Hackers

[Zaerick]

Just wanted to warn you all that a lot of high level accounts are being hacked right now. I just lost my account to a hacker. They changed my email which is my account name and guess what Arenanet sent me in an email. "Someone has just requested to change your email 'Hope it was you' for more information contact customer support" They don't even have a service to do email verification? Seriously Arenanet wtf. 104 hours down the drain and I doubt they even have the ability to get characters back if they get deleted.

[DrakeWurrum]

Worth noting: If you get an e-mail saying that somebody has requested to reset your password, that does not mean they've hacked your account. That just means they have your e-mail in a massive database of e-mails belonging to online gamers.
It's not until you click the link in that e-mail, when you weren't the one who reset the password, that your account has been hacked - because then you've reset the password for them.

Be sure to have e-mail authorization set-up, and use a Gmail account with 2-step verification, and you should have an extremely small chance of ever being hacked. It's practically like having an authenticator.

[Hanto]

:P They said in either a Tweet or on their FB page that characters will be fully restored to the point before the account was compromised. Don't base your logic on wild speculation and call it fact. Point of the matter is you let yourself get hacked, and now best of all, you have the nerve to nag at ANet about steps they should do to improve security?

Take some of your own advice. Protect yourself better and be smarter where you browse. It's well known that people are getting hacked left and right. I personally think WoW's authenticators gave people a false sense of security about their overall protection, got themselves infected with keyloggers and such, and are now paying for it since GW2 has no authenticators (yet). You'll get your stuff back, just contact their CS and take the steps you need to in order to better protect yourself.

Drake also has a good point. That email verifaction thing is pretty amazing. I don't have a Gmail attached to it however, just because I feel like I'm secure enough as it is. Malware/virus scans every day before doing anything ftw.

[walexia]

I am so paranoid that I just don't even open any of the mail i get from arena net.My reasoning is...the less suspicious links you click-the less chances you have of getting hacked.If my account gets disabled for any reason, maybe then I will open the latest emails to find out what's up.

[niblic3rd]

I have deleted every single 1 of those email and when I tried to log in today my email is no longer attached to a game account. As of today I lost my mid range character 34 Ranger and if I am lucky to get the account back I will probably have to start again. But it kind of feels like the security is barely there if they are able to get your game from not having any details other then your email address.

[Zaerick]

Worth noting: If you get an e-mail saying that somebody has requested to reset your password, that does not mean they've hacked your account. That just means they have your e-mail in a massive database of e-mails belonging to online gamers.
It's not until you click the link in that e-mail, when you weren't the one who reset the password, that your account has been hacked - because then you've reset the password for them.

Be sure to have e-mail authorization set-up, and use a Gmail account with 2-step verification, and you should have an extremely small chance of ever being hacked. It's practically like having an authenticator.

Nah I ignore those I was in Orr and got disconnected and tried logging in and it said that it was an invalid email. Arenanet really fucked up on this. They have shut down a lot of their services.

[DrakeWurrum]

Nah I ignore those I was in Orr and got disconnected and tried logging in and it said that it was an invalid email. Arenanet really fucked up on this. They have shut down a lot of their services.

Arena Net hasn't fucked up on this, you have.

If you have e-mail authorization enabled, any computer that isn't YOUR computer attempting to log onto your account will prompt an e-mail sent to the e-mail attached to your account. You have to click the link there to verify that it's really you logging in, and only THEN can that computer use your account.

Then, if you have two-step authorization enabled on your e-mail, anytime a computer that isn't YOUR computer attempts to log onto your e-mail, you get a text message sent to your cell phone, which you can manually set in the e-mail settings. You have to enter the code in that text message to log into your e-mail.

If somebody hacked into your e-mail, it's most likely because you are not using either of these two features.

[Zaerick]

:P They said in either a Tweet or on their FB page that characters will be fully restored to the point before the account was compromised. Don't base your logic on wild speculation and call it fact. Point of the matter is you let yourself get hacked, and now best of all, you have the nerve to nag at ANet about steps they should do to improve security?

Take some of your own advice. Protect yourself better and be smarter where you browse. It's well known that people are getting hacked left and right. I personally think WoW's authenticators gave people a false sense of security about their overall protection, got themselves infected with keyloggers and such, and are now paying for it since GW2 has no authenticators (yet). You'll get your stuff back, just contact their CS and take the steps you need to in order to better protect yourself.

Wait Wait Wait? You say I got myself hacked when I literally 2 hours before launch made a brand new Gmail account changed it to that used a password I have never used and its still my fault? I have played MMO's for 10+ years and have never been hacked before. I have the strongest security on my computer and have scanned for rats/keyloggers. It is def not my fault. I also had reformatted my PC a day before and the only browsing I had done was my guild site and MMO champion and ventrilo. The only download I have is GW2 and Ventrilo.

Arena Net hasn't fucked up on this, you have.

If you have e-mail authorization enabled, any computer that isn't YOUR computer attempting to log onto your account will prompt an e-mail sent to the e-mail attached to your account. You have to click the link there to verify that it's really you logging in, and only THEN can that computer use your account.

Then, if you have two-step authorization enabled on your e-mail, anytime a computer that isn't YOUR computer attempts to log onto your e-mail, you get a text message sent to your cell phone, which you can manually set in the e-mail settings. You have to enter the code in that text message to log into your e-mail.

If somebody hacked into your e-mail, it's most likely because you are not using either of these two features.

I have that I verified my email and everything but for some reason they bypassed that. I know how to secure my accounts since I have been playing MMO's for years.

[DrakeWurrum]

its still my fault?

Yes. Very much so. Just because it's a password you haven't used elsewhere, doesn't mean they can't snatch the password, nor is any virus/spyware scanner flawless in finding keyloggers. It's even possible you installed one without realizing it was attached to something else.

[Deleted]

Guess im safe as a level 18 :P, but yeah i never trust things i dont recall doing myself anyway.

[DrakeWurrum]

I have that I verified my email and everything but for some reason they bypassed that. I know how to secure my accounts since I have been playing MMO's for years.

It is not possible for them to bypass that. Let me repeat what I said very freaking clearly because, based on your OP, you were not hacked. You were tricked. Read the following two lines at least three times, and then think about it.

If you get an e-mail saying that somebody has requested to reset your password, that does not mean they've hacked your account. That just means they have your e-mail in a massive database of e-mails belonging to online gamers.
It's not until you click the link in that e-mail, when you weren't the one who reset the password, that your account has been hacked - because then you've reset the password for them.

With e-mail verification enabled, if you click the link, and wasn't you, you just gave access to another computer to your account.

They cannot get access to your e-mail settings so easily. If they get into your account settings, it's because you verified them to do so, obviously by mistake.

[Zaerick]

It is not possible for them to bypass that. Let me repeat what I said very freaking clearly because, based on your OP, you were not hacked. You were tricked. Read the following two lines at least three times, and then think about it.

If you get an e-mail saying that somebody has requested to reset your password, that does not mean they've hacked your account. That just means they have your e-mail in a massive database of e-mails belonging to online gamers.
It's not until you click the link in that e-mail, when you weren't the one who reset the password, that your account has been hacked - because then you've reset the password for them.

They cannot get access to your e-mail settings so easily.

No I was not tricked I didn't even look at my email until after I tried relogging on and it said email is not associated to an account.

[DrakeWurrum]

No I was not tricked I didn't even look at my email until after I tried relogging on and it said email is not associated to an account.

If they get into your account settings, it's because you verified them to do so, obviously by mistake. There is simply no other way.

You should at least open a support ticket and find out what's going on, but it's highly unlikely that it's not your fault to begin with.

[Zaerick]

If they get into your account settings, it's because you verified them to do so, obviously by mistake. There is simply no other way.

You should at least open a support ticket and find out what's going on, but it's highly unlikely that it's not your fault to begin with.

Look. I reformated my PC a day before hand. I have 2 things downloaded ventrilo and GW2 both safe downloads. I used new email and password and used the email verification for logging in. I have been to 3 sites the ventrilo download, my guilds site, and MMOC. I secured my account as best as I could I never clicked on any email what so ever. I sent a support ticket in and everything. Again I did nothing wrong I did all the necessary steps to secure my account. They are going after level 80s with a substantial amount of gold.

[SirRobin]

I normally don't worried about getting hacked too much. Its just a game and I never invest that much into them. Besides, my wife loves using my big screen for her facebook games, instead of the laptop I bought her, so my rig is probably filled to the brim with spyware, malware, loggers, etc, etc, etc...

The most questionable one for me was picking up Cataclysm and discovering that someone had added a trial for Lich King, when I had last played a little after Burning Crusade. I recalled some emails ages before but I had ignored them. All my old toons were naked. It was actually quite funny. I had even changed PC's since TBC.

Of course they might have grabbed it before hand and never used it till then, but it did seem pretty odd.

[MerinPally]

Again I did nothing wrong I did all the necessary steps to secure my account.

And now look at it from the rest of the worlds perspective. Occams Razor - what is more likely, 1 internet user fucked up, or a massive company fucked up and nothing was stolen except 1 particular person?

[Remilia]

And now look at it from the rest of the worlds perspective. Occams Razor - what is more likely, 1 internet user fucked up, or a massive company fucked up and nothing was stolen except 1 particular person?

Actually there are a lot more than one incident of this.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post18211647
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post18211800

They should also at least try to hide the fact that they use a session keyid for their website.

[pickley]

And now look at it from the rest of the worlds perspective. Occams Razor - what is more likely, 1 internet user fucked up, or a massive company fucked up and nothing was stolen except 1 particular person?

To be fair, this massive companies idea of security is kind of laughable...

[Menedude]

FYI I just got both those emails as well : the first one says "click link to confirm new email" and the second says "the email for your guild wars account has been changed"

There's only one tiny problem with this... I don't have a guild wars account.

[DrakeWurrum]

To be fair, this massive companies idea of security is kind of laughable...

Explain how it's laughable. Please do.

There is a double layer of security on my account.
1: If ANY IP address, other than the one belonging to exactly this computer, attempts to log into my account with the correct password, I get an e-mail sent to my Gmail account. I absolutely must click that link in that e-mail for the account to be accessed from any other computer.
2: My Gmail account is just as secure as any WoW account with an authenticator - because any time an unfamiliar IP address tries to log into my Gmail, a text message is sent to my cell phone with a 6-letter code, which I must then input to access my Gmail.

My e-mail being so secured, and my account being secured by my e-mail, means my accounts are one of the least likely to be targeted - there's easier targets out there.

The only way anybody could possibly hack it is if they find a way to hack into my e-mail, which requires them to hack the numerical codes sent out to people's cell phones.

FYI I just got both those emails as well : the first one says "click link to confirm new email" and the second says "the email for your guild wars account has been changed"

There's only one tiny problem with this... I don't have a guild wars account.

Just goes to show how far they will go to fool people.