A new version of the same scam. Catac beta spoof

[Grimsin]

free antivirus = virus.... antivirus = virus.... brwoser addons = virus... spyware = virus... malware = virus... free anything on the net = virus

i have not used antivirus in years and never get viruses. of course i dont download garbage and dont let other people use my comp and em capable of detecting and dismantling viruses without the help of a antivirus.

FireFox = uber elite, IE = newb user junk...

just be mindful of the fact that some websites just flat out do not support firefox period. few and far between though. infact only two come to mind...

as for where they get your email from... this is all much bigger then you think. The people responsible were running international scams long before wow came along. Wow just became a great target. so there are a few possibility on how the info was obtained. It did seem to get real bad when bliz switched to the battlenet account stuff. If they were hacked or have a security leak it is in battlenet. More then likely i would say though somewhere you used the email, or it maybe even more complex considering who may be behind it... like they are monitoring email sites for traffic... everyone who went and signed up for battlenet got a bunch of emails when they did especially those of us after lil pets. What may have gone on is they saw the traffic into certain email accounts and knew then that you were a wow player or at lest that you had a battle net account since im actually getting these emails for a few games i dont nor ever had played. and getting them for almost all the ones i have.

So the leak would not really be bliz's fault or problem. Another thought is that the info was sold by one place or the other... i wont point fingers and i doubt seriously bliz had anything to do with any of it. our free emails get paid for somehow.... the best way to support free email is to sell those email address to advertisers.

many of the letters grammar, frequency and other things match up a lot with 419 emails i get all the time. The whole thing would seem to be a sideshow of the 419 scams. Most likely run by the same entity. again i wont point any fingers to who that is here but... yea. The entitys behind the 419 scams do have the finances and power to do things mentioned above and fits together nicely... to bad the fbi refuses to do anything about it....

google 419 scam.


edit -- OOO or you could take my route... wreck your credit, go in the whole way over your head, get in trouble with the law. Then no one wants to steal your info, infact i put my info everywhere in the hopes someone will steal it so i can blame everything on them MUHAHAHA


One last thing, GET A BLIZ AUTHENTICATOR!!! its the best protection you can have. for wow anyway... lol for other things try LifeLock? or for other things try Trojan i hear there in the protection business hehe

[Tntdruid]

i never get em gmail nuke em for me

[Grimsin]

gmail is good i will admit. i get 0 spam to my gmail. my guess is google doesnt need to sell your info

[Cralor]

Originally Posted by Grimsin gmail is good i will admit. i get 0 spam to my gmail. my guess is google doesnt need to sell your info

I am getting spam now. But it is very good at weeding it. I just got the official Blizzard one in my Inbox, so it is working great.

[haylie]

Originally Posted by Grimsin im actually getting these emails for a few games i dont nor ever had played. and getting them for almost all the ones i have.

I know. I'm getting emails on both my email addresses (one has absolutely nothing to do with WoW) for games I don't even play, like Age of Conan.

One last thing, GET A BLIZ AUTHENTICATOR!!! its the best protection you can have. for wow anyway... lol for other things try LifeLock? or for other things try Trojan i hear there in the protection business hehe

http://www.wow.com/2010/02/28/man-in...uthenticators/

[Grimsin]

Originally Posted by haylie http://www.wow.com/2010/02/28/man-in...uthenticators/

Thats highly unlikely though, as it even says in the article. a good practice when typing passwords is to always make a mistake and backspace it. most keyloggers do not register backspace or even if they do it makes it harder for the person watching the logger to figure out what you typed. again though dont download funny stuff...

[Soulofsin_007]

{<-} {<-} 3434343. The {<-} is a backspace. And when typing it out like this...


Enter Password: ABCDEFG

Keylogger caught it exact way I typed it: Enter Password: ABC {<-} {<-} D {<-} { {<-} EFG

[Wella]

Anyone who falls for such an e-mail is either foreign or needs to seriously reconsider if Blizzard games are for them.

[voodoodad]

Originally Posted by Wella Anyone who falls for such an e-mail is either foreign or needs to seriously reconsider if Blizzard games are for them.

Good Lord... Do you really think this way, or are you just having a bad moment... Or month...

[Grimsin]

Originally Posted by Soulofsin_007 {<-} {<-} 3434343. The {<-} is a backspace. And when typing it out like this... Enter Password: ABCDEFG Keylogger caught it exact way I typed it: Enter Password: ABC {<-} {<-} D {<-} { {<-} EFG

not all loggers do the backspace and technically depending on how they are passing the authenticator code over to the login the backspace could foul that for sure. my point is that its highly unlikely and very difficult. so the authenticator can now be rated 99.99% secure... still the best protection.

[maurdr]

Originally Posted by Grimsin edit -- OOO or you could take my route... wreck your credit, go in the whole way over your head, get in trouble with the law. Then no one wants to steal your info, infact i put my info everywhere in the hopes someone will steal it so i can blame everything on them MUHAHAHA One last thing, GET A BLIZ AUTHENTICATOR!!! its the best protection you can have. for wow anyway... lol for other things try LifeLock? or for other things try Trojan i hear there in the protection business hehe

definitely lold so hard i almost fell outta my chair.

[xandora]

Originally Posted by Grimsin free antivirus = virus.... antivirus = virus.... brwoser addons = virus... spyware = virus... malware = virus... free anything on the net = virus i have not used antivirus in years and never get viruses. of course i dont download garbage and dont let other people use my comp and em capable of detecting and dismantling viruses without the help of a antivirus. ...snip...

This mindset annoys me. Yes, you may have never needed an antivirus software, but it doesn't mean that other people just need to 'wise up' or that they download garbage because they're not very smart about the internet.

I don't download garbage, but I still use an antivirus simply because on the off chance that I might need to get something from a questionable site I know I'll be protected from most nasties that may try and sneak in.

And suggesting Authenticators but not an Antivirus seems rather double-standardish if you ask me. :P

[Seerah]

Let's not forget the flash vulnerabilities (one is currently ongoing) that let baddies slip through a reputable site's ads. An antivirus is always a good idea.

And free =/= virus. I use the free version of AVG and haven't had issues with it.

[Psychophan7]

Originally Posted by Grimsin i have not used antivirus in years and never get viruses. of course i dont download garbage and dont let other people use my comp and em capable of detecting and dismantling viruses without the help of a antivirus.

Uhm, how would you know if you never get viruses if you haven't used anti-virus in years? That would be like covering your eyes to deal with a tiger; Just because you can't see it doesn't mean you're not going to get mauled.


Best advice ever, for everyone else:
1. Start up WoW.
2. At the login screen, click the "manage account" button.
3. Arrive at an official Blizzard site.

[Grimsin]

ooo praise the anti virus. I wont quote all the remarks that im remarking back to but plain and simple. I dont need anti virus, never have, i know when i have a virus, i know how to deal with them. If you dont, by all means get antivirus.

I hear the free AVG is good as well. I wouldn't use it with your ten foot pole. That doesn't mean YOU shouldn't use it with your OWN pole...

There is absolutely no argument in the fact that they slow your system down. For me the security they provide is slim to none and not worth the performance decrease.

Many antivirus programs ESPECIALLY the free ones are in fact viruses/addware/malware/spyware. If you would like i can email you 100 sites with supposed antivirus that falls into one of the category's mentioned. and btw AVG is addware.... IMHO learning to not download viruses and how to deal with them WITHOUT an antivirus sounds much safer then trusting antivirus software.

Im not saying that the average joe shouldnt use norten or macafee or avg or something but i personally will not use them and i recommend to my clients that they also use other forms of protection rather then using antivirus. Since you can protect yourself at a more base lvl.

and its far from double standard they are two totally different things. you think your firewall and your antivirus fall into the same category to? to entirely different types of security, if they were not do you think they would come defaulted as both running when you install Windows?

Flat out people do need to 'wise up' which is exactly why i started this thread and posted that email. wise up to the fact the scammers are out there, they are getting better and we need to pay more attention. Dont rely on antivirus, learn more about whats going on. How it all works.

A lot of viruses disable your antivirus. Now what? The only way you ever know you have a virus is when your antivirus tells you? wow... and people wonder why they get hacked....

[Grimsin]

let me tell a little story to just show exactly what im talking about and why you must be VERY careful even with your antivirus.

soo a few weeks ago i had let my tenants use my laptop. They came to me one night saying that it had a virus. That they had downloaded a free antivirus and it said there was a virus. However this so called free antivirus said it needed to be paid for in order to be capable of removing the virus.

There was no virus. The antivirus itself was in fact a addware as well as a trojan. I found it doing a handful of malicious things.

So... check these links out... and be careful with everything you do. "ignorance is bliss" until it kills you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software

http://www.spywarevoid.com/remove-al...oval-help.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

[Si_]

As a user of AVG free the only ads I've seen is the one ad on the main screen about upgrading to the pro version, at least in my opinion this doesn't qualify it as adware for the simple reason that they are well within their rights to try and entice people to buy the "upgraded" version of their software.

For me adware has to show ads that are completely unrelated to the software itself, like those stupid toolbars that seem to be in a lot of open source software's installers these days.

As for the performance gain by not using AV software, most computers should be able to run an AV without any noticeable performance hit.

when it comes down to it, its the uses decision whether to install AV software and stuff, you might think you are safe without it and fair enough, as for me I have AV installed as a piece of mind thing, I know how to use the internet and not get all that stuff but on a networked environment which I'm almost always connected to, I don't know if everyone else is a smart of an internet user as i am.

I treat it sort of like the authenticators, I don't really need it but its nice to know its there just in case.

As far as scam emails go, does anyone else enjoy reading them? I always open them up and have a good laugh at the bad grammar/website addresses

like the other day i had one that had "https3asdffaa22s3f5g" in the middle of the web address, hilarious

[MoonWitch]

Originally Posted by Grimsin lhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software http://www.spywarevoid.com/remove-al...oval-help.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

Because of the current risk at rogueware (which is a fairly recent trend btw), you should only use reputable antivirus software, be it free or paid That's all there is to it.

Leave the choice up to people, on whether or not to use antivirus software and which one.

[Melody Kitn]

I've been lucky with the spoofs in a sense. I changed my email addy to a more private one that I only use for WoW and that's it.

So when I see a supposedly official notice from Blizzard in the old account, I know not to bother with it and dump it straight in the trash.

I also have a habit of just checking my mail on the phone now, just in case I misclick somewhere...

[elals29]

Originally Posted by Melody Kitn I've been lucky with the spoofs in a sense. I changed my email addy to a more private one that I only use for WoW and that's it. So when I see a supposedly official notice from Blizzard in the old account, I know not to bother with it and dump it straight in the trash. I also have a habit of just checking my mail on the phone now, just in case I misclick somewhere...

Yeah the best way to NOT get hacked is to make an email addy just for your account. It's the safest way. I did that too and it's easier to catch offical blizz emails if you tend to get alot of mails in your inbox.