IMPORTANT!! Beware, my GW 2 account has been hacked

[ricketts1978]

Beware everyone! I just recently tried to log into my account finding my password wouldn't work. I attempted to change the password several times and it kept saying that the passwords have been stolen....not sure what that was all about.

I then check my e-mail and find that for about a week, someone in China (I am located in USA) has been attempting to log into my account. When I was finally able to change my password in my guildwars2.com account, it listed 3 domains from china that had accessed my account.

Once that was determined, and I tried to log into the game client, it said that my account had been PERMANENTLY TERMINATED due to gold/gem selling for real money.

For real man, I have been playing MMORPG's for 5 years at least....and have never had this happen before. I am still waiting for tech support to contact me with details.

So as a warning, check your e-mail regularly and your guildwars2.com account to make sure no unkown domains are trying to access your account. I guess changing your password regularly is a no brainer also.
If anyone has any other suggestions to keep this from happening to other honest gamers like me, please post for all to benefit.
I only hope that I haven't lost all of my gaming progress.
Thank you
ricketts1978

[Vayne]

Wow, that totally sucks. Having had my account hacked once (not in Guild Wars 2), I know how you feel. It's a horrible feeling.

I agree, everyone should take all due care.

By the way, I moved this to Guild Wars 2 general, since this isn't really news about the game.

[Fey]

Ooofff... "Permanently Suspended" is a little harsh for being hacked.

Their tech support should be able to get your account back for you and straighten up this mess. Hopefully, anyway. Considering ANet's support team and their track record... that might be a little optimistic. But here's hoping everything works out for you.

[ricketts1978]

I have been escalated to violation review. So far I am being treated like a criminal....meanwhile my vacation from work drifts on by and the free time that I have now I can't enjoy the game that I have paid for. Will keep posted on the progress. I just hope I don't loose all of my characters and game progress if I get anything back at all.

Ooofff... "Permanently Suspended" is a little harsh for being hacked.

Their tech support should be able to get your account back for you and straighten up this mess. Hopefully, anyway. Considering ANet's support team and their track record... that might be a little optimistic. But here's hoping everything works out for you.

[Castelvet]

that sucks! I hope your account wold be restored soon. What a mess

[Gismo]

Sorry to hear that. The reason they contact you via e-mail is to let you know about access to your account so please register an e-mail address you actually use daily - have a look in your EULA - it's all there.

Having had my game password brute force cracked (I only used that password for Guildwars2 game only - I have a thing about multi access passwords) they tried to access my account from China and Anet sent me the first e-mail just to confirm that it was ME accessing my account. When I replied that it was not (I was at my work at the time) they blocked all access until I could get home to sort things out.

First step - run Spybot S&D and a few other tools to make sure my home PCs are clean. Paranoid I may be but that does not mean that they are not watching me!

Second step - new password and even longer than the first one was. I also suggest changing it on a monthly basis.

Third step - Anet have some tricks up their sleeves - they will get back in contact with you ONCE they sort out the suspension issue and you can limit where your account can be accessed from. There are other options but you will have to tell them what will work for you.

Fourth step - read your future e-mails daily as they will give you 24 hours grace before changing anything like access.

Anet support was brilliant and saved me from the OPs fate. If the OP had responded to the first e-mail he would have been ok too!

P.S. His account was not suspended for being hacked at all. It was suspended for gold selling while it was being accessed from China - slight difference.

[cobaltcurse]

How do you even get your account hacked, unless you get suckered into a phishing site? I have heard of key loggers, but I have never seen it myself, and have been all over the net since 28.8k aol days. I have ordered tons of stuff off the internet, on sites that said they "were encrypted but a third party could still access my info easily", and never had one case of stolen identity. In fact I used to use my social security number for a lot of my passwords (brilliant I know).

So my question is, what kinda sites are you visiting, are you buying gold, or paying people to level your characters?

[Vayne]

How do you even get your account hacked, unless you get suckered into a phishing site? I have heard of key loggers, but I have never seen it myself, and have been all over the net since 28.8k aol days. I have ordered tons of stuff off the internet, on sites that said they "were encrypted but a third party could still access my info easily", and never had one case of stolen identity. In fact I used to use my social security number for a lot of my passwords (brilliant I know).

So my question is, what kinda sites are you visiting, are you buying gold, or paying people to level your characters?

You can easily get hacked without buying gold or paying people to level your character. That is because sometimes databases are broken into. If you use the same password for multiple games and one of them is compromised, them all of them are compromised. It's very simple.

I used the same password for my Guild Wars 1 account and some of the sites I used to log into to post on. One of those sites was compromised and so my Guild Wars 1 account was stolen.

When Rift was first launched, the game itself had a security hole in it which led to rampant hacking. Don't assume because you weren't hacked that someone who was has bought gold, because you'd be wrong.

[Fey]

Yeah, don't forget that ArenaNet was breached right after launch. Hence why people were so mad that they didn't have proper authenticators. They still don't, do they? They're like in "beta" or some nonsense.

[Vayne]

Yeah, don't forget that ArenaNet was breached right after launch. Hence why people were so mad that they didn't have proper authenticators. They still don't, do they? They're like in "beta" or some nonsense.

Anet was breached? Ummm, where did you hear that?