How to Recover a Hacked Account on World of Warcraft
So I went to bed last night reaching level 40 with one of my alternate toons and when I woke up this morning, I couldn’t get into my account. After scanning the support area on the World of Warcraft website, they had me go through different options to recover it. The only problem was that none of them worked. The end result? Well, how about 14,000 gold stolen, all my gear stripped on all my level 80s and steam coming out of my ears.
By the end of the day, I had my World of Warcraft account back in swing, but a further investigation was underway for me to retrieve my gold. Today I want to give you the ’411′ on how to recover a hacked account so the process is a little smoother.
1) Don’t Panic
Seriously, I was pissed when I couldn’t log into my account. The hacker added an authenticator to it so I wouldn’t be able to access it while he/she was stealing all my gold. This will make anyone panic, especially when you start wondering what else they could have taken from you (real money, credit card numbers, social security, etc.). However, there is no need to get upset because it will be resolved.
2) Request a New Password
When you go to log into your Battle.net account, be sure to click the “Forgot Password” link underneath. You will have to enter your email address, and they will send you a link you must click to reset your password. Unfortunately, this doesn’t change anything with the authenticator problem, but at least they won’t be able to log into your account again.
3) Check Your Computer
If you open up your “Task Manager” and click on the “Processes” box, you will be able to see everything that is running on your computer. Blizzard will send you to a specific site that helps you figure out if any of them are unknown or malicious. I spent two hours doing this myself and there was nothing to be found. While this is true, it’s well worth figuring out if someone can still get hold of your information.
During this time, you may want to update your Security to keep it from happening again.
4) Call, Post, or Email
Once you’ve completed the first 3 steps, you can either give Blizzard a call, email them or start a thread for “Unauthorized Authenticator.” I don’t recommend calling considering I did that first and they said the lines were full and I couldn’t even wait.
Since this happens to a lot of people, they ask that you DO NOT put multiple posts in the forum. Taking this route could get you banned from the forum, have a suspended account or both. I ended up starting a thread and it only took about 4 hours for them to have the authenticator removed.
5) Don’t let it Happen Again
Obviously, you don’t want to go through this again and you can eliminate it by just using common sense. The only thing I did last night that was different from any other night was visit WoWstead. This is a site where guilds setup their own sites so other wow gamers can see what they’re doing.
Now, I’m not saying they are the reason I got hacked, but it leaves room for thought. Also, disregard any suspicious email that comes from Blizzard, especially if it hits your spam box. I believe any email from them will come from “noreply@blizzard.com.”
Oh, and don’t waste your money purchasing wow gold. After all, the majority of those sites get their gold from hacking accounts like mine. If you need gold, learn how to make it on your own with a World of Warcraft gold making guide. This way you alleviate the risk all together.
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