Blizzard seems to be the cause of any and all spam email I receive

[sebun]

I seriously have no other explanation.

Clever enough malware could read your cookies, cap your email and provide it to spammers. You mentioned that you are in Uni, have you ever logged into these emails from a shared computer? As others, I haven't had any of this spam in my Battle.net registered email, plenty of gaming related stuff on my private email though.

[StayTuned]

Explain why my WoW account email is the only one I DON'T get this spam on?

Nice try, but what you have is a conspiracy theory based on anecdotal evidence at best.
Not being confrontational, just pointing out a fact.

And I don't even disagree with you. I merely came here to see if I am really just seeing ghosts or if there are others with the same issue. But right now it looks like a two sided front in which some people actually do have the same issues, and other absolutely do not. Just weird.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 10:42 PM ----------

Clever enough malware could read your cookies, cap your email and provide it to spammers. You mentioned that you are in Uni, have you ever logged into these emails from a shared computer? As others, I haven't had any of this spam in my Battle.net registered email, plenty of gaming related stuff on my private email though.

As a matter of fact, I did... But how does this explain my experiment with the different emails?

[Deleted]

When I changed my email to have .se in the end. I never recieved any fishing emails anymore.

[plastkaze]

Edit: To make it clear. My PC 100% clean. I have never been hacked before. Not in WoW, not in any other game.

Really sure about that?
I'm in the same boat as you, only use one personal mail for my Blizzard account and I never get any spam in that one.

Also, 3-5 emails every day? That's more than I get in my normal "use for whatever forum I need to sign up to" mail per week. :3

[StayTuned]

Really sure about that?
I'm in the same boat as you, only use one personal mail for my Blizzard account and I never get any spam in that one.

Also, 3-5 emails every day? That's more than I get in my normal "use for whatever forum I need to sign up to" mail per week. :3

Sometimes even more. It's like I'm being super targeted despite the fact that I don't even own 99% of the games they want to steal from me. In addition to that I just delete them instantly. I already got so used to them that I just have to throw one glimpse at them and I know if they are legit or spam.

And seriously? No, I am not even sure about being clean anymore... but it hasn't anything to do with my computer in general. I blame the client for being unsafe since only my WoW related emails receive spam, but not my other gaming mails.

[sebun]

As a matter of fact, I did... But how does this explain my experiment with the different emails?

As said, cookies and malware, you can't be sure if the shared computer isn't infected as there are lots of clueless users (and IT crews) out there in Universities, libraries, offices and net cafes. The cookies could have shown interest on gaming websites, malware sends all recorded e-mails to spammer who then shoots out some gaming scams towards every email recorded with high chance of getting responses because of the afore mentioned clueless users.

Just to show how easy it is to figure out your browsing interests, go ahead and disable adblock and see if what kind of advertisements you are pushed. Where do you think the advertisers figure out that what target group you fit in? Anyhow, email phishing in most cases is like fishing with shotgun, shoot in the general direction of the fish and wait for results.

[StayTuned]

As said, cookies and malware, you can't be sure if the shared computer isn't infected as there are lots of clueless users (and IT crews) out there in Universities, libraries, offices and net cafes. The cookies could have shown interest on gaming websites, malware sends all recorded e-mails to spammer who then shoots out some gaming scams towards every email recorded with high chance of getting responses because of the afore mentioned clueless users.

Just to show how easy it is to figure out your browsing interests, go ahead and disable adblock and see if what kind of advertisements you are pushed. Where do you think the advertisers figure out that what target group you fit in? Anyhow, email phishing in most cases is like fishing with shotgun, shoot in the general direction of the fish and wait for results.

Mmmh. Might be worth asking if some of my fellow students are also being spammed. I know a few gamers who might be using their email for gaming as well.

[Orange Joe]

I doubt that blizzard is actually selling them. I much more assume that there is a security issue regarding battle.net. Either within the web browser, or the client directly.

You think your pc is more secure than blizzards network...... LMMFAO

[blackblade]

Edit: To make it clear. My PC 100% clean. I have never been hacked before. Not in WoW, not in any other game.

When was the last time you ran a spyware scan?

It's incredibly easy to write a little nugget of code that fishes up anything that resembles an email and store it into a cookie in your browser. Adservers then harvest this information by reading the cookie through javascript and sending it back to their servers to be stored in a database. Not being hacked in WoW does not mean you've got a clean computer.

Additionally, I hope this was spurned from a simple stroll through your spam folder and not through said emails actually landing in your email inbox.

[StayTuned]

You think your pc is more secure than blizzards network...... LMMFAO

My computer isn't the target of international hackers and comon man, the client has been hacked before many times. Just one corrupted add on is enough and your client gives away all your info. That's how easy it is.

Additionally, I hope this was spurned from a simple stroll through your spam folder and not through said emails actually landing in your email inbox

Unfortunately not. Ironically enough, my spam folder is totally empty.

[The Glitch]

Seems strange, I have 1 email address for my Battle.net account ( and ONLY used for this), nearly 7 years now and have never had any mail sent to it other than legit WoW email.

my everyday email I use for everyday stuff though gets those scam emails from *blizz* all the time. But it also gets a ton of other mail from other non gaming companies scams too.

Dunno what to tell you, but as I said my wow email is and has always been scam free.

[Araxom]

Hey all, it's worth nothing that these messages that have any variation of 'it has come to our attention that you're trying to sell your X account' are not actually from Blizzard Entertainment - and are one of the many prevalent forms of phishing/spam that are reported to us. For more information about phishing mails, we offer our support page which provides details about how to detect such scams. It can be pretty tricky trying to determine when a message is legitimately from us, as often times the spammers will modify the mail in such a way to make it look like it's coming from an address that it really is not. We would appreciate it if you would forward any suspicious emails to our investigative team, at hacks@blizzard.com - otherwise, you are also welcome to contact our customer support directly.

[Tziva]

Either your email was compromised at some point or you have been using or displaying that email elsewhere and forgot. Remember, if you've ever used it to send mail and a recipient was compromised, you can end up on lists that way.

It would be contrary to Blizzard's own interests to sell your email address, because an increase in spam is an increase in phishing is an increased in customer service resources they have to invest to fix compromised accounts.

I have a secret email address that I use for battle.net that I use for absolutely nothing else. I have never sent outgoing mail, I have never used it a single time to sign up for a related website or newsletter. I can look at my email history in the past eight years and I do not have a single mail anywhere in the entire inbox that was not from Blizzard directly.

I do get lots of spam and phishing emails (50+ a day) on my general WoW email address that I use to sign up for MMO related websites and forums, and it is also the one available on my guild and raiding forums and blog. But I also get tons of spam for WoW and dozens of other MMOs on my primary email address that I never use for those things and has no association with those games at all.

Of all the possible reasons why you're getting spam email, Blizzard having sold your email address to spammers is about the least reasonable conclusion.

[Eliandal]

Just one corrupted add on is enough and your client gives away all your info. That's how easy it is.

Oh come ON! Now you're just spreading mis-information. There is no such thing as a corrupt addon. If YOU allowed an executable to run in the process of installing an addon - then it's all on you.

The email I created specifically for the Battle.net merge has never recieved spam.

My regular old email that I originally started WoW with - and use for gaming sites (such as this one) recieves a few per week.

Finally - check where these Emails originate from. I can almost guarentee you it will be China. Occasionally Malaysia and very rarely South Korea. If Blizzard was found to be selling information to China....Yeah...that wouldn't go over well ;P

[Uselessrouge]

i never got any mails until i singed up on a site that was wow related... not gonna name it but it was a big wow site with addons, news and more.. no not MMOC xD
i have no clue why i did not use the fake e-mail like i allways did but when i realised it was to late.. >.<

[Anjerith]

The website you visit are the cause of your Blizzard related spam mail, not Blizzard.

Try investing in AVG (it's free) and I would recommend against visiting 'certain sites'. Other than that, at this point trackers are far far more complex than your average bear, so your just going to have to live with a little spam from the Gold Sellers and Account thieves every now and then.

It is, however, not Blizzards fault.

[Chief Brouhaha]

No, you probably just signed up for another website around the same time you were signing up for wow that this happened, or else everyone would have the problem.

[Orange Joe]

My computer isn't the target of international hackers and comon man, the client has been hacked before many times. Just one corrupted add on is enough and your client gives away all your info. That's how easy it is.




Unfortunately not. Ironically enough, my spam folder is totally empty.

I would like proof please.

[Thelxi]

Key is to use unique addresses and passwords an for everything you do. That includes forums, games, whatever. Only once you start using overlapping adresses and passwords things can get messy, even get your accounts "hacked".

[Endtime]

Did you ever consider the email client you are using? Just today in class, the instructor was mentioning how g-mail is great at blocking spam to almost nothing compared to other clients...like Hotmail.