Stolen Itens, hacks and help required.

Hello everybody, I come to you asking for help in trying to understand and prevent possible future thefts in GW2.
Step to summarize:
I play games for almost 25 years and never had any problems with hackers ... until about 6 months!
It all started with Diablo III, and it happened again and similarly in GW this week!
Someone comes into my game with one, and only one of my characters, steal all the stash, strip all the valuable runes on the character and leave! All the other characters in the account remain untouched!
As in DIII, all started after i just use the general chat! nothing more!
In GW i use the game from the beggining, i stoped to play several years and loaded the game this month to try to finish same EotN altars, no problems until i use the chat to try a trade. Next day i was robbed.
I think it was a kind of bot because it just take Ectos, lockpics and Money,,,several other kind of valuable things was ignored Like everlasting tonics, elite tomes, rare pets and so on.

I can't understend how they do it, and seriously, i am no to sad because i will not play GW anymore, but GW2 instead. What i want is strongly avoid that this can happen to me again in the same way in GW2.

I will not ask help for support because i will not play the game anymore.All i need for GW2 is my advancements in the altars.

I ask you guys for help trying to know if some one can give me any light in this subject, and what to do, if possible, to avoid this, because the atack looks kinda cames from inside the game, so any security measures out of the game looks futile! (Firewalls,Antivirus,Spyware,etc.)

After this happened to me in DIII in last December, my comp was formated from start, and have all the normal securitys everione have like antivirus, firewall and spyware. however the same happened in teh same way this week in GW, just after i used the general chat.

hanks in advance for any help o this subject, and terrible sorry for my poor English skills.

P.S.- I don't use any sites at all to download nothing game related, and i dont buy nothing also from any site! The exepction is the game store, nothing more.

sounds like you're using the same password for all your accounts.

If two games are hacked for you in the same week, then you either made the mistake to use the same info (emailadres/password) or they got something on your computer to spy on you(or you are incredible unlucky).

My advise is to reinstall everything on you computer so any strange things are gone and change you passwords (make sure they are different for each game, better write them down then store them digitally cause a hacker can look into your computer but not on your desk.

As for GW1, You might still want to file a support ticket. Support has a roll back system that restores all of your items.

Nope, bouth games have a diferent one.

And if they enter via password, why just one char was robbed and not all the other ones in the same account?

Also, even if they know the pass, how they know the existing character name we must put in the log in? I use one that never plays, is just a mule! How they can know that?

As i sayed, normal security measures looks futile on this kind of atacks. All just happened after i used the general chat in game>!

And the same problem with DIII was in December, not this week.
After that i instaled all the system again.
This is not a "standart attack" at all, something is diferent.

My English is quite limited so i will post a link where it explains very well the kind of problems, altough not especificaly mine.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/6...ome=1208940847

The story you have linked is over five years old. In any case, the article basically is saying that if you happened to visit one of these infected sites, your computer would be infected. Therefore, your best action would be to follow the advise above and perform a total re-install of your operating system.

In a nutshell, your computer has been compromised and the passwords/login information has been provided to another person.

The security question can be answered by any charactername on your account. It is not so that you have to use the one you use all the time.

There are basicly 4 ways of finding out your security details.
a: they hack an outside source, e.g. this forum and steal the login database. Even though a lot of warning, people are still using the same emailadres and password as they use at the game. This is the fastest and most easy method. fansides have a huge database with customers, are relativly easy to hack (compared to hacking directly into the game). It is relativly easy for the hackers, but public awerness of the risk is making it harder and less lucrative
b: hack the game server directly. This has happened to two company's so far (atleast I know of). The first was Sony, the second was Blizzard a few weeks ago. Even given the fact that game company's are not happy when this happens, they are generally admitting it. The reaon is that it comes out anyway cause of the size of such a breach. This is also the hardest thing to hack. If a hacker succeeds he hits jackpot, but with all big heists you are being followed closely cause of the size of the heist.
c: Brute force an account. This means running a program to fill in your security details. this is only succesfull if they miss only one detail (e.g. your password) and your password is very simple.
d: put hidden software on you pc using malware, virusses, trojans, etc.

To be totally honest with you. In every textbook bout internet security the statistics are that 99% of all security breaches are user errors. I've been in computer security professionally for many years and I can tell you the textbook is right. There has been numerous topics on this forum bout people claiming that it wasn't their end. But they all stood alone. Meaning that if an outside source or the game server would been hacked a lot of people would be reporting the same issue.. All those reports stood alone.

I'm very sorry you got hacked, but unless you have hard evidence, you would be better of finding the reason at your side of the line, cause there you will find the source and therefor the means to prevent happening this to you in the future.

Last of all, the newsarticle you arte quoting is full of bullshit and written very populistic.

I think you've just got some malicious software on your system somewhere. I think it's unlikely anyone has seen you in game and decided to brute force you which would be impractical at best.

Just keep your defensive software up to date and you should be fine.

If you haven't done already, change your passwords.

Thanks guys for the words and time you put on this subject, im deeply thankfull to all.

Akelarumi, mate: Nice things you say there. they are valuable to me, seriously.
Altough i still ask again...: If it was a real person who loged in my account,
- why he only striped one character of and his heros of all Vigor runes? all the other ones are intact<!
-Why he only grabed Lockpicks, platinum and Ectos, when i had in the stash Tons of elite tomes, and tons of undedicated green and purple mini pets?

Just assuming that this is not so unsual at all...i raise another question:
- why i never had this problem before, using the same comp with the same security measures, and the same pass and email for years, and just after i write something in the chat trying to trade something this week this happened, i am playing for a full mounth and suddenly when i need to finaly write something this happens...? I am very sorry guys but at the least this is a hell of a coicidence ! As i sayed before, the same happened to me in DIII...all normal, i played almoust 2 weeks, (But never have write nothing in the chat), the day i write something on the chat i got robbed in the next day?
Do you realize the odds of this is a just a weird coicidence that happened 2 times ? It's realy hard to belive!

I don't want to argument with nobody about this kind of issues, first because i am not a expert, and second because my only objective is just try to understend what happened and how, so i can avoid it in the future!
I checked all the comp and nothing abnormal was found. I went in a Comp lab shop to a professional check up, and nothing was found (My lovely money...) I update all the time my system as the virus & spyware protections as well. It's like if some one was asking me to belive in Ghosts...we can't see them...you can't ear them,,, you can't notice nothing at all from them...but they exist!Gosh.
I start to belive that the only real way to be secure is to avoid Internet 100%, maybe it's time to back to the old single player treasures i have locked in the boxes.

Imagine yourself as a thief. A specifick painting or rolex watch, even if it is for grabbing, is very risky. You want to go for the easy money. Those people are getting your stuff for free. They prolly sold the ecto's and the lockpicks to the merchant for platinums. Even though they get a lower price it is saver then selling them to another player (and again, they didn't work hard to get them, profit is profit).
An elite tome or a miniature needs to be sold to another player to get profit, meaning they have to spend time in kamadan, advertising with stolen goods.

They get into you acount, grab as many cash they can and get out.

Your second question is what more you could have done to prevent it.
It is hard to point out the cause of the security breach from where I am. The reason is that I have to be in your computer, and even then I might not find the cause.

But like you said, keeping your computer clean from harmfull stuff is important. The problem is is that, like you said your not a professional. I have a virusscanner out of lazyness, but I actually don't need one. I know what gets on my hard drive. I know it doesn't hurt and I know it is ok. You need to depend on virusscanners and trust they do their job. And no they can't give you a 100% protection. but there are some basic rules to protect yoursellf better.

a: like being said, don't store vital information on your harddrive, but rather have a hard copy (if you can't trust roommates or so, get a vault or lockbox).
b: know what your installing specially when you don't know the source of a program. This goes double with illegal software.
c: Understand there is no 100% risk free way to prevent this but also understand that having more valuables means you are more at risk. Showing your wealth is very human but also adds to the risk. A hacker will be more interested in you if he sees you in kamadan, selling a unded panda, while wearing obsidian armor, chaos gloves and having a unded kuunavang floating at your feet. I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but understand the risks.

Last of all, and this is I think the best advice. Learn to live with the risk. I know you feel violated. I know you feel dissapointed in the gaming population, but it is sadly a part of the gaming community. I have read a interesting article a few months ago that behind goldsellers are very often north korean's using the profits to break the trade blocks and get money into the country, the article stated that it goes as far as being organised by the north korean goverment. I don't know how trough it is, but it would explain the professionalism and the difficulty to arm yourself against it. I'm not going to claim that my account is unhackable but what is in my xunlai chest is not what makes me happy. It is playing a nice game with friends. I would be pissed, but I would file a support ticket to see if a roll back brings me any luck , prevent it from happening again by reinstalling the pc and then move on.

Akelarumi, thank you very much for your kind and wise words mate! Deeply thankfull for your time on my topic and questions.
Much apreciated indeed friend.
Yes, that Korean issue is very sad indeed!
I also red in a magazine that Chinese Prisioners in some jails are forced to do Hard physical work at day, and forced to farm gold in games at night time, with out any personal gain on it!