How to Spot a WoW Phishing Email in Gmail

Posted on Apr 16, 2010 in Thoughts, Tips, World of Warcraft by dee 1 Comment

An increasing number of phishing emails are getting sent out asking people to verify their World of Warcraft credentials. The sad thing is that more people are falling for this every day resulting in forum posts like this:

 

I had a chance to look at my spam folder in Gmail and I was amazed to see so many emails from “Blizzard” asking me to verify my password:

If you get an email like this, the first thing you do is NOT TO CLICK ANY FRICKIN’ LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!!

Here is how you can spot a fishy email and some steps around keeping your WoW account a bit safer….

Ensure that you look at the email headers and see where the emails originate from. If you are using Gmail, the easiest way to do this is to click on “Show Details” on the top of the email:

Just checking the “from” address is never ever enough. In this case, some idiot tried to send me to a nice looking page to give him my username and password.. lovely.

If you need more information, see if you can see the entire message header. In Gmail, you can click the little drop down button beside the Reply button and select “Show Original” to see the entire trail:

And the real address is now shown:

The funny thing is that my Gmail address is NOT associated with any battle.net accounts :)

Some Suggestions to keep a**holes from stealing your keys

 

1. Blizzard will NEVER EVER EVER ask for your password. So if you get an email from anyone purporting to be Blizzard and asking for your username and password, its a hacker trying to get your hard earned account.

2. NEVER EVER EVER click any link in any emails that come from Blizzard. It may look like its going to the WoW or Battle.Net sites, but trust me, its not. If you mouse over the link, looking at the status bar on your browser will show you where the link is actually going. This is done by showing you one address, but the on-click takes you somewhere else:

3. If you are in doubt, enter the link to the Blizzard site manually in a browser. Don’t click on any links! (worth frickin’ repeating!)

4. If you are still paranoid, don’t even open any emails that look like these especially if they are not trapped by your spam filters. At the very worst, it is possible for hackers to put malicious code that can redirect you to sites that contains key loggers that can be used to steal your WoW and other personal details.

5. As a general rule, always be careful when using online cafe’s or other public places to log onto any sensitive sites. You cannot guarantee that these machines are not infected with key loggers.

6. Always ensure that your battle.net password is not easily guessable and is different from what you use for other sensitive sites.

7. Always ensure that your machine is up to date in terms of its updates and virus software and that you do run regular scans. I know a few people who have downloaded dodgy software and the “setup.exe” come frequently with a bootstrapper that installs a virus first and then runs the real setup.

8. The most important item that you need to ALWAYS have secure is your email address. Its amazing how often people think that it doesn’t need to be that secure because you don’t have sensitive enough information in it. But imagine how easy it would be for a hacker (once they have your email account) to “reset” any services and be able to have that sent to your email box.

Having your email address details is the first step in terms of having the ability to reset most things that address has been registered against. This includes financial institutions, your battle.net account, etc etc etc. At the very least make sure your email password is frickin’ secure!!

Summary

 

There is a LOT that can be written around the areas of keeping your “stuff” secure. I’ve only brushed on a high level some of the common sense practices.. There are entire sites dedicated to online security and best practices. Just saw a whole bunch of spam in my Gmail, hence why I thought I’d write something about it to convey my opinion.. :)

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Tags: How To, Security, World of Warcraft

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