A really unusual problem

Ever since setting up a brand new Prophecies account 7 days ago, I have experienced strange happenings...

The very first character I had created and leveled to 8, vanished upon logging back in, after getting an error stating another connection had signed on.

After a day, I was able to create a character and have it stay. But, another issue arose when my level 9 Monk's ENTIRE inventory (even equipment) vanished, save for Gold and the items placed in storage.

The troubles don't stop there... I had paid the Guild registrar 100 gold to create a Guild, and a day or two later, that Guild was no more.
A day after that, My Work-in-Progress Perma-Pre Mesmer's armor vanished as well. (With a Collector's armor dyed White, I might add. :P) but his Weapon/Shield, Gold, and 1 or 2 inventory items stayed.

Even after all of that, I had created another Guild, and invested 2 platinum into a Cape. It must've stayed for 2 days or so, when I logged in just earlier today, it was no more, as well.

I've even logged in, after something else weird has happened (like Equipment vanishing) to see my Friend's list empty.

And to top it off: I have had to reset my password 13 times these past 7 days (I have wrote all new and different passwords that I had used on a piece of paper to remember them). When I try entering my current password sometimes, it doesn't work, and even the previous password (the one issued by e-mail and the one I reset to previous) did not work, either.

But the kicker is: I honestly believe there is no other party involvement. I had just formatted my computer over a week ago. I have a anti-virus program, and I have NEVER accepted strange/weird files from anyone.. heck, I don't even SPEAK to anyone I don't know on XFire/Aim (the only chat programs I use). I haven't received unusual e-mails, either. And I'm not stupid to share my GW password with anyone.

But you would say: It is impossible that those characters/items/guilds would just vanish on their own. They're server-side, right? So, the only way, in all logic, would be human/intelligent involvement, correct? And to my knowledge, I have no alter-ego possessing me, so what else could it be?

I have even changed my password while using my brother's computer, in hopes that would remedy it. But, no such luck, it still happened again.

Well... I'm pretty sure, anymore, that it is my computer's fault. In truth, I get those "other connection has signed in" messages in other programs as well, such as AIM and Yahoo messenger, and I've even had that problem in one other online game. Formatting my computer has never solved the issue.

(To reinforce the vanishing thing, I've had my Yahoo messenger friend's list wipe when I get the error, yet AIM's friends stays for some reason unknown.)

I honestly believe some component of my computer is... .. for lack of better description: evil. Soon, I'll be investing into a new motherboard/processor in hopes that it would clear up these issues. (My computer is close to 8 years old in whole, if it would please any of you to know.)

And to add, I do have an older other account--but the thing is, that account, was set up by my friend, on his computer, not mine. I NEVER have experienced issues like that with it.

I know nothing anyone could suggest here would probably fix this issue. But, I thought it was... interesting to share. And honestly, I'm close to messaging ArenaNet, to ask if they keep logs on what happens, (and if it'd be at all possible to see what they see happens, when this stuff happens to me.)

Have a fun time trying to figure that out, and enjoy your non-vanishing GW account!

I'm sensing a keylogger.

I advise you to download something like www.avast.com free edition and run the scanner which will detect and delete the suspect.

You need to open a ticket with support.

I have never heard of disappearing characters/items unless it was involving account security compromises, or due to mistaken log in to Chapters not linked to the same account.

The alarm bells should have been going off for quite some time, you need to take action.

What I am getting from your post is that you have a rather messy, disorganized approach to your game account management.

There is ample room for all sorts of security breaches and holes in your current situation:

-multiple computers used for log-in

-password issues/prompts

-more than one person who has access to game computer

-likely spyware/malware/loggers

Take your issue to Guild Wars Support:

Be prepared to take measures to ensure your system is clean and stable, this will likely be one of the first questions support techs ask of you.

http://www.guildwars.com/support

I am going to leave this thread open for now, but this problem is something none of us can help you with so please see the link above.

I downloaded the Avast home-edition program, and ran it on next-boot. As I suspected, it found nothing.

I knew no one could probably assist me, but I felt it was interesting to share, like I said.

I have to admit, I'm upset. This is a forum... I was kind of expecting more of a small debate about my problem. Instead, I get dismissed quickly and pointed to the obvious problems people usually make. I felt I covered those bases well enough in my post.

But, I did fail to mention that I only ever received the "other connection message" once in all this time, and it was only the first time. I'm online it often enough that, if someone were involved in keylogging, I would've gotten that message more than once, you would think?

No one else uses this computer but me. I had these problems BEFORE using my brother's computer to change my password there. And he has his own account as well, and he's reported nothing strange at all.

And, the fact that I have similar issues with other computer programs leads me to believe its not a GW-Isolated issue.

I will send a message to GW-Support none the less.

Avast is a great anti-virus program, I use it myself. But one scan by one program usually won't find an intractable piece of entrenched mal-ware. You need to make a multi-pronged attack in addition to a fully updated Anti-Virus program:

Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Those 2 above, in addition to your Avast utility, should make a great triumvirate. These programs are all free and updated very regularly to counter new threats. To be effective you must ensure they are updated automatically or manually...

Also consider CCleaner for a real great way of cleaning Windows:
http://www.ccleaner.com/features.aspx

Multi-layered approaches work better to ensure nothing slips through the net.

Also try AVG free anti-spyware and anti-virus. I think it's www.free.grisoft.com but if that doesn't work just google AVG free and you'll find it, the URL is something like that.

I don't think you're being "dismissed," it's just that a security issue is about 999,999,999 (approximately ) times more likely to be causing the problems you're seeing than any other explanation. Since GW and the other apps you're using don't use the same mechanisms for security (so there's no central identifiable software component at fault here), the only other type of "computer glitch" that might cause something like this is some kind of hardware failure, which would cause a much wider array of problems. I'd say the chances are very low that it's a coincidence that all of these problems are security-related.

Honestly, the only rational explanation for what you're seeing is that your security has been compromised in one way or another. It may be on your computer (key logger or other malware) or it could be something far less technical (someone has access to your email account, your brother is playing a prank on you, etc.)

That is a very weird problem! Does the "signed in on another account" problem still happen when you're playing on your brother's computer?

I never tried playing on my brother's computer, I only changed my password once on it. I don't know if the problems would still persist but, it would take a day, or a few, of playing on his computer alone to see, as that's about the time needed for something to happen. (And I've said before that I only have gotten the "other connection" message just once.)

I've had other weird issues with my computer in the past. Files that would simply vanish (usually right off my desktop where I would easily notice they were no longer there) (they had no reason to just vanish, I never had any sort of desktop cleanup program or anything like that); at one time, my web browser was repeatedly closing.
At another point, when I lived at another location, one specific site was blocked, and said something along the lines of the administrator not allowing it--yet there was no administrator, and other people living in the same location could access the site, while I couldn't on my computer.

I've had those Malicious software cleaning programs people are suggesting before my format, and ran them once every few weeks. Namely, CCleaner, and Ad-Aware. Those didn't fix the problems then, either.

Like I said in the first post, I truly do not think it is anyone doing this, but yet it is my computer. I know of no one that would want to play with me like this, and no, it wouldn't be my brother playing a prank. The source being my computer is the only conclusion I can come to as of late.

I've been on the edge of paranoia with some of these issues before. Yet, I repeatedly check Running Processes to look for abnormalities and see nothing out of the ordinary. Even a friend who knows more about computers than I do, agreed that he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I'd like to thank everyone for their replies so far, though.
(I did download and install SpyBot and WindowsDefender. Haven't ran either yet, though.)

you probably have a program that's allowing someone else to log into your computer and manipulate it remotely. safe route is to take whatever files you need and reformat all your harddrives.

I'd be hard-pushed to go as far as formatting my other 2 drives...

I recently logged into my older, other account just yesterday night. If I were being key logged, now that would be the account to play around with, yet no weird events with it. Compared to my old account, the new one is like... .. Nothing.

I'll go with moriz, backup what you want to keep other than programs. Wipe your HDD(s) clean and reinstall windows. Afterwards, don't install anything like bitorrent or any toolbars that you might want even avoid msn, aim etc and don't get your backed up files on your PC yet either. Download the protection programs mentioned earlier and update them. Then, reset your password. Keep it like this for a little while, let's say a week or the time it takes for those problems to show off. If the problem go away, then, you can safely assume that it was some form of malware. If the problem stays it's either your PC or some form of malware that can survive a reformat.

EDIT: after you've determined if malware was the cause of your problem, then start reinstalling what you previously had on your computer. I'd still recommend avoiding any kind of toolbars or programs like utorrent.

Change your email password and tell your brother that the FBI are looking into it.
I bet it stops.

Throw that piece of paper with password away. Burn it if needed.

Change your password on another computer and use -password command so the keylogger can't detect your password.

Try changing your account user name too.

And do you have a firewall? They can access your computer remotely if it is not under any firewall. www.zonealarm.com is a good firewall to use. Had intrusion alerts every 15minutes in the past. It is scary.

I wish you all the best.

I think some of you are hitting off the mark... For the record, I'm 22, and my brother is 24. Case closed on him, or anyone else here in this family messing with anything. I completely assure you that is not the case, and I do not need to dispose of my .. password paper. :P

By tomorrow or even the next day, I could assure and prove everyone wrong if I can still access my other account. (That there is no keylogger on my system.) Well, that is assuming if there was a perpetrator, he/she would log into that account by then and cause some chaos...

Then you will all know that there really is no keylogger, and maybe you'll believe too, that my computer is... evil.

Edit: Yes, I do have a firewall, I stated it in the first post, I believe. And it is ZoneAlarm. I had it since I formatted.
I will try changing the user name and the -password command, just in case.

Maybe you can sell the story of your 'evil' pc to a tabloid?

Seriously though. I can't see how a computer itself can cause the things you have been describing. Hence the reason why almost everyone here suspect that it's probably some kind of malware or yes maybe even your brother.

Or maybe you are walking in your sleep?

Please keep us informed with what the GW support tells you. It's a rather interesting story because it's different.

Hmmm do you use a wireless router by any chance?

Is your account that is messing up linked to your yahoo email account, if so I bet you someone hacked your yahoo email account. I would change youre email password, then change your GW password and see if that clears it up.

In the beginning, I too, thought this kind of stuff, a computer alone couldn't do. But, I never mentioned--it's been close to 2 years since I've been dealing with these issues. (getting the "other connection" issues on Aim and Yahoo started it all and it went on from there). I've pretty much learned to just deal with it.. But this Guild Wars issue took the cake, and now I'm speaking to you all about it.

Update on my account states:
I can log into both accounts just fine this morning. No one appeared to be missing any armor. (didn't log into each to look at their inventories, but)

Edit:
About the connections-- No. we're wired the ol' fashioned way through a network running DSL :P Laptop? Psh, my computer is a desktop and its oooold.

Since you and your brother both have computers, may I asked, are they networked wirelessly? If so, you may want to look at network security. (More than just zone alarm - perhaps change the network connection passkeys) Also, is your computer a lap top? If so, do you sometimes play through a public network such as in a net-cafe or library of some kind? Those kinds of networks tend to have very bad security (networks at schools tend to be more secure but I would still be cautious with them).

Sounds like you keep getting hacked.

2 Days have passed, and I've yet to receive an e-mail back from ArenaNet. But I'm patient, and nothing else has happened since then. No password resets or missing items. Not even on my other account with all 3 campaigns on it. So I'm in no hurry at the moment.

So see, no keylogger. :P (If there was someone behind it all, they would've moved in by now and took over both accounts, but "they" only mess with my new one.)

But, something could happen later today or even tomorrow, so I'm still holding my breath that something bad will happen... We'll see, and I'll post here when it does.

can I reccomend that you install some sort of network/computer monitoring software and see if any activity related to guildwars shows up while you are clearly away from the computer. I dunno if yahoo offers pop access to its email accounts, but you could set outlook or thunderbird up to constantly download all emails being sent to you, that way you can see if anyone is requesting password changes on your yahoo account.

Also if you have got a plaync master account, change your login details for that as well, because people can change your guildwars password from their as well.


Finally to see if it is just your account and not a hack, create a trial key account and play on that for a bit to see if the same thing happens, you could go as far as buying another guildwars propheses account for £10/$20 and play on that for 2/3 weeks.

to me it sounds like someone is messing with you more like a friend or a neighbor kid. if this was someone who was malicious they would have just taken over the account and switched all the info. could it possibly your brothers friends or someone like that. this just doesn't sound like something that happens at anet. just a second thought is it like your account is getting rolled back or something to that nature or is just items being sold or given away

If you're still worried about computer security, DL and run AVG free anti-virus and anti-spyware. AVG is some of the best stuff out there, and you can get it free, albeit with slightly reduced features and a 30 day or so time limit on the anti-spyware. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Honestly, for the last time, it is not anyone playing tricks on me that would live locally.. No one even comes into my room, except when I'm here. :P I truly assure everyone, that not one of my family members or their/my friends would be doing such a thing.

Still no problems have occurred. So I'm pretty happy about that, none the less.

Edit: and I think my computer is well fortified enough already, but thanks... It's processing power has slowed down enough as well with all these protective programs running, heh.

You understand that though your computer may now be secure, your account may still remain compromised?

I'm not sure if the account name change did it or what, but I've still received none of those weird errors--even when I was away from my computer and not online for the weekend.
ArenaNet hasn't replied back, though.

You could probably call me stubborn or even a little blind, but since this long has gone by, and no issues; I really feel that they have stopped for good.

I never believed there was any human "culprit" to begin with... The proof: the events all happened at odd times abroad; they didn't just take over either of my accounts outright--and only messed with the new, dirt poor, one; I only received the "Another account has signed on" message once, and it was well within when I first created the account (and that I receive those "another connection" messages on some other online programs that I run, when there's no reason for them (and to note, when I change the passwords on them, the message pops up again and resets the password to the old, at least on Yahoo/MSN Messenger)); and last of all, is there any reason to remove a Pre-Searing character's equipment?

But, then someone could turn all of those statements around and just say it someone playing tricks on me... When victims mention key loggers in their threads, it also usually means their accounts were taken immediately, end of story for them. In my case: not true. Strangers have no reason to toy with other strangers... Especially through unnecessarily removing character's clothing and wasting their time removing worthless items like that.

Though in the end I may be right or I may be wrong, who could say if until it would happen again?

I'll still be taking careful measures to protect both accounts.

People that enjoy griefing others don't have to "steal" anything to feel satisfied.

As opposed to hackers that hijack accounts and valuable information, there is also a type of hacker that simply enjoys sowing chaos, confusion and inconvenience. They seek no material or virtual gain, only the feeling of power that comes with having free rein to "mess" with someone's head in ways that seem inexplicable. It's like someone breaking into your house and pouring all your canned soda out in the sink and leaving only to return again at a later time to do a similar thing.

My guess is that your game account was compromised for quite a long time and that maybe you have finally closed the breach by changing the account name. The type of "attacks" on your account show that someone was messing with you and not going after the usual things when hijacking an account.

You bring up good points, too, Kuldebar Valiturus.

That's all very disheartening, though...

I'd like to thank everyone on behalf of their effort through all of this.

Change your email on the account also, after the email is changed then change the password. If your computer isn't compromised your email could be. Also you can open up a command prompt and type netstat "netstat -b" with out the ""'s and it will tell you every ip your connected too with the program name. If you notice any strange ones that you didn't run then you got keylogged.

I know this is going to sound strange but are there any magnets near your harddrive. We had an employee at work that was losing files and icons. They would disappear from her computer. Anything video would run and then vanish.

When I went to move her CPU a magnet from her desk had stuck on her box right near her harddrive. It was explained to me by an engineer that as the harddrive was spinning the magnet was "stealing" the data. Because it wasn't a very strong magnet it didn't wipe the drive just removed data when it was "spinning".

A valid thing to watch for, but since all player account information regarding characters and their equipment is stored on Anet's servers, this is unlikely to be the culprit.