Guild Wars 2

Lewis Burnell.2493:

I hate to say it, but why haven’t you taken the security measures ArenaNet continue to bang on about?

I authenticated my account and only last week had someone attempt to gain access to it having received an email confirming someone in China was behind it. I simply denied the link and changed my GW2 Account Password: account safe.

This is going to sound incredibly callous, but if you haven’t protected yourself with an original, unique password for both Guild Wars 2 and your email account, as well as authenticated your account, this inevitably isn’t the fault of ArenaNet but your own.

The authentication system in Guild Wars 2 works wonderfully and protected me straight away, why people aren’t using it or are still repeating poor password habits is beyond me.

I’d also recommend you run anti-spyware regularly.

As i mentioned already, it does not appear that the email notifications are working, i was able to change my email by simply filling out a captcha form, no verification was required from my current (verified) email. I have received a notification when i first attempted to login with my IP address but this security was implemented one day after my account was hacked.

And i also already mentioned that my anti-virus is reporting 0 threats and no phishing websites in my browser history. I do not know how the breach occurred and i have requested for logs information from AraneNet to help me determine this. I changed my email address and passwords for safe measure but i am not really comfortable playing the game anymore.

Also a victim of a hacking attack, would like to know if rollback will be available for me once it is implemented.

I would also be interested in the response as i have recently lost all my ‘saleables’ and additionally like a couple thousand Gems even after i had already reported my account as hacked.

Here is my sad tale…
Running a couple of quests here with my new lv 65 Engineer after having finished a suited up lv 80 Mesmer. In a normal Sunday evening i suddenly get kicked out back into the character selection screen with some random error code on the screen but i figured at 2 am it is probably good to call it a night. So take a nap, go to work the next day, come home and start questing again on my Engineer. Minding my own business but i noticed i am not where i left off, a rollback perhaps. Eventually after a couple of hours of playing i decide to make a trip to town, drop off some loot, forge some things, and do the next part of my story quest… and as soon as i opened up my Bank, BAM everything with the exception of a couple XP boosters and other non-saleable or breakable items. Instantly i open my inventory only to notice that i am down to a couple of silver from all the Golds i had with that character, just about all the silver i had made this session. Naturally i switch over to my Mesmer to see just about everything gone and sitting in front of the Auction House… 78 copper to his name and some dyes and blueprints in the starter back pack, all other (expensive) bags missing.

At this point i am feeling very much violated but to my relieve, i still had my Gems intact. So naturally I start filling out the hacked form with all the information i can provide and at of curiosity i tab back into Guild Wars 2 to check the Auction House history. Unfortunately the Auction House was returning an authentication error that has previously been resolved by re-logging. As far as i could tell, there was 39 silver waiting for pickup.

So i close down my client and re-launch Guild Wars 2 only to find out that my email address is not associated with any accounts. I switch over to the form, write a couple of sentences about my email having changed, and submit it.

I proceed to attempt to recover my account but without a valid email address there is nothing for me to do. In my email, there is a notification that my email address was changed (great thanks for the info). I sit down… quietly… waiting for a response.

The response finally came in a day an half later and my account was restored, i was able to switch my password and for testing purposes i changed my email (and therefore login id) only to find out that the only requirement is to fill out a captcha form. No confirmation code, email verification, nothing.

Sadden enough but at least able to log back in, i do just that. At this point, i am extremely displeased with what I see. The notification on my account restoration had already stated that my loss would not be restored. What I was not expecting was that now all my Gems, remaining equipment, even the 39 silver that was sitting waiting to collect in the Auction House, all GONE.

My anti-virus software reports zero threats, my browser history has nothing but safe Guild Wars 2 forums and databases.

I have heard rumors that a way to restore an account was coming soon, i searched the forums and found a 20 day old thread. Neither of my characters have professions but i’ve always picked up any item i could, saving all the salvageable material, loot bags, and anything that i did not need then to save space and i did this since the beginning of pre-launch. Dyes and one-time quest rewards completely gone. All that was left to my account was 12 copper.

Unlike you i lost faith in being able to make all of that back, particularly the things i paid for with hard earned cash. I have already requested for a restoration of my loss, particularly the additional damages after the report was filed (which i reasonably did not expect) and i have not heard back since.

Chances are, one day that ability to restore accounts may be available but i am shipping out in middle October and will likely miss out on that. Even as i sit here i have considered calling up my bank to revert any charges but i will wait in good faith instead.