Hacked!

It's a beautiful weekend for hacking someone's WoW account and going wild on EVERY realm in Azeroth.

Last week we ordered an authenticator for the account. Looking back I should have just ordered the one that you can put on your iPod, but I was worried about the security of that. It takes up to three weeks for the authenticator to arrive. In the meantime I continued playing. I have a secure home computer and I don't click on links in the forums, etc, so I thought I was safe. In five and a half years we've had no trouble with the account. However, recently various people I know have been hacked including my ARCH-ENEMY, so I became concerned about the reality of hacking.

Friday our account got flagged and suspended for suspicious behaviour. Mr. Chronic Geek deleted some characters Thursday and sent the gold to another character on the same account. At first I thought that this was why we got suspended. When that lifted and I logged on the gold was gone and I thought Blizzard had taken it for suspicious activity.

Saturday we received notice that our account had been closed. I was so angry that I called my dear girl Absolute Anne (of Distilled Geek Commentary) and had a good long discussion that contained many instances of the F-word. I knew the next day that I would have to call Blizzard if I wanted to get this sorted out.

Calling Blizzard is a dreary prospect that no one wants to have to face. It's a nearly impossible task just to get into the hold queue. However, after a few tries today I was finally on hold and I ended up talking to a really nice guy. I have a philosophy of being very nice to call center people and service people in general. I've worked in a call center. It can be horrifying. After you have been viciously yelled at by an elderly woman for a one cent state tax on a bill something happens to your brain that can never be undone.

So, Blizzard Guy and I had a nice chat. We discovered that my account had been hacked. Some hacker or hackers started 180 random level one characters and spammed every realm on the game and deleted our other characters. Oh you know, hacking the account isn't enough, they really have to take a piss on you and delete your characters too! Ouch! It will take 5 to 6 days to fix. Hopefully the authenticator arrives soon. Hopefully some of my characters and gear will be restored. I am happy Blizzard is going to help, but damn it sucks.

I can't really close with any parting advice but to tell you that if you play WoW and don't have an authenticator you should get one to avoid my fate.