What steps does one take when an account is stolen
By
Catie_Wayne,
Posted on: 2009-07-12 21:15 in Player Questions
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My FFXI account was hacked 3 times, each time stealing hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay from me (expensive items.)
[/ QUOTE ]How on earth could this happen? Did they not have freaking passwords or something???
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My CoX account has yet to be hacked, but I'd like to know what I should do in the chance that this should happen to me.
[/ QUOTE ]AFAIK, if you report it, they'll restore stuff for you. Not a limited number of times...
But seriously, use a STRONG password, do NOT download random crap from the internet and get yourself infected (and by extension, don't use Internet Explorer, ever), and especially don't share your login information with ANYONE. Even your login *name*.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Most of the time, accounts become "hacked" when the person downloads an addon or some other kind of assistance program (Hero Stats being the closest analog we have) and a keylogger is attached to it.
Only download these types of programs from reputable sites, if you download them at all. Your chances of getting "hacked" will plummet.
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But seriously, use a STRONG password, do NOT download random crap from the internet and get yourself infected (and by extension, don't use Internet Explorer, ever), and especially don't share your login information with ANYONE. Even your login *name*.
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Especially the Gold Farmers you'll get in-game emails from. There have been reports of them doing exactly what you describe of "pillaging" accounts; to say nothing of credit card fraud.
Sadly, I spent the time looking up the info on PlayNC's website in the support question. Here's the answer:
"Please understand that NCsoft does not have the ability to protect systems outside of its network, and cannot control the actions of any user which may be using your machine. It is each user's responsibility to keep secure their computer system and keep private their account information. Because of this, we will not be able to reimburse you in any way for anything else done to your account by a computer criminal. This is another reason it is imperative to do everything possible to make your computer safe. If someone does break into your computer and hacks your game data, you should contact your local authorities to report this crime."
Search Account Security FAQ on the PlayNC support tab and it should pull that up. You may have to specify City of Heroes, but not too sure of that.
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I know this is nitpicking semantics, but accounts don't get hacked. People either share their passwords with the wrong people or get themselves infected with a keylogger by being careless. *Hacking* would mean someone broke into the NCSoft servers and pulled the account info directly from there. Trust me, if they did that, we'd ALL know. And they'd be going after bigger things than login info....
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They won't reimburse because they can't prove it was done by a hacker. Who's to say you (generic you) didn't just hand your info to a friend and say "go in and transfer it all off" and then report it?
Use a strong password and be smart about downloading stuff off the net, and don't share your info with ANYONE even your best friend that you've known since before you were born.
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My FFXI account was hacked 3 times, each time stealing hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay from me (expensive items.)
[/ QUOTE ]How on earth could this happen? Did they not have freaking passwords or something???
[/ QUOTE ]
A bunch of FFXI's trustworthy fan sites were hacked and given trojans on the main pages. There were waves of stolen accounts in that game for years and people still get hacked to this day. IGE's RMT became very wealthy off of this.
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Sadly, I spent the time looking up the info on PlayNC's website in the support question. Here's the answer:
"Please understand that NCsoft does not have the ability to protect systems outside of its network, and cannot control the actions of any user which may be using your machine. It is each user's responsibility to keep secure their computer system and keep private their account information. Because of this, we will not be able to reimburse you in any way for anything else done to your account by a computer criminal. This is another reason it is imperative to do everything possible to make your computer safe. If someone does break into your computer and hacks your game data, you should contact your local authorities to report this crime."
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Ouch...
edits: fixed
Just FYI, this is pretty standard with most MMOs. Blizzard won't reimburse you, nor will SOE for hacked accounts.
It is imperative as others have said that you do not use any risky net behavior. The chance of someone randomly targetting you just through an ip trace or random port pings is next to nil. It is usually done through malicious programming or tactics to get your account information, such as the ones the gold sellers use.
I've been playing MMOs for approx 10 years, and I've never lost an account or been compromised in any game.
It's unfortunate about the information sites, but its a risk in any industry.
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Servers: Exalted, Triumph, Champion
Alts: 32
Steam Profile
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My FFXI account was hacked 3 times, each time stealing hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay from me (expensive items.)
[/ QUOTE ]How on earth could this happen? Did they not have freaking passwords or something???
[/ QUOTE ]
A bunch of FFXI's trustworthy fan sites were hacked and given trojans on the main pages.
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Firefox + noscript = <3
Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint
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My FFXI account was hacked 3 times, each time stealing hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay from me (expensive items.)
[/ QUOTE ]How on earth could this happen? Did they not have freaking passwords or something???
[/ QUOTE ]
A bunch of FFXI's trustworthy fan sites were hacked and given trojans on the main pages.
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Firefox + noscript = <3
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Opera = <3 
Assuming he used the word 'trojan' correctly, I assumed that he meant they put up a download ("Hey, try out this awesome new mod!") which actually stole the information, not had an exploit on the site that'd infect people's computers through the suck that is IE.
(also a fan of Webkit... been using the original since before it was created )
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Some sites in the case of WoW have been known to use scripting on their webpage to infect computers with keyloggers.
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Avatar art by Daggerpoint
Yup, the WoW forums are also rife with posts from keylogged accounts with links to more keylogger sites. Usually they're pretty easy to spot (broken english and nonsensical topics), but they're becoming smarter, I've seen some that are distinguishable from normal posts only because the account cross-posted them in every forum. It's kind of scary and my time reading the forums there taught me to be very careful about which links I follow.
I was going to say that the reimbursement thing probably only applied to actual money ("Gimme back my subscription fees!"), but rereading it definitely says they will do squat to help you at all.
Well, at least SOs are cheap.
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Some sites in the case of WoW have been known to use scripting on their webpage to infect computers with keyloggers.
[/ QUOTE ]No one's gonna target the browser with 1% market share!
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
|
[ QUOTE ]
It's kind of scary and my time reading the forums there taught me to be very careful about which links I follow.
[/ QUOTE ]One could say that my effort has been to teach people to be aware of their environment 
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
|
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Some sites in the case of WoW have been known to use scripting on their webpage to infect computers with keyloggers.
[/ QUOTE ]No one's gonna target the browser with 1% market share!
[/ QUOTE ]
It's not targeting any browser specifically. Unless you go into the settings to actively disable scripting on all websites or have an addon like NoScript for Firefox that'll allow you to pick and choose which sites to allow, any modern browser can be hit by it. ( I actually think IE can inherently be set now to that functionality, by the way... )
Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint
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Just FYI, this is pretty standard with most MMOs. Blizzard won't reimburse you, nor will SOE for hacked accounts.
It is imperative as others have said that you do not use any risky net behavior. The chance of someone randomly targetting you just through an ip trace or random port pings is next to nil. It is usually done through malicious programming or tactics to get your account information, such as the ones the gold sellers use.
I've been playing MMOs for approx 10 years, and I've never lost an account or been compromised in any game.
It's unfortunate about the information sites, but its a risk in any industry.
[/ QUOTE ]
That just reminded me of my old WoW account. I played the game for one whole month then came back to CoH.
I uninstalled the game, canceled my account, deleted my credit card info and left their world for good.
About a year later I get an e-mail from Blizzard. "Your account has been banned for using a bot"
o.O?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
I hadn't touched the game in a year, long after my 6 month account had lapsed. I hadn't gone to any fan-sites that could have had a keylogger; so the only thing I could figure is they either fudged something up in their security or someone got into my account somehow.
I sit in my zen of not being able to do anything right while simultaniously not being able to do anything wrong. Om. -CuppaJo
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
There is an alternate theory... someone on the inside is giving out or selling account info to the RMT.
Doc Mech-Nec (Exalted): 50 Bots/FF MM
Crey Radiation Tank (Exalted): 50 Rad/Rad Corr
Servers: Exalted, Triumph, Champion
Alts: 32
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You know back in the dusty days of the early part of the game my account was neither hacked or stolen, my crazy ex decided to change my passwords to all my games. What it took to re-claim my CoH game was I had to call NCsoft and present them with my original CD key, billing address and credit card info, they then had me fax a copy of the original CD key. It was neither easy or fun.
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It's kind of scary and my time reading the forums there taught me to be very careful about which links I follow.
[/ QUOTE ]One could say that my effort has been to teach people to be aware of their environment
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I only keep clicking your links because I find that sort of thing amusing. but not amusing enough to +fav/bookmark.
"My inner mind has become a reality-cracking overgod. He torments me! Help!"
That my friend is the reason why I trust people with my life, but never my passwords.
Doc Mech-Nec (Exalted): 50 Bots/FF MM
Crey Radiation Tank (Exalted): 50 Rad/Rad Corr
Servers: Exalted, Triumph, Champion
Alts: 32
Steam Profile
Losing your account to an internet thief would suck badly.
My wife knows my account information, and I know hers. No one else knows it. We shared the information so we could do transfers while the other was not home. We do not play on each other's accounts.
My wife's computer was compromised by System Security recently. In the interest of not getting information or identities stolen, as soon as she realized that it had happened she cleaned it. She did not input any passwords to anything while it was there.
(We got lucky, Symantec will sometimes catch System Security if you reboot right away, just an FYI, it's a good antispyware program from what I've seen)
But basically, if someone hacks your account information and changes passwords and such, you're pretty much screwed.
I wonder how many people gave RMTers their account information and gave them money for a PL, only to discover that they had paid them to steal their account instead?
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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Just FYI, this is pretty standard with most MMOs. Blizzard won't reimburse you, nor will SOE for hacked accounts.
It is imperative as others have said that you do not use any risky net behavior. The chance of someone randomly targetting you just through an ip trace or random port pings is next to nil. It is usually done through malicious programming or tactics to get your account information, such as the ones the gold sellers use.
I've been playing MMOs for approx 10 years, and I've never lost an account or been compromised in any game.
It's unfortunate about the information sites, but its a risk in any industry.
[/ QUOTE ]
That just reminded me of my old WoW account. I played the game for one whole month then came back to CoH.
I uninstalled the game, canceled my account, deleted my credit card info and left their world for good.
About a year later I get an e-mail from Blizzard. "Your account has been banned for using a bot"
o.O?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
I hadn't touched the game in a year, long after my 6 month account had lapsed. I hadn't gone to any fan-sites that could have had a keylogger; so the only thing I could figure is they either fudged something up in their security or someone got into my account somehow.
[/ QUOTE ]
I got a similar email from them. I had the trial, hated it and never upgraded. About a year later I get an email from them saying my account was banned for prohibited activity. I replied to them to tell them the account had to have been accessed fraudulently, since I had never upgraded it. I got a response that the decision could not be appealed. I explained that I wasn't appealing it, that they could ban, delete, or blow up the account for all I cared, just that somehow the account was hacked. I got another email from a senior GM that their prior response was the final decision and the account would not be restored...I gave up after that....
Kyle Al'Mordu - Lvl 50 MA/SR Scrap
Fusion Force!
TRIUMPH
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<QR>
You know back in the dusty days of the early part of the game my account was neither hacked or stolen, my crazy ex decided to change my passwords to all my games. What it took to re-claim my CoH game was I had to call NCsoft and present them with my original CD key, billing address and credit card info, they then had me fax a copy of the original CD key. It was neither easy or fun.
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I went through the same thing a couple months ago when my accounts were banned due to a billing screw up. I actually had to get into a three-way call with NC support and my credit card company before they would release the accounts. It was not a fun couple of days.
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Just FYI, this is pretty standard with most MMOs. Blizzard won't reimburse you, nor will SOE for hacked accounts.
It is imperative as others have said that you do not use any risky net behavior. The chance of someone randomly targetting you just through an ip trace or random port pings is next to nil. It is usually done through malicious programming or tactics to get your account information, such as the ones the gold sellers use.
I've been playing MMOs for approx 10 years, and I've never lost an account or been compromised in any game.
It's unfortunate about the information sites, but its a risk in any industry.
[/ QUOTE ]
That just reminded me of my old WoW account. I played the game for one whole month then came back to CoH.
I uninstalled the game, canceled my account, deleted my credit card info and left their world for good.
About a year later I get an e-mail from Blizzard. "Your account has been banned for using a bot"
o.O?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
I hadn't touched the game in a year, long after my 6 month account had lapsed. I hadn't gone to any fan-sites that could have had a keylogger; so the only thing I could figure is they either fudged something up in their security or someone got into my account somehow.
[/ QUOTE ]
I got a similar email from them. I had the trial, hated it and never upgraded. About a year later I get an email from them saying my account was banned for prohibited activity. I replied to them to tell them the account had to have been accessed fraudulently, since I had never upgraded it. I got a response that the decision could not be appealed. I explained that I wasn't appealing it, that they could ban, delete, or blow up the account for all I cared, just that somehow the account was hacked. I got another email from a senior GM that their prior response was the final decision and the account would not be restored...I gave up after that....
[/ QUOTE ]
Wow. . . .seriously, wow.
Makes me glad I didn't do anything more than laugh, shrug my shoulders, delete the e-mail and laugh some more.
I sit in my zen of not being able to do anything right while simultaniously not being able to do anything wrong. Om. -CuppaJo
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
A question mark didn't fit at the end of that subject.
What steps does one take when an account is stolen?
Pretend scenario: I wake up in the morning, or come home only to discover that someone has "stolen" my account information. What steps should I player take to retrieve their account again?
As I recall while playing FFXI, I could call the 1800 number that is open from around 7 in the morning to 9 at night. They offered an account restore, one per account, where an account could be rolled back to the last date give or take a couple hours of when the original owner last played/remembered playing. Sadly, they only offered *ONE* and if your account was hacked a 2nd time it means you are [censored] and all you can do is change your password and live with a "Naked" character because all of your stuff is missing.
Ew, a brick wall of text right there. That is how FFXI/Playonline/SquareEnix handled Account theft.
How does NCSoft handle it? Can my account be "rolled back" to the date I last remember having it? If they respec all my 50s multiple times to get out the expensive purple recipes I have covering the majority of my 50s and transfer the "loot" to a character of their own... If that unthinkable act of desperation is committed, can I have my items returned to me?
If so, how many times can this be used?
My FFXI account was hacked 3 times, each time stealing hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay from me (expensive items.) My CoX account has yet to be hacked, but I'd like to know what I should do in the chance that this should happen to me.
EDIT: I also changed the subject from "hacked" to "stolen".