Guild Wars 2

I also want to add that these links in the email (i’ve gotten at least 4 emails!) looks very similar to the Guild Wars 2 site but is completely fake. You can tell by the little lock next to the web address at the top left corner (chrome). If you click on the lock > connections: you can see its verification. If the lock shows it’s open instead of closed, it hasn’t been verified and your information is likely open.

Even then, don’t ever type out these links they send you. They’re completely falsified!

Saiyan.1704:

I also want to add that these links in the email (i’ve gotten at least 4 emails!) looks very similar to the Guild Wars 2 site but is completely fake. You can tell by the little lock next to the web address at the top left corner (chrome). If you click on the lock > connections: you can see its verification. If the lock shows it’s open instead of closed, it hasn’t been verified and your information is likely open.

Even then, don’t ever type out these links they send you. They’re completely falsified!

Solution:

Don’t click on them. Or any links from any unsolicited email from anyone.

Go to the site directly by going to the site and logging in as normal. If it’s legit, they’ll be a way to get to whatever it is they need you to do from the site itself.

Maybe change the colors of the two messages.

Red is normally considered a warning color that something is wrong. Currently it’s ANet’s message that is red (looks like a warning) and the player message is yellow/gold (a non warning color). Maybe change the player message to red and ANet’s message to green, or to yellow.

Minutes later another user will go and say “For me, red means -Attention, this is important- and yellow or gold is just a neutral pretty color meaning -Everything is ok, this ist just an unimportant notice” and will ask why ArenaNet does not use red for their important mails.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Maybe change the colors of the two messages.

That wouldn’t change anything. People that fall for this manage to type out a long URL without even realizing what they’re typing, meaning they’re basic users with little to no knowledge of the basics of the web. The people that actually need a warning like this thread will never even see it because they don’t visit sites like these. An in-game message showing what a real GM message looked like would have been more helpful.

Judging by comments from those that fell for it, the issue is the order. They see the message, they’re shocked and immediately do what it says. They don’t see the warning on the bottom because they haven’t read that far yet. Some even ignore the warning because they’re not 100% sure – after all, sometimes devs post on unmarked forum accounts.

They would have to hide the entire message behind a warning to even begin to prevent these people from falling for it – click it away to continue. Even then, some people will still fall for it.

Maybe put the warning at the top of the message, rather than the bottom, Gaile? It can be easy to miss if you go into a blind panic. I got one of those messages, and I was scared for a few seconds before I realized it was fake.

I think part of the reason why people still come onto the forums to try and warn everyone of the phishing, and also sadly fall for these mails, is because not all Guild Wars 2 players use the forums. In fact I’m almost certain that there are more Guild Wars 2 players that don’t even know these forums exist than those that use them!

So, because of this, most players didn’t get the announcement about the yellow message at the bottom of your mail. After receiving legitimate and ordinary mails from friends and co-players, you tend to get “snow-blind” to the message, like it’s part of the furniture or something.

This is why a few months ago I suggested some form of in-game warning about phishing attempts instead here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-In-Game-Phishing-Warning/first#post4680692

This is to ensure that everyone who logs into the game gets a warning, not just us forum regulars. And thus, a lot less people losing their accounts, which at the end of the day, is the most important thing.

i just got this in the mail today, scammer’s name close enough to guildie that set off a flag within 1 second !http://i.imgur.com/gZmxs94.jpg!

How does the text that says it’s from another player not set off a flag….for EVERYONE that reads it?

Maybe they should make it BOLD and Flashing neon RED? (wait, that’s close to ANET logo colors so maybe not….).

It’s true, but people like to think they not fools and end up falling for the most obvious scams.

Becka Williams.4978:

Maybe put the warning at the top of the message, rather than the bottom, Gaile? It can be easy to miss if you go into a blind panic. I got one of those messages, and I was scared for a few seconds before I realized it was fake.

It won’t matter where they put the warning, even if it’s bold/flashing/neon/watermark. People get used to ignoring it, since they get so many legit messages from other players.

The more intrusive the warning, the more it annoys people, but without adding extra protection (at least, not after the first week or two).

tl;dr people have to take some responsibility for their own security; trust (but verify).

Gaile, in the post above the last one in that thread, it contains a link to a phising website. You might want to get rid of that. I know it’s non-clickable, but it still might be a good idea.

with the report sent to Anet to each of these letters, i always ask these guys back to give me at least 10gold for opening the link in the letter. Scam the scammers =)
No one replied back though =(