Are scammers pulling email addresses from MMO-Champion?

[Vayle]

This morning, for the first time ever, I found a phishing email in my Gmail inbox. It was pretty well done with only 2 very minor mistakes. The only clear giveaway was mousing over the link to see that it goes to a fake site.

Anyways, I'm posting this because yesterday I made my first post in the News thread about the deletion of accounts with no posts. This seems to coincide with an increased amount of Wow scam emails in my Spam folder, as well as the one that actually bypassed Gmail's spam filter and made it into my inbox.

I have it set in my profile options to hide my email from the public, so is this just a coincidence, or are emails somehow being pulled off the site/forum even though they should be hidden?

[Deleted]

Only moderators and administrators can see other email addresses. Even if you set it in your profile to allow people to see your email, they can't.

[kakefarmer]

I'm currently unable to locate the e-mail in my inbox (amongst 2500 others), but i one got a scam mail which was in no way related to wow, where the person said she found my mail address on www.mmo-champion.com...

[Mithrelle]

I get like 10 phishing emails a DAY....or at least every week. If I'm not going to click on it the first time what makes scammers think I'm going to click it the 300th time they've sent it...either someone got it from my facebook or Blizzard sold my email address to them.

[Kaneiac]

I get a crapload of them too.

I've pretty much had to offload a lot of my actual work/school/professional related contacts (that aren't attached to my corporate/work e-mail address) to an alternate account. I was a fool and had virtually everything all funneling to my one e-mail addy. I'm not blaming MMO-C. Just ranting about my own stupidity.

Dinnerbone, were e-mail addresses on here (at least for a time) available for public view? I'm just wondering.

Edit: Just saw that post was from 2-3 days ago. Rats. Probably doesn't even care about this thread anymore.

[simbuk]

I see a fair amount of WoW-related phishing emails...on an account that I do not in any way have connected to anything related to WoW.

[Mithrilina]

A good way to test this, if you have a GMail (or GoogleMail, if you're in the UK) account, is to change your registered email address on the site so that it will be instantly evident where your email address was leeched from. (See http://www.google.com/mail/help/tips.html#black for more.)

For example, if your email address is jane.bloggs@gmail.com, your can change it on MMO-Champion so that the registered email address on the site is jane.bloggs+MMOCHAMP@gmail.com. You can do something similar for other sites too, following the same pattern.

So, if Uncle Spam starts sending emails to you, you can simply check the email address that the mail was sent to... and if that is "jane.bloggs+MMOCHAMP@gmail.com", then the admins at MMO-Champion will need to explain themselves. ;-)

Also, if you own and administer your own email domain, simply create aliases for every site you give your email address to.

[Vober]

I get so many of these scamming emails a week its not even funny. Last week I think I had over 20+

Edit: The email account I use for mmo-champion is not the same account I get all my "fake" wow emails. So it isn't mmo-champion

[russ555]

I get at least 10 a week but I use the same email address for everything. Recently though I got an email for my aion account that seemed genuine so I clicked the link and firefox gave me a warning that it is a known phishing site. It was at that moment I realised I dont have/never have had an aion account :-[

[Deleted]

I post here on a semi-regular basis.

The email address that i have linked to this account isn't given out for anything else, anywhere. I got it with my ISP.

In all the time I have posted here I have never once had a spam mail to that account. So i think that most people who claim they have been careful with there email addresses possibly haven't been.

The only other way that someone would get your email from here is if you had changed the settings to show to all.

[Corgrash]

In the terms and conditions you agree with each time you start the game after a new patch, blizzard state they sell your email address on to places.
Its another way for them to make money from their subs.

They dont sell it to the scammers but the companies they do sell it to might then sell it on to the scammers

[kakefarmer]

The only other way that someone would get your email from here is if you had changed the settings to show to all.

Only moderators and administrators can see other email addresses. Even if you set it in your profile to allow people to see your email, they can't.

[Sabbie]

I have about 400 in my 'spam' email. Now they are starting to sneak into my main email. No idea how they get my email but it is quite annoying, and some are really well done and can easily fool people that are not aware of scams being done this way.

[Dyminator]

Funny thing is i recieve like 20 mail / day to the e-mail that has no connection to my WoW accounts what so ever xD
that e-mail has nothing to do with WoW

[afkalmighty]

I get scam mails for WoW US and EU servers and also for AION US servers.

I play in KR and never even entered a AION site :P

[angratharUSAnub]

I just created my mmo-champ account and posted yesterday, the 26th, and the ONLY 2 phishing emails in my spam box (which i havent emptied in months) are also from the 26th. as fas as i am aware this is the first time i have received phishing emails. so your theory seems correct in my case.

Did your email look like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English speaking customers: Please refer to the start of this mail
Para los clientes espa?oles: Por favor vayan hasta el fin de este coreo electrónico

An investigation of the World of Warcraft account has produced evidence that the account has been accessed by someone who is not allowed to use it. Now you can bind your mobilephone to your World of Warcraft account for free. This will protect your account from being stolen: [SITE DELETED, was the phishing site]

Please be sure to review the information below to help prevent future security issues:
Account compromises are usually the result of the registered player of the account sharing his or her login information or playing on a computer that has a virus.
Please remember that it is your responsibility to keep your login information confidential. Any account that is registered to your name may not be shared with anyone except for one minor, of whom you are acting as a parent or guardian. You are also responsible for every use of your login information, whether authorized or not.
For your own protection, we encourage you to keep the following security tips in mind when using any computer on which you play World of Warcraft:
- Keep current with the latest operating system and other software updates.
- Make use of firewall protection if possible.
- Regularly scan for viruses, Trojan files, and key loggers.
- Be wary of "spoof" emails and websites and when downloading new software.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gmail had even tagged the email as potentially fraudulent

[iamhere3]

despite the fact that i never check my email, blizzard would only ever email me about payment, in which case i would log on via typing worldofwarcraft.com in my browser. i wouldnt click the link.

[Pest]

I get scam mails for WoW US and EU servers and also for AION US servers.

I play in KR and never even entered a AION site :P

i get emails telling me my AION account info has been changed all the time. I don't play AION... lol but yeah I was wondering the same thing about mine. most go to my spam folder anyway but its just annoying :P

[Deleted]

i once got an e-mail saying my guild wars payment was cancelled. how retarded is that? guild wars is free.

[Deleted]

Dinnerbone, were e-mail addresses on here (at least for a time) available for public view? I'm just wondering.

Yes, until a few months ago, but only if you had set it to be publicly visible in your profile. We got tired of people blaming scam emails on ourselves when people had set it to show off their address so we decided to override that option globally and force every email to be hidden.