Online Account Hacks

I'm not stupid enough to get my account stolen.

Also, can I get a tl;dr on that story?

i will try to trace back whoever hacked my account and p0wn him by myself!!
im not joking about it!!! im serious.......really serious!!

I'd change all my passwords. For *everything*.

This made me understand that Square-Enix sucks. Plain and straight.

Poor girl.

Makes me glad that the only MMO I play is Ragnarok and the GMs are my good friends that can check the IP log ins if I get hacked.

What picture above?

And that sucks for her.

[quote name='Law' post='1500677' date='Oct 28 2008, 11:58 PM']I'm not stupid enough to get my account stolen.

Also, can I get a tl;dr on that story?[/quote]
You really need it? Okay...

From many gamer that lost their account, there is one Michelle that kept detailed notes of how she managed to get her account back.

She first played FFXI to kill time, she never played an MMORPG before, and the experience is quite thrilling.
Over time, she managed to get attached to her account. "Mali", let's call her character that, a paladin managed to find some new friends and introduced them to Michelle, from 4-5 hours of gaming a week, she managed to go for 80 hours of gaming a week, Mali is Michelle digitized, and Michelle is Mali realized.

After 5 months of playing, adventuring, meeting new friends, completing quests and paying for the service, a hacker made it to her account, she lost everything, it was Friday night, and the Account Services wasn't there to help her. When she contacted the Account Services on Monday morning, they said how can they be sure that Michelle is not in fact a hacker trying to get her hands on someone's account, she argued that she can give them the details of the account history, including the payment record dating back 2 years. But no, they said, "sorry, it's just against our policy".

Michelle was not alone, thousands of other players shared the same fate, just around the time her account was stolen. The victims petitioned SE to recover what is theirs, while the community whispered urban legends of stolen characters, sold like abducted children on blackmarkets for dollars, never to return to their parents. Michelle scanned these underground blackmarkets everyday, searching for account that matches Mali's description, a high level Paladin worth $1500-2000. If you want her huge cache of rare armor included, $5000 is what you should pay to get your hands on Mali.

Michelle allied with the white hat faction first, trying to get an internet lawyer, when she did find one, however, the lawyer wasn't interested, saying that such a thing is pointless and will be fruitless.

The white hat faction failed Michelle, and so she moved closer to the black hat faction. A hacker found the way to her account, another hacker with the same ability should be able to do the same and get it back. She didn't find one, but she found David Weinstein and his security talks. David counseled againts Michelle's plan on stealing her account back, for legal reason, and told Michelle that if she was persistent, customer service wuld relent and give her account back.

David's wise words proved to be true. After 3 months full of efforts, Mali finally came back home. Square Enix's customer service was determined that Michelle was in fact the rightful owner of Mali, but that's not enough for Square Enix, Michelle received a "Final Fantasy XI Notarized Account Verification Declaration," which she would have to sign, notarize and send back - just to allow for the possibility of reclaiming what is hers.

The wording of the declaration, however, made Michelle hesitant. The declaration was simple and standard, she had to state that her account was never transferred, and compromised against her will. Item no. 7 however, it quite doozy:

7. I understand that I have no legal right to the return of my compromised PlayOnline account, and that the submission of this signed and notarized form to Square Enix, Inc. is no guarantee that I will obtain a return of this account."

Click to expand...

In order to get her account back, Michelle was forced declare that it wasn't legally hers. She called another lawyer, a friend of the family. He said that she had nothing to lose, as she already lost her character. Michelle agreed at last, signed it, and hoped for the best

She managed to get it back and to a computer shop she went, to completely destroy those keyloggers that made her suffer so much. The staff managed to find 22 unique keyloggers inside her computer, removed them, installed a full battery of protective software, and instructed her to visit only protected sites. She got her computer back home, and started playing.

After three days, her account was hacked again. She went back to the repair shop, who accused Michelle that she had gone to a page with keylogger program ready to strike, who replied that PlayOnline was the only site she had been to. The store said the keylogger is so well hidden that they can't locate it. She formatted her harddisk and reinstalled everything as the store ordered her, and so it was back to Square Enix, back to square one.

After another trip to Customer Service, Mali came back home once again. She was itching to play again, but something was keeping her away from the game. The kicker: Once Michelle's account was restored and attached to her credit card, Square Enix hit her for fees associated with the hacker's invalid credit card number.

i'd laugh if my online char anywhere gets hacked.. Serously , Sooo much effort for such a crappy char?

[quote name='Ducky' post='1500764' date='Oct 29 2008, 12:51 AM']i'd laugh if my online char anywhere gets hacked.. Serously , Sooo much effort for such a crappy char?[/quote]
What? You never develop your char?

My OWN PERSONAL view ... *Dons anti flame shield before continuation all you hardcore gamers will prolly dislike me after this rant!*

Is Although you all probably get MANY MANY HOURS of fun outta online gaming on a PC .. like this .. using PAID accounts ...

Technically ...at the end of the day remember YOU ARE PAYING FOR use of PIXELS on the SCREEN!

Maby its just me but ..... paying again to play a game that you have ALREADY bought just so you can interact with others in a pseudo real environment at an average cost of £10 ( €12 / $15) a month for usually 12 months a year seems ludicrous/ a complete rip off!

moreso something else that really bugs me about this whole thing is the BUYING of virtual items (weapons,clothing etc) with REAL MONEY by cc or phone txt message.... wtf is all that about??

Get real people STOP BUYING PIXELS! because that's what they are! PIXELS!

Finally .... I Just don't get it WHY people complain that they get hacked and their character stolen!? ...

I would say its to be EXPECTED if you have a High level character with lots of money/possessions and using an pretty easily exploitable PC to play online gaming then your going to be a target!



Oh and before you all rant on at me and pelt me with your disgtruntled comments ...

YES I do play online games (free ones on pc) or with XBOX 360 /DS & Wii

(yes some consoles charge for online game play but its at least a quarter of what online rpg gaming costs + you can download game content/demos etc for free)

...Anyhow ..know anyone if any that had their character stolen using CONSOLE online gaming??

I think not!

Point made ..

[/RANT mode off]

What point? You mean we better play CONSOLE onlin e game rather than PC online games?

Once for a joke I hacked a friend, but what wasn't funny was that I made the password "abcdfg" and it got hacked by someone else that day .

on-line accounts are literally nothing, you are paying for nothing and grinding for nothing....

Totally second what kobykaan says.

Never understood why people are paying their online drug dealers... oh, there, I said it! That's why they shell out money month after month after month. Damn junkies.