Authenticator removed without permission

[thebuzzard]

I got home yesterday and logged in to find I had acquired an extra level 1 warrior on my main realm, I logged it in and found most of my gold had been mailed to this character. Realizing I had been hacked I logged in my battle.net to changed my password etc to see my authenticator had been removed, I have now re-added it, changed my email and password and scanned my PC 3 times for viruses ( I have foolishly used the same email/password on my account for the last 8 years, assuming I wasnt at risk with an authenticator). Now nothing seems to have been lost but I dont know what shannagins the hacker has been up to on my account for the few hours they had access and I really want to know why my authenticator was removed without proper ID proof from myself. Whats the point in an authenticator if it can be removed so easily? The hacker submitted 3 tickets (2 before and 1 after I discovered the issue) to remove the autheticator all 3 were rejected with standard responses that the ID wasnt sufficient but the authenticator was removed anyway.

TLDR: How the hell did my authenticator get removed by a hacker?

[Howard Moon]

Over the phone with Blizz's customer support, possibly.

[Deleted]

I think you were lucky just logging in time . No idea about the authenticator though, everything fine now?

[Deleted]

What's really bugging me is why didn't they change your password, so they could take your stuff before you had a chanse to log on? :O

[thebuzzard]

I think I caught it just in time, like I mentioned they didnt manage to offload any of my gold and they didnt change the password or email address. Mainly posted to here to raise awareness that authenticator doesnt mean youre secure if blizzard will remove it, by accident or however I dont know yet.

[Deleted]

I think I caught it just in time, like I mentioned they didnt manage to offload any of my gold and they didnt change the password or email address. Mainly posted to here to raise awareness that authenticator doesnt mean youre secure if blizzard will remove it, by accident or however I dont know yet.

exact same thing happened to me like a week ago, i made a thread about it here. i was lucky i was online at the time. i logged in, in the morning to wow and it didnt ask me for authenticator like usual, it wasn't until a few hours after i got disconected a few times and then finally after about 15mins of logging in and getting DCd my password changed. so i phoned blizzard and it turns out my authenticator had been removed a few hours earlier, no idea why they didnt change my pass right away. i managed to phone blizz and get the accoutn locked before any gold could be taken off the account.

[thebuzzard]

Did Blizzard give any answer as to why your authenticator had been removed without your ID?

[Araxom]

Difficult to say what happened without looking at the account - however, if the authenticator was removed by someone else, we'd be able to see where it was removed from. If a player has not called in to us to remove the authenticator, we will only assist if the Govt. or State issued ID has been submitted to us with the request. If you haven't done so already, please contact us directly to report the issue. Authenticators are still the #1 best way of protecting your account. There is no guarantee we can ever provide that something is going to offer you 100% protection against a compromise - but the level of protection that an authenticator offers is supremely higher than what you have without one.

[Needonboots]

Difficult to say what happened without looking at the account - however, if the authenticator was removed by someone else, we'd be able to see where it was removed from. If a player has not called in to us to remove the authenticator, we will only assist if the Govt. or State issued ID has been submitted to us with the request. If you haven't done so already, please contact us directly to report the issue. Authenticators are still the #1 best way of protecting your account. There is no guarantee we can ever provide that something is going to offer you 100% protection against a compromise - but the level of protection that an authenticator offers is supremely higher than what you have without one.

We have blues posting over here now?

[Shadowlance]

Blues to the rescue!!

[Frank Garrett]

what if they remove the authenticator and attach a new one to your account?

[Kiteh]

what if they remove the authenticator and attach a new one to your account?

If one has been removed you'd call them anyway, not sure how them attaching a new one would remedy things.