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THIS is why I dont like World of Warcraft.
Mopar63
Member UncommonPosts: 300
Okay a little back story to understand. I built my Sister in-Law a new computer, nice rig can easily play WoW with no hassles. She got the system, installed WoW and put on all the add-ons her guild suggests. Two days later her system gets hacked and her account stolen.
We assume a bad website hit and a piece of spyware but after scanning we find nothing so we format down and come up clean. 2 Weeks later her account is again hacked. She starts blaming the computer and the AV I put on (MS Security Essentials).
About a month passes with no issues and the other day she calls. Her system is full of errors, crashing all the time and just an utter mess. I tell my brother over the phone to run the system recovery, he does and all is well. She finishes putting on her add-ons for WoW and has not even logged in yet when she gets a call from a friend, her system is being hacked.
She jumps quickly on the phone with Blizzard and they change the password. She has not even started WoW yet and they watch her account get hacked AGAIN with Blizzard on the phone.
Immediatley Blizzard ties down the account and start checking stuff with her. Remember this is a pristine install, Blizzard has a verifier program they gave her runniong to secure this and all is a mess. They immediately start blaming MS Security Essentials explaing to her and I quote, "MSSE is designed for use with big businesses not home systems. It does not offer spyware protection" I am not kidding, they tell her to switch to AVG.
At this point my brother is going nuts. Blizzard is telling her that the computer and the AV software are the glitch. He tries to explain to her that Blizzard is wrong but because they make WoW she feels they have to be right. Never mind that this is how I make my living and been doing it for almost 30 years.
He finally convinces her to run the system WITHOUT WoW add-ons and it works perfectly. She decides the system is pristine and so loads these add-ons again and thier authenticator. Sure enough with an hour her account is hacked and the system is running like crap.
They again call Blizzard and they say it has to be the PC at fault. They explain it does not happen until this other stuff is added, oh it cannot be that it has to be the PC. She is running right now without the add-ons as smooth as silk and her PC is working perfectly.
Near as we can diagnose it is one of the add-ons which Blizzrad claims is safe that is causing the issues. But that cannot be can it, afterall because Blizzard said so. I love the fact I can now say that WoW really is just a huge virus
[Mod Edit]
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
Comments
First thing in my head was "Duh, never trust 3rd party programs", should have been the first thought in everyone involved's minds too. I am surprised Blizzard CS itself wouldn't acknowledge that right off from the start too, unless the person that actually called them didn't mention using the 3rd party mods out of fear of ban/suspension. Maybe your sister, or whoever was on the phone, didn't disclose everything to CS, or even to you.
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I am pretty sure she did, they knew what AV and even what Add-ons she was using, My brother was sitting beside her for the entire call the last time. He even took part of the call. To me the funniest part was the tech having no clue that MSSE was designed for home systems and tried to claim it was not. Even better was their own authenticator program that THEY told her to run seems to be part of the problem. We are not sure which add-on it is and I told her I was not going to track it down. She pays Blizzard a monthly fee, they need to work out their own issues.
I do agree however that using thrid party apps like that is not a wise move. Evidently however Blizzard told her that her specific apps where okay, OOOPPS :-)
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
I would have to say that one of the add-ons is the cause of the problem
When it comes to add-ons I am very spartan. I use DBM, and Atlasloot as well as Auctioneer and omen. That's it. I play my classes with just those running and do fine. I'm pretty sure it is an add-on. I'm not sure where she gets her add-ons, the only place I go is curse.com and never had any issues. I remember a few years back I downloaded a supposed good mod from a "reputed" website and within days my account got hacked, and this was pre-bc mind you. Well, I don't have that account anymore. I am currently on my second account with mentioned add-ons and no issues. I do get the occasional hacking email but I just ignore those.
With the widespread accounts of "hacking", I'm surprised that Blizzard doesn't have the stones to tell people that using 3rd-party add-ons is a potential security risk. I've played since release and never felt the need to use any of these "helpers". I've never been hacked either. The trouble is that Blizzard allows these mod developers to tinker with their client and the gullible bastards who can't seem to live without the mods wind up installing malware on their systems. They should just tell them, "Use mods on WoW and get hacked, it's your butt. Don't come crying to us!" Instead they restore these idiots' accounts over and over.
I wanted to scream every time you said you fixed the system and your boneheaded sister-in-law puts the mods right back in so she can screw it up again. You've got more patience than me. I'd have said "adios!" after the first time she tried to blame the work I did for her.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
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It isn't actually possible to hide a keyloger in a wow addon. Wow addon's are LUA based and so require the program to call them in order to run. They aren't accessed by the program until after you've logged in, after the point at which they could retreive your login information.
However it is possible that hackers target the addon sites with viri either hidden in the banner ads or the zip files of the addons. Addon and wow fan sites are favorite targets for hackers intrested in stealing wow account logins. The unfortionate use of email accounts as the primary battlenet login actually reduced security as people tend to use the same passwords/logins for everything.
Probably the add-ons, but yeah...blizzard (like any other company) will try and blame any other company not related to them
Like AOL for month told me my internet speed was slow and unstable because of my router (Linksys) and I knew that it was nothing to do with my router but there shitty service... anyway long story short I switched ISP provider and my internet has been perfect and 3 times faster...and I’m using the same router
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How is this trolling? The reply was just discussing how sometimes people don't want to admit their company can do wrong. Most of the time they may agree with the client but due to conversation recording during almost every phone call support personnel can not say negative things about a company without risking their job so they have to shift the blame somewhere else even when it's uncalled for. The responder was just making a point, I didn't notice any trolling. Truth is you can play WoW fine without any add-ons, so it's not Blizzard in all technicality. But they don't want to slander the modding community either, for reasons not understandable I'm sure. So in the end, play the game without add-ons and you'll be fine. Using add-ons is like sleeping with hookers with hole-poked condoms.
I've been playing since launch as well and I've never had an issue with being hacked.
I also run quite a few UI's, though for me it's more about making the interface prettier than added capabilities.
It's simply not possible to hide viruses in a wow addon. You can infect the addon site or the archive, but LUA files are just static text until run by the game engine.
Not sure I understand. You don't like World of Warcraft because of all the hacking or you don't like World of Warcraft because of addons? You can play WoW without addons and if you're truly paranoid about hacking, you can always get a authenticator.
another nice super thread about how a customer hate WoW. In a couple of deeays a news one will be ow i like WoW. We don't give a damn. shes acted stupidly . Learn from your lesson.
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he does not like WoW because of the bad customer service.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
he does not like WoW because of the bad customer service.
I've actually had excellent customer service. I've never been hacked; however and my account is as old as Feb 2005, but all the talks i've had with GMs have been positive and they've all been helpful.
I think the OP should tell her to reformat the system, install WoW, get an authenticator, and never use a mod.
I've had several accounts since November 2004 along with add-ons birthed in the infancy of this game. And yet, I've never had an account security issue.
It's hard to take this post seriously, and not just lol at a pretty apparent user error?
ur... First of all system restore does not always remove virus/trojans... Second yes Microsoft Essentials can be for home PC but why would you rely on protection software from a company who who failed to close the security in their own original software? Its kinda like trusting someone to watch your home that has had their own home broken into 5 times in the last month.
There are a lot of things here that don't make sense. (e.g. Add-ons don't load until you're at the character select, this is why you can turn em all on and off without restarting. So its not a WoW application problem.) If I had to guess she is picking something up from whatever add-on site she is using (i.e. extra as in not part of an add-on). If she is downloading these off some private server I can tell you what the problem is right now... If the scanning software isn't picking anything up see paragraph 1. If system restore isn't getting the job done see paragraph 1.
Somehow I managed to be the only computer literate person within 4 generations of my family, up and down, (God I hope the 5th one know something when they grow up) and the best way I've found to protect their computers is to do clean installs from the CD then slap their hands and tell them "No!". Every single problem I've ever encountered has been some form of user error.
Why do people need add-ons? I never play a game with add-ons. ::shakes her head:: I'll bet you it was one of the add-ons or the website she downloaded it from that infected her system with a keylogger.
So, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the op is basically just looking for a reason to hate WoW and is blaming Blizzard for the account being hacked? Now, yes, he did get what seemed to be uneducated customer service, this is agreed upon, but let's face it, you install a ton of 3rd party add-ons, and you're just asking for trouble. For instance, what add-ons does she have installed? My account got hacked once, and only once. And you know what did it? I got curious one night as to what Evony was. My fault, through and through. So sounds like more then one person is to blame here, so do yourself a favor, get off your moral high horse, and research the add-ons. Then blame Blizzard.