times or stolen but I am not allowed to verify ownership now? I have invoices and receipts from purchases all the way back to 2010. I also can provide a photo ID that matches the original account name, etc.

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Nothing can be done on these forums. You can only appeal this with a ticket.

It was given back to you. It was compromised again. It is your responsibility to secure your account. You cannot expect them to continue to return the account to you when you don’t seem to care about it until you feel like playing and then find someone took it through your neglect.

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3

Here is something I am going to strongly recommend to you. First of all, run a virus scan check, I personally use Malware Bytes and AVG. (I personally prefer AVG. These are both free btw). Now if that doesn’t catch anything, I’d change all your passwords and MAKE THEM ALL DIFFERENT. DO NOT REUSE THE SAME PASSWORD. And am if I am not mistaken, I am pretty sure there is a “logout on all devices” option I think? So be sure to do that this will log whoever is on your account. And yes, I know you made a new account but it is still good to do these things.

Edit: If you’re truly concerned about your PCS health then I’d advise you to reset your PC back to factory. And from the sounds of it, I’d probably do it just because seeing how your account has been hacked way more than once then it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.

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I agree. I find it sort of odd how their account keeps getting hacked over and over. I think there is more to this story.

5

I do understand this and honestly I get it. I started using authentication for everything because of this.

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You might also want to make a new email just for the wow account and do not use it for anything other than the wow account. Make sure to check it regularly if you will not be playing the game.

I understand your frustration but as I said nothing can be done on the forums.

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There isn’t. But I obviously can’t prove that to you.

I’m just dumb and should have changed my email much sooner. I used to use the same password for everything.

8

Ouch, I just heard every IT department wince with that being said. :grin:

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9

I’m usually pretty sympathetic but in this case I’m not sure what you expect from Blizzard.

I’m also not sure how much you have really been playing on that account if it’s been banned and sold so many times that Blizzard is throwing their hands into the air with the entire situation.

I’m going to be blunt: Blizzard probably thinks you’re in on this. In their eyes they might be thinking these long “breaks” are really from you selling your account.

I would just move on and start a new account. I know Apple has a way for you to link your emails together so I would look into that if you use their phones or see if whatever brand you use has something similar. That way you won’t miss any more important emails from Blizzard.

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Too many use fairly easy passwords, and then reuse them on multiple sites and dont change any when one is compromised. Likely the email is also compromised and still is.

Edit - See, op said same passwords for everything

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