spam ArenaNet emails

[DrakeWurrum]

Except of course for the fact that it's not a phising mail at all. It's a genuine mail from ArenaNet if one looks at the sender. The links also go back to genuine ArenaNet sites if one hovers over them to check.

I have a GW2 account, and I received a mail about the e-mail address being changed. (No asking for authorisation, since it was before they brought e-mail aurhorisation online.) I never clicked any links (I never do, because you can never be too sure). The moment I read the e-mail I hopped onto my GW2 account and sure enough "There is no account registered with that e-mail/username".

So yeah, some seem to be spam .. or accounts created with your e-mail address somehow. But some of them are definitely true, and not because someone clicked a link, but pure dumb luck on the hackers part. I still have no idea how they got my account since I never click links and sweep my computer regularly for malware etc.

As others have said, this means that some people know your e-mail address and password. If you have e-mail authentication enabled, you should have gotten an e-mail going "Hey, somebody requested to change your e-mail, click here to verify" as I've seen others posting images that they got such an e-mail.

If you still have access to the account, this means that e-mail authentication saved your ass!


Lesson here: Change your password, and never use that password for anything else, so long as it's associated with that e-mail address.

[Deleted]

So since I got these emails will I not be able to use my email address to play the game if I ever buy it?

You could. Simply use a different password.
I wouldn't though.

[eskEMO]

Got these emails as well. I used to have an Aion account. Do you think that it's just a general NCSoft breach? My email address & Battle.net passwords have always been different, as someone was suggesting these were from the Battle.net breach earlier.

[Daedius]

I've been getting a password reset one. But then again, I did give away my GW1 account a long time ago - guess the person forgot the password :P

[Deleted]

Just checked my email and didnt have one. I also don't have a GW2 account (yet) but maybe it helps that mine ends with .se

[Korgoth]

Yeah I got 6 of those emails so far. Didnt open them, just deleted. Changed my password to a 12 digit randomly generated upper lower symbol number code. Have to read the thing off a piece of paper and I curse while doing it, but they dont have an android authenticator, so I guess its the next best thing.

[Deleted]

Yeah I got 6 of those emails so far. Didnt open them, just deleted. Changed my password to a 12 digit randomly generated upper lower symbol number code. Have to read the thing off a piece of paper and I curse while doing it, but they dont have an android authenticator, so I guess its the next best thing.

It might be faster if you switched to a more memorable code.
It's not like anyone brute forces mmorpg passwords anyway.
It doesn't have to be NSA-security style password, just something you don't use anywhere else.

Korgoth no like flowers! perhaps? Or something similar.

It's unique, fast to type out, easy to remember and impossible to brute force guess.

[pateuvasiliu]

I don't even have a GW2 account.

[gutnbrg]

i already made a thread about this, i received 2 as well

[Blackmist]

So they got a list of emails from someone other than Anet.

As purely hypothetical questions...

1) Has anyone received an email on an address they don't use for WoW?
2) Has anyone received an email on an address they don't use for MMO Champ?

[Deleted]

So they got a list of emails from someone other than Anet.

As purely hypothetical questions...

1) Has anyone received an email on an address they don't use for WoW?
2) Has anyone received an email on an address they don't use for MMO Champ?

I haven't recieved any (GW2 related) on either.
On the mmo-champ address I've recieved several different WoW phishing attempts.

[Blackmist]

This might explain some of it. Weird to think that if I'd clicked the link I'd have locked somebody else's account to it...

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_status_updates

Scanning Accounts & Email Spam

Yesterday, three malicious users each changed the account names of their own Guild Wars 2 accounts thousands of times, scanning through lists of email addresses stolen from other games and web sites, presumably to determine which email addresses were available (not already used for a Guild Wars 2 account) and which were taken. It obviously shouldn't be possible to change your own account name so frequently. We temporarily disabled account name changes and have now restored but limited them to prevent this.

To the thousands of people who received emails stating, "the email address for your Guild Wars account has been changed," and are not even our customers, we sincerely apologize for the spam. Please be aware that your email address is on a list of account credentials that hackers have apparently stolen from other games and web sites and are systematically scanning.

To Guild Wars 2 customers whose email addresses are being tested by hackers but not stolen, thank you for protecting your account by choosing a new, unique password for Guild Wars 2. Even though your unique password should protect you, we think you deserve to know if hackers have your email address on their list of credentials stolen from other games and web sites, so we'll send you periodic notifications when we see hackers testing your account.