Guild Wars 2

One of my guild members had his account hacked. Anet has officially confirmed his account, refunded everything gone, restored the account. What they did not do is take into account that when this account was hacked they also hacked the guild bank. We lost easily 300 gold worth of items and gold. Instead of an acknowledgment of what was done, we get told they won’t get involved in guild politics. How about opening your eyes and seeing that this is NOT a guild politics issue. This was an account breach. This is not a random player, this is someone that one of the guild leaders knows in real life. It is 100% proven BY anet that this account was hacked. So to tell me that it’s a guild issue, is NOT ok by me. What makes me the most mad is that this is not being handled properly. There has been a huge amount of hacks that have occurred in the last few weeks. There is a huge increase in gold seller spams! The mega server is complete crap! We have had to do multiple guild missions in one sitting because people can’t get onto the same map. I really don’t know where the customer based support went that guild wars once had. This is not the company I remember from playing gw1 the past 7/8 years. This issue took 2 weeks to even get an answer. I now see why so many people are leaving gw2. Lack of content, lack of good customer support, increased hacks and gold sellers. It just isn’t the game it used to be. Sad really. Below you will find my interaction with support. I also have screen shots of everything taken from the guild bank.

GM Anduril (Guild Wars 2 Support)
May 04 18:14

Hello Erin,

Thank you for updating us regarding this issue.

While we understand that you would have preferred to receive a different response to your petition, we must reiterate that we are unable to fulfill your request.

Regards,

GM Anduril

May 03 11:27

You guys reactivated the hacked account. You know the stuff that was stolen was via a hack. If your security was better we wouldn’t have lost all that. I have screen shots upon screen shots of what was taken. If it was someone random we would have just dealt with it. It wasn’t. It’s someone we know in real life, someone who had his account hacked! Horrible customer support on your end. No wonder I see more and more people leaving guild wars. Sad to know that I have played since beta of gw1 and alpha on gw2. I would think you would compensate somehow especially with the increase of hacked accounts since you releases your almighty kitten patch with the crap mega servers.

Sent from my iPhone

GM Vagrant (Guild Wars 2 Support)
May 03 10:58

Hello Erin,

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars 2 Support Team. We apologize for the delay in our response.

You’ve written to ask us to help with an internal guild issue. You should know that guilds are intended to run independent of support involvement. In many internal guild disputes it would be impossible for us to determine who was in the right, and it’s very clear that those directly involved in such a situation must resolve the issue among themselves.

Guild creators and leaders choose names, select officers, and perform other functions for the guild as a whole. They also decide how the “rights” are distributed, so that in one guild an officer can perform certain functions which in another guild may only be performed by someone who is designated as a leader.

We cannot replace items or wealth taken from a guild bank, nor can we take action on someone who used up a guild’s influence or who kicked other members. In short, we do not get involved in internal guild politics. You, as a guild, must determine how to resolve the issue, up to and including removing someone as a member of the guild.

Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Regards,

GM Vagrant

May 01 11:20

I would appreciate a response.

Sent from my iPhone

Apr 22 20:29

A recruiter of ours had his account hacked. In the process of this, our entire guild bank was robbed. We run weekly 50/50 raffles and over 90 gold is now gone from that. We have now required any person with bank access to have google authenticator. Not everyone has a smart phone and can’t do this. This is really frustrating and we would like an answer and better protection on accounts. I will be attaching the screen shots of everything that has been taken out of the account. xxxxxxx.2519 – character name xxxxxx. I would think anet would have a much better account protection given the size and amount of players that play this game. We are requesting some sort of compensation.

This email is a service from Guild Wars 2 Support.

Guild Banks are not part of an Account Restoration. Sorry you lost everything, but you aren’t going to get it back. It’s best to tell your guildies with bank access to not get hacked. That means they should be aware of their own PC security.

It is, and has always been, clearly stated (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/) that ArenaNet has a no hands-on policy with regards to Guilds, including no offer of Restoration for Guilds and associated items (https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27658708-Restoring-Your-Account-After-a-Compromise). ArenaNet has urged everyone to use best practices (Authentication) since at or near launch (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mike-obrien-on-account-security/).

It is best to familiarize yourself with the rules beforehand in every case. Sorry for your loss.

Hi Zora,

While, as a fellow victim of bank items lost, I am sympathetic to it, I do think it unfair to place the blame on ANet – they have provided security, and the tools to protect accounts with. The loss is no fault of theirs – they are providing a service by restoring user accounts as it is.

I would like it if ANet would consider a guild restore following a hack Where no movement of items has occurred since the hack. I can imagine one of the complexities being working out what was done by the hacker, and what by players.

With regards to timeliness, note that they’re still seeing large volumes of requests for refunds, and a possible increase in hacks possibly related to the recent heart bleed bug. While ANet may not have been vulnerable, third party email services and the like May have been.

It’s just worth remembering context in these situations. Again, I’m sorry for the items you all have lost.

I think what is more concerning is that it appears the person from support seems to have no handle on the issue… this is not an issue with who creates a guild or how it’s set up to function, it only takes one account breach to wipe it all out, rendering its inclusion in the game all but useless .
Sure everyone is accountable for their own security, I think we get that and I would hazard many of us do all that is humanely possible for the average everyday person, yet accounts are still being compromised thus leaving guild banks open to a hackers mercy… and they know it.
Even if the guild leader applies a no item removal policy to each rank it does nothing cos if the guild leader gets hacked, it’s all over anyway.

I understand ANET don’t have guild bank restoration, bad imo but that’s how it is.. what they should do is have a tighter security element tied to item removal from a guild bank, maybe even personal banks.. maybe utilise the mobile authenticator (if a player has it setup on their account) or a unique 6-digit pin that is setup by the individual in the guild who has item removal rights… that pin can’t be changed without first applying the old pin of course.
This would surely help safeguard a lot of bank issues across the game and may reduce the restoration time required when an account becomes compromised, because the majority of issues will then be centred around the actual players inventory, which will likely have a large proportion of soul/account bound items anyways leaving a few items and gold to be restored.

Just my 2 cents, and I know it sounds easier than it likely is to implement.

If you want to protect your guild bank, you need to ensure that only members with authenticators are permitted to withdraw.

mtpelion.4562:

If you want to protect your guild bank, you need to ensure that only members with authenticators are permitted to withdraw.

While a good Guild policy, it is NOT 100% protection. If one of those members get their email hacked, it would only take a simple email to change the password and disable the Mobile Authenticator.

Anet needs to change their policy regarding support request sent in by email (IMO).