Armory Scams, Blue posts, Free Character Moves

[Salomo]

finally a str ring from the ashenverdict =D

[Keio]

5k gold says that its going to have ArP on it :P

132 strength
155 stam

85 ArP
90 crit
45 hit
{O} socket

thee str ring.

[Unpredictable]

Why does blizz never put drak'thul U.S. on the xfer to list?

http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census...servertypeid=2

At least for alliance.

[Barook]

5k gold says that its going to have ArP on it :P

132 strength
155 stam

85 ArP
90 crit
45 hit
{O} socket

thee str ring.

5 stats Str item? Keep telling yourself. No matter how it turns out, chances are quite high that the Str ring is going to suck, at least for Rets.

[nodwas]

Last I checked it was Emberstorm Battlegroup not Emberstone. Could be wrong but I checked the official website and I play in the battlegroup so I hope I'm not.

[breath]

Whats the name of the 'REAL ARMORY' text in the picture font?

[Gyrkan]

Thanks for the warning i guess :

[Upsimus]

Imho, the suckas who fall for that scam deserve to lose their account.

[bbr]

Heh, I got that site bookmarked, never bothered trying to google it.
I wonder if blizzard will tell google to remove it...

[Slagge]

5k gold says that its going to have ArP on it :P

132 strength
155 stam

85 ArP
90 crit
45 hit
{O} socket

thee str ring.

I hold my thumbs for a ring like that but it probably end up with just hit/crit so every spec can use it without to much fuss a bout it.

[Mithrilina]

The year is 2010. Avid internet gamers still need to be warned about scams online. The internet is hard.

Blizzard should just nerf hackers. ;-)

Or give all users the "Authenticator" buff.

Honestly though, I find blue posts describing Blizzard's reasoning behind not requiring every WoW account to use an authenticator, rather weak. Using multi-factor authentication of which one factor is an inconstant value protected by cryptographic time-sensitive algorithms is fairly strong in my opinion... and if every WoW player were using an authenticator, a lot of the scams - and scammers - in the game would go away.

"New WoW Feature x available now! Login to www.wowhackmetohellandgone.com, and send us your account authenticator in the post to be eligible for a preview!"... Yeah, I see that working. ;-)

[Marzenia]

OH NOES! SCAMS?? Again!?!
Who clicks that anyway. Get some sense ppl

[halmotors]

A lot of the people who play the game give me the very definite vibe that they have trouble tying their own shoes, let alone remembering where they put their authenticator. I've known several people who simply bought the authenticator, then didn't register it, thinking that all they needed to do is have it near their computer.

Blizzard is understandably cautious about requiring an authenticator to play the game. Requiring it brings up two scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Blizzard requires the authenticator to be used in order to play. They make a limited-time offer available for their paying customers to get one for free (we'll say a month's time for the sake of argument). Everyone (those who pay attention) gets their free authenticator, follows the simple instructions on how to set it up with their account (they won't be able to play otherwise), and everyone is happy. Blizzard is happy because they don't have to devote as much manpower and money to restoring lost accounts, items, gold, etc. It's less time and money spent trying to stamp out issues like the Google search we've been discussing. The players are happy because they can surf the wolrd wied webz without fear of having their account compromised. The only person who loses out are the people and companies that make a living off of stealing accounts and gold.

Scenario 2:
Blizzard requires the authenticator to be used in order to play. They do NOT make them available for free to paying customers. The inevitable backlash comes from their customer base over being forced to purchase $7 worth of peace of mind. Some of the customer base leaves the game and cancels their subscription (a good 25% of them will be back in short order, but that's not the point of this discussion). Those folks who already have the authenticator, and those folks who purchased it after it was made mandatory, are happy because they can now watch goat-on-monkey porn with no risk of having their account compromised. The scammers and account thieves are miserable because their main source of income and business has disappeared. Blizzard is happy because they don't have to devote as much manpower and money to restoring lost accounts, items, gold, etc.

With Scenario 1, the worst problem is that Blizzard makes an investment in their player base by giving out the authenticators. In the quantity that Blizzard purchases these in, and with the stated fact that the price of the authenticator is to cover shipping costs, this is NOT a big investment for such a huge return in money and manpower. What they spend on free authenticators they will most likely make back in saved manpower and costs.

With Scenario 2, Blizzard takes a calculated risk. They don't spend the money on the free authenticators, banking on their customer base to accept it and buy them. Blizz knows they're going to lose some customers over the decision; again, the saved manpower and costs may (or may not) counterbalance that and leave Blizzard in the green.

The common issue with both of these scenarios is that, even if in both of them the conversion to an authenticator-required login system is completely accepted, Blizzard is now going to have to spend time and money on customer support for the damn things. How many calls/emails a day does Blizzard get for lost authenticators? Questions about how to set them up (when they come with an instruction sheet a blind man could follow)? Then you run into people saying 'I have four accounts, and I have to use four separate authenticators?! BLASPHEMY!' (without taking the time to read and know that, yes, you can configure a single authenticator to multiple accounts). The time and money they saved by eliminating the theft of accounts is now being devoted, at least for the time-being, to customer support and service in regards to the new authenticator system.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. It's no wonder they haven't jumped on the idea of making authenticators required, provided for free or not.

[Hÿpe]

it really does suck.. going to take blizz 2 weeks to finish fixing my account. I got hit pretty bad from the armory scams.

[ArthurEdwards]

yeah i heard that when your account it get hacked you will be less prioritize and you never retrieve what you have instead you only be giving some sort of amount and 1 free week to play.