New real world scam going around involving GW

Just an alert to all the GW Community...

GW players are a target of a large ring of Paypal and Ecommerce Fraud related activity. After spending hours on the phone with the FBI on recent fraud charges on creditcards and Paypal accounts I found out this is happening all over the place since about 2 weeks ago. A lot of it deals with Gold resellers and Profiteers from places like *list of gold sellers removed*. All of which are selling Virtural gold to many games, and in some cases using stolen CC and Paypal accounts to do transactions. They are even using them to setup international Skype phone accounts to deal with support issues.

This is just another warning. I have confronted a few players in the past few hours and reported them to Anet with chat log screen shots. All of them started acting all innocent and saying things like "If YOU don't send me my gold I purchased I'll report you"... to which I sent them to http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/ welcoming them to do so as I'm sure the FBI will want to talk to them.

This is yet another example of How dangerous these companies are folks. Stay away from them. Its against the Rules of Conduct and the End User License agreement to make use of anything they would be providing anyhow.

The fact that I and my family are now being targeted for these kinds of fraud attacks MAY have just been a coincidence, BUT I somehow find that hard to believe. I have gone through and printed my IP logs from paypal and reported the CC fraud to the bank to get them to do the same and freeze the accounts.

EVERYONE... double check any online accounts you have and make sure there is no weird activity, and possibly change your passwords and usernames asap Especially if GW is linked to in in any way with the same e-mail address or something... I have an e-mail into Support at anet to find out if there is ANY possible way the client could have pulled such information. I highly doubt it, But just in case I have reported the problem for them to look into.

I am very good at making sure my systems are secure but sometimes the unsecure places like MS hotmail, yahoo, and Paypal can be a security hole that you have no knowledge of. The only thing you can do is do frequent password changes and check on your account EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT USED IT RECENTLY. To be sure your not getting ripped off without you knowing it.

ingy...

Interesting. So someone has used paypal accounts, including yours personally, to advertise gold-selling? Is that why the noobs confronted you?

I dont understand how you could be involved in this unless you were buying Guild Wars gold, at which point your account should be banned.

Yeah, why are you on pay-pal any ways, buying gold?

Well for the record it was not my paypal account. But paypal is used for many retail endeavors, Legitimate ones. What I am saying is that I feel the account was attacked for efforts I have done in the past to rid the game of these people... and After talking to the FBI on the issue I found out I am not the only one that has been a target of this problem. So I was simply putting out an alert to the fact.

I can give the account names of the people if you wish that are on the paypal log and their IP addresses that stole my account and used it in these services. I have already done so with Anet. But it is not appropriate in Guru.

Since these IP addresses back trace to China, There is little Legally I can do except freeze and close accounts at this point. which I have done. I have also taken the extra step of confronting these people in game and yielding as much information as I could to forward to Arenanet in hopes of getting their accounts banned. Since My Game account is not in question here, I don't appreciate the accusation that I did something to deserve this Fraud attack. Because the only thing I have ever done in this game is tell people to AVOID these things as often as possible. Now I know several of you Just want to buy your gold and piss on the rules of the game. well that's you. I do everything I can to get rid of your kind. Others are just uninformed and don't know its against the rules. Or so they say... In any case this is a legitimate alert to the community. Believe it or don't... Take it for whatever wind you want to pass.

I am saying its being investigated and that others should watch their accounts. Thats all.

Paypal exsisted long before selling gold online became a big business.

Thanks for the heads up I'll keep an eye on my accounts.

Heck, even steam uses Pay-pal now.. so..

My paypal account was hacked after almost 3 years, luckily my account was frozen before serious damage could be done. I was refunded and everything was restored, but my faith in Paypal has been shaken permanently... the lady on the PayPal security center accused me of clicking on a virus e-mail. This is BS though, since I never click on e-mails in general to log into anything, and even if I were stupid enough to my virus software should catch that stuff. I'm convinced that my password was brute forced because it was waaaay too simple. Anyway I didn't end up losing any money, but it was a real pain in the ass to sort out.

Now if I use paypal, and that's a big IF... I refuse to enter bank account information. I'll add a debit card then remove it *immediately after* I'm done with my transaction, and usually change the password afterward.

also make sure your password is good and complex. If you're in need of inspiration... find any empty prescription bottle, there are huge digit numbererd code thingies there that make awesome passwords.

Is this excessive? Probably, but If that's what it takes to not have my shit messed with then so be it. God bless the internet.

And send this to seven friends or something really bad will happen to you.

EDIT: OR- Maybe he found a way to advertise gold sellers without having his post deleted.

Why would the FBI be interested? Considering all the different online scams anyways; they tell me it’s quite impossible to keep track of these cases. So in other words you are basically screwed. This investigation into PayPal probably will go nowhere considering their location within the world. They will never get a hold of these corporate CEO’s, they will be in Cancun by the time the find them. Also considering you have a good amount of info on these “gold buyers and sellers” it’s hard to see if you’re telling the truth or not. Plus again why would the FBI talk to you at all, what makes you so special. I believe there might be a scam but some of your accounts seem kind of fuzzy (I’m sorry).

Good advise. I've had an account for 3 years and used it only 3-4 times. I deleted my bank account info and debit info also, since it will be easy and fast to put it back if I need to purchase something.

I do very little online shopping now days. There are ppl around the world who's sole goal is to target americans online. I know its not only americans but I just don't see the risk is worth it. TBH paypal is very safe, but its key loggers/viruses etc that make nervous. I do very little web surfing and yet have gotten a few over the past years.

Most credit card companies will issue a one time use only number. Useful for places that take credit cards or I use it for each transaction through PayPal. I do not care if someone steals it - it's already gotten its one use. Nor do I have to worry about some history/backup stored someplace by them getting hacked.

There is no such thing has a secure site. Its a false claim they put there to gain your trust. Without trust you wouldn't be doing business with that company.

I remember the government had this program that was supposedly impossible to crack. Banks started using and other financial institutions. Few years later some one cracked it.

Most fraud is an inside job. Its much easier to steal the information from the inside then sell it to others online. People have been doing that kind of scam for years.

Only thing you can do is change you passwords every now and then. Just pray you are never a victim. Its very hard to prove anything and most fraud comes from other countries so nothing anyone can legally do about it.

That's true, HT dude has done alot^^

man, everytime I see one of these types of threads I want to cut up all my credit cards and never use the internet again ......I had to be convinced by my computer guru hubby that it was safe, and was never really convinced.....using the internet is not safe at all and using a cc on the internet is just like leaving your front door of your house open and a sign saying 'come in and take what you please'.....and NO ONE will ever convince me that the internet is safe, never!

I have had problems with both paypal and ebay----now that they are owned by the same company doesnt help matters.....with unresolved transactions they tell you to contact the seller, contact your credit card (which by the way is not the first thing they wish you to use, they say you should use your bank account--its safer, NOT!!! there is no avenue of recourse if you do that, using a cc you can dispute the charges at least). ebay was so much easier when there was no paypal....or online paying systems. Just send the seller a money order and wait. sorry for the rant....

I think I will crawl back under my rock and do some cave paintings now.

Anet would do well to address this problem at the source and take action against the bots that flood some towns.

Take a look at Granite Citadel for example (euro server, english d1, evening time GMT). There's always a number of Mo/W and Mo/Me's there that follow the EXACT same pattern. They walk to the leftmost henchman, to the Spearhead Peak signpost, to the merchant, repeat the last two steps, then go to the Tasca's Demise signpost, and proceed to exit there. ALL of them do exactly this. Many have similar names and a number of them are in the same 'guild'. These are obvious bots and have been there for MONTHS. Why are these accounts not banned? I'm sure Granite is not the hotbed for botfarmers, so it should be even more blatant in other places (Elona Reach? etc)... I just happened to visit this town in PvE recently.

It would take only 10 minutes to identify the majority of these bots in this place. One person could easily check the towns in a given region and ban accordingly, all in less than a day's work. Instead it's going on unchecked forever... why?

PayPal has been around a long time, long before Ebay bought them. It was designed to be the middleman in transactions between strangers. PayPal would verify that both buyer and seller had valid bank accounts so that you weren't just sending your payment or merchandise out into the blue, hoping that it wasn't a scam.

Since they were bought by Ebay, what I use for PayPal (and other online transactions) is a special bank account. My bank has free accounts (no monthly charge), so I opened one and asked for no overdraft protection and no connection to my other account.

If I don't make a deposit there is no money in the account to be stolen. Banks will normally reimburse you any bounced e-check charges if they are caused by someone trying to hack your account.
_____________________

If you live in the USA and think your identity has been stolen go to this government website and follow the instructions. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
which is for the Federal Trade Commission.

update: My uncles paypal account was stolen and used against his will. the only way I can think he was IDed was through some kind of packet sniffing on his MSN account, Which I have warned him about numerous times. and the only way I can think of that I was identified was that I used his Network wireless on my laptop to connect to the game, and to game forums. so The person responsable had to use the IP address on my dum uncles unsecured network to hack it out. If they would have done it on MY network at home I would have had IP logs of the activity, but my uncle is not that sophisticated.

The paypal and Credit card company has reverse the near $400 worth of charges this fool did. He was good. He had my uncles mailing address and was going to town... The contact phone number came back to a number in new jersey, which is where the FBI stepped in, cause THAT is interstate bank fraud, and a felony.

Of the dozen or so transactions, 5 were for GW and all to the same game account name. Which is still active in the system. when I confronted this fool they actually admitted they did it and said just try to do anything about it... So I have... I have reported that guys account to Anet with screenshots of the conversations and log time stamps for an account ban. Considering the stolen paypal account had nearly $400 in charge backs from those 5 transactions I would imagine he purchased a ton of gold.

I have also Passed on the information I collected to the FBI so they can subpoena the registration information from Anet. As well as back tracing the IP used to subpoena their ISP.

As to why Its my business... well its every ones business if there is a cheat in the game. Anet takes gold resellers Very seriously. They continually ban accounts for the activity and the only way they can collect evidence on the literally millions of logs a day, is to get the game community to help them narrow it down. That's where people like us step in. Collecting Logs and Server times for Anet to look into is essential for them to collect the evidence they need to justify a permanent ban.

ingy.

so how exactly does this scam take place. I know it's all about account safety but what else would i need to look for to ensure that i won't get scammed.

This is not the "why I think eBaying gold should be allowed" thread, this is a thread about Paypal and credit card account hacking and real world scams. If you have something else to discuss, look elsewhere for threads that already talk about your topic or message Arenanet at http://support.guildwars.com/.

i like how =HT=Ingram dosnt understand how a game connect'd toa server works. on guildwars or any game made after 1999 you connect to a server and other people connect to the same server. there is 100% no way ANYONE got ur ip addy from playing gw. so u either bought gold. or this the most likley one you have a key logger on ur comp

I like how you have nothing to add to the discussion other than baseless accusations of gold-buying.

Thanks for the heads-up, HT.

there is an almost unbelieveable amount of bot activity in aspenwood (lux/kurz) and in kodash bazzar amer dis1 late nights posting gold sales websites.if anet has some care for the wellbeing of there game and there REAL players they would attempt to cut down if not cut out all bot activity

I like how KC doesnt seem to understand that your IP goes to the server, and all someone has to do is hack the server, and they can get a list of IPs, then(somehow, probably something with login info)match it to a character name, and bingo! "You've got haxord!" If you know the way in, and your way around, its not very difficult to track an IP.

interesting...

So it's that easy for some schmuk to hack into Anet database servers? Ya, right. Get real.

They have been attempting to rid the servers of all bots since the beginning; but that's easier said than done. If you have some care for the well being of the game; you can send screens and descriptions of such incidents to support to help them in their task.

Paypal has been problematic since day 1. I've read countless stories online of scams and faulty transactions through this service and even when it is the company's fault I've never heard of an issue being resolved without a huge amount of unnecessary effort on the user's part. The moral: Don't use Paypal - it's evil!

In all seriousness, if you must use this service, use a card with limited credit on it and check your account regularly...or close the account after the transaction.

Heres sompthing:How the heck would they get a CC with a Guild Wars account?You dont pay for Guild Wars,not monthly anyway.

So one would have to have used that account for other activities,illegal ones maybe(MAYBE,read that part.),but other activities anyway.

On a sidenote dont flame the first person that dousnt trust the OP!

Technically, breaking the EULA is illegal (in the USA at least), and if you get your paypal/GW account stolen for it, I'm glad it happened to you.

For those people who actually follow the rules of the game and the law, yes, be careful about scammers. Check your comp for spyware/keyloggers weekly if you do not have a program to do it automatically. If something seems to good to be true, it's usually a scam, so don't fall for it.

I always see people in game that say something like "John Doe scammed me out of my ectos, dont trust him." Always check the gold amount someone is giving you before trading, Anet changed the display to a no-platinum display to "fix" scamming.

I also see people in the forums who say something like "yesterday i logged into my account and all my chars/items were gone." You can prevent account stealing by:
1: Not making your password easy to guess (if your email is [email protected], don't make your password windows. You'd be surprised how many people in D2 whose account I could have stolen)
2: Don't download/run any programs you don't trust. They may contain keyloggers which can pick up all your account names, passwords, and email messages you make.
3: Lastly, if you're giving your password to a friend, be sure you trust that friend to not give it to someone else. Not even my best friend knows my PW.

Really the sad thing about this is that someone would go through the trouble to steal an account simply for buying gold on guild wars... I mean if you're going to commit a felony I'd think you'd at least make it worth the trouble, of never being able to vote (for 7 years without another offense, I believe), own a gun, leave the country (without pre-approval by the country you wish to travel too), and not to mention a job might be hard to come by. Just saying 400$ of guild wars gold seems lame... I mean what it comes down to is its just a game.

It's big business

them guys make 6-7 figure profits, not 400$, add a few zeroes.

edit: nvm I'm an idiot, my eyesight is failing

It's been a while since I read the OP, but didn't he mention it was traced back to China ? In which case, not only is $400 a lot to them, but all those consequences of committing a felony can be disregarded.

here is the jest of the scam. they use fan forums to get IP numbers and Email addresses. then they do the rounds...

In my uncles case it happened when I was up there using my laptop and they got his IP address from the router off GWOnline. Guru has protections in place to keep that from happening.

Then they use a Hotmail packet sniffer to retrieve packets from my uncles IP. Unfortunately at the time he was doing something with Winzip and those idiots Sent his password in the open back to him for whatever reason. Also my uncle never listened to me to have different passwords on his multiple accounts, so when the email said you paypal order is verified and gave a password in the open, well that was all they needed...

They then go to town... First they got a Skype setup so they would have a contact number for the resellers. then they ordered massive amounts of game gold for GW WoW FF and Galaxies... Were talking hundreds of dollars worth of this crap... Well then they turn around and make a paypal transfer to his CC and got the PID number from god knows what... Then they started making cash withdrawals of the CC from Retail Checkouts or something else where a PIN is not required... Which means they can make fake Credit Cards. that's when the FBI got involved... Interstate bank fraud.

All this happened in 3 days time...

Now I have some contacts at anet and they told me to forward EVERYTHING to them so at the very least they could ban the accounts involved in the transaction, Which I did. Arenanet also offered to work with the FBI on getting IP numbers and Account data to them on request for the investigation, which I was very thankful for. They of course can not say the person has been banned but I don't see any of their nicknames online anymore so I am going to assume everything went as expected.

Anyhow Everyone is all "Well how they get this or that". and there you go, that's the just of it... A combination of the easy of hacking of Microsoft hotmail, along with very weak passwords on my uncles paypal account. But according to the law enforcement people we have talked to during this ordeal this is a all too common problem in the online world. Same user names and passwords on everything means your vulnerable. I got my uncle FINALLY to change everything I mean EVERYTHING so there is all different usernames and passwords for all his stuff now...

Luckily I understood this and didn't have the problem MYSELF... But it was unfortunate still that my uncle was victimized just because I use a fan forums that didn't secure up IP addresses...

Where the involvement in GW and WoW and Galaxies ect... came in is that the feds told us this is becoming an all too familiar scam because the people Selling this illegal product have no real way to get the authorities involved to help stop the fraud, because what they are doing themselves by selling virtual goods is also illegal under the DMCA. Because they are selling protected intellectual property without the permission of the owners. So the People doing the fraud USE that for some easy virtual money, that they in turn resell to the gold resellers for real cash on different accounts. Alla Money laundering.

The IPs were Routed though a Proxy server in China, But the Skype account was traced to a person in New Jersey, which has been confirmed with the IP from Anet and Blizzard.

So All I was trying to do was alert the community. which I have. I have never purchased gold and never will, Anet knows this all too well. I stand by my reputation and honor in the game. Not many of you making these pointless and biased accusations can say the same thing... I know you want your right to cheat in the game protected, but I'm sorry that is not fair to the legitimate gaming community.

Regards.

Ingy.

PS: let me put it this way. if they would have done it to just about anyone other then an internet security specialist they would have probably got away with it. But I do this kind of tracing and job site security for a living for a large oil company here in Alaska. I know how to find people when I have too. and Trust me, so does the FBI...

Firstly I must say I am very sorry for your family and what you all must be going through at this point in time. It is the saddest part of the whole internet thing that we must always be watching what we are doing with private information such as passwords and bank account info..

I don`t think Paypal should be blamed or ANet, or any other online company named above (if I missed somebody).

It is a serious case of uneducation in computers and sending of information. Those of us who used chalk and slates and later moved up to quills and ink could never of dreamed of such an age of information and when it happened it was nothing more than a new way to keep accounts and play games. It all happened so fast and it`s easy to see why mistakes are so easily made with such a lack of foresight.

I can`t wait for the day, and I hope to live to see it, when all this kind of activity ends. I can fully understand the turmoil of those caught up in online fraud and the pressure they must feel when one has to justify oneself.

paypal does have money back system they use. I'm unsure if it is offered to all members... or just verified members.

But are you saying that if you use a hotmail account for your paypal account it is easily haxed?

The FBI knows all... reminds me of that IRC log where the guys says something about the FBI reading whats was on there and then someone logs in and says we know... then logs out.

Yeah I understand that, but the OP pointed out that this case was around 400$ or so and just some guy in the US.

So in that case it is just a guy getting 400$ of gold, and risking a few years in prison and the label of a felon for it. Believe me I know there are big businesses that rake in millions off of this. I was just saying that this case is a little bit sad because the guy was buying gold not selling.

I hate to break it you, but that was a bash.org quote. It's not real.