I am a little confused after all these posts, so let me rewind a little. Initial post says you got an e-mail saying;

"This e-mail notification is to inform you that the World of Warcraft account, ******, has just been merged into a Battle.net account. If you were not the person who performed this account merge, please contact Battle.net Support immediately..."

...so basically somone had hold of your details and re-activated the account for whatever reason they chose to do so, but more than likely not for good reasons.

So up to this point, somone got hold of your account details and password for them to be able to so this, yes? So straight off the bat i don't see where Blizzard is to blame for this, but they sent you a notification to correct it if it wasn't you that asked for this activation.

So you contact them and they return control of the account back to you, so again they seem to have been reasonable then, yes?

Your gripe is then that they have suspended the said account due to exploiting, yes?

Well my question would be, do you want Blizzard to take security measures or not because if you say that your account should not be suspended for exploiting just because you say it shouldn't then you are asking Blizzard to ignore their own security measures, aren't you?

What is to stop any Tom, Dick or Harry from re-activating an account, stripping it clean, exploiting the game, passing the profits to friends and then phoning or e-mailing to claim that the account was hi-jacked???

I can more than understand your frustration at what has happened, but i see no-where in this so far where Blizzard is to blame and they seem to be taking all possible security measures, which unfortunately in this case is increasing your frustration as it stands.

The whole episode comes back to one thing and one thing only and that is how someone got hold of your details in the first place and that is what you need to concentrate on, is it not?

Whatever happens, i hope it all gets sorted for you, good luck.

One of the best ways to make certain that no one can hack your account is to get one of Blizzards authenticators. Its a little keyring size device that generates a one time pass code when ever the button is pressed.  I've not heard of anyone losing an account when they've had one attached. I have WAY too much time invested in all of my characters to worry about losing them.  Hope this helps.

Blizzard Authenticator (United States only)

Blizzard Authenticator for use with your World of Warcraft account.

Protect your World of Warcraft account with industry leading account security - introducing the Blizzard Authenticator! The Blizzard Authenticator is designed as a supplemental authentication method for your World of Warcraft account, giving you the security of Two-Factor authentication. Each time you log in using the Blizzard Authenticator you are provided with a unique, one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. Log in with both and you can rest easy knowing that your account is now even more secure from malicious attacks such as keyloggers and trojans.

* Simple and easy to use – press one button to display the digital code. Setup of the token is simple and takes only a few minutes.

* Small and convenient – take your token to wherever you play World of Warcraft and know that your account is secure.

* Tough and durable – lasts for years and replacement is easy.

* Provides for the highest account security available in the game industry today.

Please note: Shipping fees have been waived on this product to reduce consumer costs. As a result, shipment tracking is not available and your order can take up 15 business days to arrive. The authenticator may be associated with your World of Warcraft account(s) through  Account Management when it is received.

This is a common situation.  Not of blizzard being mean, but people upset at a situation they caused and finding fault with everything and everyone around them.

Sorry original poster, you did something that compromised your accounts security.  Odds are you clicked on a link in the "Dear Kristine" email or something else and gave access to your account to hackers.  Anything that happens after that is a result of your own doing.   No offense meant, but that is the reality of it.

Blizzard standard practice is to temporary ban the accounts to investigate what happened and verify they are giving access back to the rightful owners. 
 

You anger is very misplaced and you should find out what you did that compromised your account, because odds are you are still infected or vulnerable to repeat business.

Originally posted by jason_webb

I am a little confused after all these posts, so let me rewind a little. Initial post says you got an e-mail saying;

"This e-mail notification is to inform you that the World of Warcraft account, ******, has just been merged into a Battle.net account. If you were not the person who performed this account merge, please contact Battle.net Support immediately..."

...so basically somone had hold of your details and re-activated the account for whatever reason they chose to do so, but more than likely not for good reasons.

So up to this point, somone got hold of your account details and password for them to be able to so this, yes? So straight off the bat i don't see where Blizzard is to blame for this, but they sent you a notification to correct it if it wasn't you that asked for this activation.

So you contact them and they return control of the account back to you, so again they seem to have been reasonable then, yes?

Your gripe is then that they have suspended the said account due to exploiting, yes?

Well my question would be, do you want Blizzard to take security measures or not because if you say that your account should not be suspended for exploiting just because you say it shouldn't then you are asking Blizzard to ignore their own security measures, aren't you?

What is to stop any Tom, Dick or Harry from re-activating an account, stripping it clean, exploiting the game, passing the profits to friends and then phoning or e-mailing to claim that the account was hi-jacked???

I can more than understand your frustration at what has happened, but i see no-where in this so far where Blizzard is to blame and they seem to be taking all possible security measures, which unfortunately in this case is increasing your frustration as it stands.

The whole episode comes back to one thing and one thing only and that is how someone got hold of your details in the first place and that is what you need to concentrate on, is it not?

Whatever happens, i hope it all gets sorted for you, good luck.

Quoting this for emphasis. OP, I hope it gets sorted out for you, but I honestly don't see how it should have been handled differently considering there's no way an MMOG company can just go by every player's word that "it must have been someone else" or "it's YOUR fault, big evil company". ;-)

Originally posted by ianicus

Originally posted by Hammertime1

I am in no way saying this to make the OP angry ( so don't kill the messanger here ) but most episodes of account hacking are due to the account owner's action in some way or the other.

Many are a result of sharing an account or password with a friend/ family member/ or guild mate, and the remaining bulk of hacks are due to the visiting of sites that are infected ( think "porn" ) and the player not keeping their spyware/virus protection ware up-to-date.

 

Again, I'm not saying that to piss anyone off, that's just the facts - *most* people that get hacked had at least a passive ( and often )  role in what has happened to them.

 

 

 

 

Never once gave my account info to ANYONE, ever, never, ever 100%. I know it happens, BUT this is not acctualy being hacked, this is being stupid and alowing your "friend" to either hijack your account or sell the info. Again, I have never given out my info, or ever writen it down. Im not an idiot and ive been playing MMO's for years (pre WoW)

and the porn....?

You can get the authenticator as a FREE APP on IPHONE

The authenticator is meant for players who play WoW from several machines, internet cafes etc.. not for a home users.. bottom line OP its your responsibility to keep your account secure.. Blizzard in no way has to help so if they do be greatful.

Just because you dont know how your account was accessed does not shift the blame to anyone else but yourself.

Buck stops with you.

BLIZZARD DOESNT CARE, THEY NEVER HAVE, THEY NEVER WILL.

Originally posted by gameguy36

you are very right dude for getting angry i mean i would be but what needs to happen is blizzard just bann every asian account there is theni think that would solve a big part of the problem because most of the hack stuff like that is done by the gold sellers

You got proof that hackers are Asians?  Even then what is the point of banning Asian accounts?  The hackers, Asians or not, are stealing legit accounts and you are banning accounts.  Thiefs are breaking into houses and you are burning down houses in a district you hate?

Come on, however racially intolerant you are, find a better excuse to attack Asia.  After all, America will be half dead the moment Asia turn away.  Imagine 90% of the produce no longer available from imports.

Gold sellers hack accounts.  They do not need to own accounts.  You want to go after gold sellers but banning legit accounts.  Oh what a nice line of reasoning.

Originally posted by Yipple

BLIZZARD DOESNT CARE, THEY NEVER HAVE, THEY NEVER WILL.

 

This is unfair.  Blizz customer services are pretty good.

The fact that they spend so much effort to investigate each theft incident and to spend so much manpower restoring character by character, demonstrates the attention they put into their clients.

Compare this with the fiascco in darkfall by their developer AV?

Getting an authenticator is the only way to keep your account totally safe (as long as you use 1 per account to avoid a flaw in them).

Most of the time people get their account stolen because of a keylogger (a virus scanner alone can't be relied on to stop them), or they have shared their account.  It's not blizzard's fault.

Also gold selling sites and services should NEVER EVER be used, they are behind most of the account theft since it has become harder to farm with bots.

---

Originally posted by Yipple
BLIZZARD DOESNT CARE, THEY NEVER HAVE, THEY NEVER WILL.
 

---

Not once have I ever had a problem with blizzard cs, you sir are a troll.

WoW accounts get hacked so easily becuase 95% of the WoW related links you find on the various WoW  forums(including Blizzards) and alot of the links in many of the fan sites have key loggers tied to them, the criminal element has really locked onto WoW as an easy way to make money, becuase 75% of the player base are pure morons who click these links time after time.

While Blizzard may not be able to stop people from clicking links, they could do a better job of stoping these malicous links  from being posted on thier own forums and they could also come up with a better way of authenticating who the account belongs to once they are hacked, but that would require them to spend a good amount of money.

Originally posted by waveslayer

WoW accounts get hacked so easily becuase 95% of the WoW related links you find on the various WoW  forums(including Blizzards) and alot of the links in many of the fan sites have key loggers tied to them, the criminal element has really locked onto WoW as an easy way to make money, becuase 75% of the player base are pure morons who click these links time after time.

While Blizzard may not be able to stop people from clicking links, they could do a better job of stoping these malicous links  from being posted on thier own forums and they could also come up with a better way of authenticating who the account belongs to once they are hacked, but that would require them to spend a good amount of money.

Or people could quit buying gold an spend their money on decent antivirus software instead.

My experience with wow have never been a bad one.  I used to be a guild master of a fairly strong with with many many valuables and over 20k gold in the guild bank.  Needless to say I was a major target and my account got hacked.  To make the matter worse, the hacker changed my password and he can take his sweet time going through all my characters.  When I finally woke up the next day, caught wind of what happened and changed my password.  I contacted blizzard gm to report my situation and within 24 hours, I got back all the gears that was sold and my gold refunded.  Since I have a fairly large guildbank with many transaction from myself and other member, I took blizzard an additional 3 days to get all my items returned, every last copper refunded.  All in all, I couldn't really ask for a better customer service than that.  I would rather them take a little extra time and due diligence and get everything done correctly than to halfass it and only to have to fixed it later on.  Plus it gives me an excuse to spend my time doing something else anyway.

It's amazing how the ignorant give so much advice with their powers of hindsight or speak with righteousness because things haven't yet happenned to them.Out of some strange need to protect some idea that doesn't need protecting(account security) that is somehow the "victim's" fault.  The point is that unless you somehow don't use the internet at all , you are prone to malware. Invisible gif's? Now if you don't highlight every page on every site are you an idiot for clicking one? Give me a break.  Well you got mugged lady, you shouldn't have been walking down the street, that's where the PEOPLES IS! (cut to Deliverance soundtrack)

Also got my account hacked.  lol it was funny because my brother started his account back up and say that I was playing my character...except I never reactivated my account.  He was like WTF?! and called me to see if I was playing.  That's when we found my account was hacked.

The funniest thing was that whoever had the account had leveled up my mage to 80 from 70, got some real sweet epics that I never had the patience for, and generally made better use of him hehe.  Good...WoW had a tendency to suck me back every once in a while and this just helps put that last nail in the coffin. 

Originally posted by Azen77

It's amazing how the ignorant give so much advice with their powers of hindsight or speak with righteousness because things haven't yet happenned to them.Out of some strange need to protect some idea that doesn't need protecting(account security) that is somehow the "victim's" fault.  The point is that unless you somehow don't use the internet at all , you are prone to malware. Invisible gif's? Now if you don't highlight every page on every site are you an idiot for clicking one? Give me a break.  Well you got mugged lady, you shouldn't have been walking down the street, that's where the PEOPLES IS! (cut to Deliverance soundtrack)

Also got my account hacked.  lol it was funny because my brother started his account back up and say that I was playing my character...except I never reactivated my account.  He was like WTF?! and called me to see if I was playing.  That's when we found my account was hacked.

The funniest thing was that whoever had the account had leveled up my mage to 80 from 70, got some real sweet epics that I never had the patience for, and generally made better use of him hehe.  Good...WoW had a tendency to suck me back every once in a while and this just helps put that last nail in the coffin. 

Hose feathers. Buy decent software and you can go anywhere on the web without worrying about being hacked. Failure to take the proper precautions knowing there are predators out there is stupid. Unless of course you pick an obvious password and never change it.

Blizzard has helped me two or three times in helping me get characters the way they were, getting them back after they got deleted etc.... and every time, it has always worked and never really took that long. I never really got why everyone flames Blizzard customer service.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Azen77

It's amazing how the ignorant give so much advice with their powers of hindsight or speak with righteousness because things haven't yet happenned to them.Out of some strange need to protect some idea that doesn't need protecting(account security) that is somehow the "victim's" fault.  The point is that unless you somehow don't use the internet at all , you are prone to malware. Invisible gif's? Now if you don't highlight every page on every site are you an idiot for clicking one? Give me a break.  Well you got mugged lady, you shouldn't have been walking down the street, that's where the PEOPLES IS! (cut to Deliverance soundtrack)

Also got my account hacked.  lol it was funny because my brother started his account back up and say that I was playing my character...except I never reactivated my account.  He was like WTF?! and called me to see if I was playing.  That's when we found my account was hacked.

The funniest thing was that whoever had the account had leveled up my mage to 80 from 70, got some real sweet epics that I never had the patience for, and generally made better use of him hehe.  Good...WoW had a tendency to suck me back every once in a while and this just helps put that last nail in the coffin. 

 

Hose feathers. Buy decent software and you can go anywhere on the web without worrying about being hacked. Failure to take the proper precautions knowing there are predators out there is stupid. Unless of course you pick an obvious password and never change it.

You are never protected 100%, all you can do is increase your chances.  Security is an illusion of probability.

Originally posted by Azen77

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Azen77

It's amazing how the ignorant give so much advice with their powers of hindsight or speak with righteousness because things haven't yet happenned to them.Out of some strange need to protect some idea that doesn't need protecting(account security) that is somehow the "victim's" fault.  The point is that unless you somehow don't use the internet at all , you are prone to malware. Invisible gif's? Now if you don't highlight every page on every site are you an idiot for clicking one? Give me a break.  Well you got mugged lady, you shouldn't have been walking down the street, that's where the PEOPLES IS! (cut to Deliverance soundtrack)

Also got my account hacked.  lol it was funny because my brother started his account back up and say that I was playing my character...except I never reactivated my account.  He was like WTF?! and called me to see if I was playing.  That's when we found my account was hacked.

The funniest thing was that whoever had the account had leveled up my mage to 80 from 70, got some real sweet epics that I never had the patience for, and generally made better use of him hehe.  Good...WoW had a tendency to suck me back every once in a while and this just helps put that last nail in the coffin. 

 

Hose feathers. Buy decent software and you can go anywhere on the web without worrying about being hacked. Failure to take the proper precautions knowing there are predators out there is stupid. Unless of course you pick an obvious password and never change it.

You are never protected 100%, all you can do is increase your chances.  Security is an illusion of probability.

Exactly.  Many of the loopholes exists on the very tool you use, Windows, IE, and the systems services behind the basic day to day operation.  Even the security software you use are tasks built upon the system services.

That said, security software does help prevent older known attacks from hitting you, as they are already coded into the security tool.  New forms of attacks may hit you before the security software is updated.

ITT: People with Keyloggers and blaming it on blizzard.