Please note that new forum posts regarding compromised accounts will usually be locked and directed to this thread. We ask that you read through the information here before posting new questions, as it should provide answers to the most common questions. The name and realm of one of your characters can greatly assist us in looking into your individual situation, but please do not post your email address or account name. Please also note that we will delete off-topic comments from this thread.

If you’re reading this thread it’s likely that your account has been compromised, and your items and gold stolen from it. Don’t panic! There are ways to restore the integrity of your account, and in most cases the restoration of lost characters, items, and/or gold is completely possible.

This thread has a lot of information that we recommend reading through in full, but if you prefer you can jump to the section that is most relevant to your account:

• Frequently Asked Questions – ►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„
  
  • The Meaning of ‘Compromised Account’
    
  • Account password has been changed
    
  • Missing email after requesting a password
    
  • Waiting Time
    
  • Authenticator Issues
    
  • Account has been locked after contacting Blizzard
    
  • Online-Trading & Suspensions
    
  • Someone you know has had their account stolen
    
  • Guild Bank Theft
    
  • Characters Moved Between Realms
    
  • Changing Realm/Race/Faction
    
  • Merged to Battle.net
• Securing Your Computer – ►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„
  
• Unable to Login – ►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„
  
• Items & Gold Missing – ►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„
  
• Further Reading – ►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„

Please keep in mind that despite the fact that compromised accounts are considered to be one our upmost priorities, there is currently some delay due solely to a rise in malicious activity. We are working to address this so that we can return your account to as quickly as possible, and in the meantime we hope that you’ll accept our thanks for your patience.

• What does the phrase ‘compromised account’ actually mean, and why is it important?
  
  
  We use this term to describe accounts that have been taken control of by someone other than the registered owner. Sometimes this is done for the purposes of acquiring the gold contained within, and other times it’s simply a disagreement between friends that have shared their login information.
  
  It’s important to understand that common phrases such as ‘hacked’ are misleading and suggest that there has been some sort of all out ‘attack’ on your account, when in fact account details are usually obtained through websites and emails that pretend to be operated by us, or through the use of software downloaded to a computer that you use to play the game.
  
  More information about how to spot and protect yourself against this kind of account theft can be found in the Further Reading (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.

• My password seems to have been changed and I can no longer access my account.
  
  
  If you find that you have been locked out of your account and the password you use no longer works, please follow the steps outlined in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.

• I have followed these instructions to retrieve my password, but have not received a mail. Did I do something wrong?
  
  
  If you do not receive an email with your password then it is very likely that your registered email address was changed by the person who has infiltrated your account. You will need to contact our account support team by filling in our web form, details of which can be found in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.
  
  Another reason that you may not be receiving the email is that there may be an unauthorised mail forward. It is vital that you secure your email account to prevent further theft; malicious parties may still be able to obtain your account details through your email if not properly checked. To guide you through this, please take a read through this article on our support site:
  
  http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=28585

• How long does it take for Blizzard to reply to me/restore a compromised account?
  
  
  Our typical response time for dealing with compromised accounts has been considerably reduced in recent weeks and we continue to work on improving our efficiency in this regard. However, it may still take up to 5 days for us to complete our investigation and restoration.

• I get asked for an authenticator code when I try to login, what’s going on?
  
  
  This happens when the person responsible for the theft of the account uses a Battle.net Authenticator in an attempt to make it more difficult for us to assist you.
  
  The truth, however, is that our ability to recover your account and reimburse lost items is completely unaffected, and the necessary steps remain relatively unchanged.
  
  Should you find yourself in this situation, please follow the steps outlined in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below so that we can remove the authenticator for you.

• I contacted a member of the Customer Support team about my compromised account, but they locked the account! Did I do something wrong?
  
  
  In most cases when an account is compromised and reported directly to our support teams, we can reset your password and reimburse any lost property without the need to lock the account. However, in situations where we feel that the account is in significant risk of further loss, we may temporarily lock it so that your ownership can be properly verified. If this is the case, you should receive an email with further instructions.
  
  If for any reason you don’t receive an email or you feel that your account has been locked in error (e.g. you’d already contacted us and had your account unlocked), please contact us using our support web form details of which can be found in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„ ) section below.

• I’ve received an email from Blizzard telling me that I’ve been banned for ‘involvement in online-trading’ and/or ‘use of 3rd party software’! Why?
  
  
  Compromised accounts are, unfortunately, often used by those responsible for exploitation, such as advertising or ‘farming’ for gold. These mails and the subsequent suspension are part of our preventative measures, and prevent further damage to your account. The only way to gain access again is to speak to us first, something you will likely need to do anyway.
  
  Rest assured that you will not be held responsible in these situations, and we will completely remove any warnings/suspensions once your ownership of the account and the circumstances have been verified.

• My friend is at work/school/etc, but their character is logged on! It looks like he has been compromised – is there anything I can do?
  
  
  Absolutely! Please submit a ticket to us in-game with the name and realm of your friend’s character, and any information you might have that could be useful. Additionally, you can help your friend by linking them to this thread for advice on what to do and who to contact.

• Our guild bank has been robbed! What do we do/who should make a ticket?
  
  
  Guild banks are reimbursed as part of the usual process of investigating a compromised account, and so we simply need the affected player to contact us as they would normally. It’s important to note that recovered items will be returned directly to the guild master, not the player that was compromised.

• One or more of my characters was transferred to another realm! Can I be moved back?
  
  
  Your characters will usually be returned to their original realms automatically provided that you did not willingly share your account details with a friend, for example. We recommend mentioning the fact that characters have been moved to other realms when contacting us, just to be absolutely clear that you wish us to investigate for you.

• I want to change realm/race/faction – will this affect my position in the queue or prevent reimbursement?
  
  
  You are free to change any of your characters’ race or faction or even to transfer them to other realms, and we will continue the investigation and reimbursement as normal. However, it’s preferable if you wait until everything has been returned to you before using our paid services.

• What’s Battle.net and how does it relate to why I can’t login?
  
  
  In mid-November 2009 we introduced our unifying account platform Battle.net (http://eu.battle.net/) and asked players to merge their existing WoW accounts into this new system. Essentially this replaces your old login name with your Battle.net email address and allows you to use a single address to access any WoW accounts connected to it.
  
  In some rare cases, previously unmerged accounts are sometimes connected to the Battle.net account of the player responsible for the account theft, preventing you from merging it to your own and logging in.
  
  Should you find yourself in this situation don’t worry; it’s something that we can help you to correct, and you’ll need to follow the steps outlined in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„ ) section below.

Please understand that Blizzard takes all aspects of security very seriously, and to that end we have invested heavily into ensuring that compromised accounts do not originate from us. If your account is broken into, the explanation simply has to be malicious software (discussed in this section) or some form of phishing. Additionally, remember that sharing your account information with a friend or family members means their computer is a possible avenue of attack.

Accounts are often compromised through the use of software that covertly installed on your computer by those responsible. This software is known by many names, some examples being ‘keyloggers’, ‘Trojans’, or sometimes simply ‘a virus’.

It’s very important that you check your computer and any others than you use to access World of Warcraft for this possibility, as failure to do so will likely mean that the account is put at risk of theft again in the future.

Once you are certain that your computer is completely free of this software, please take a look at the steps outlined in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.

Before contacting us, please be absolutely certain that you’ve checked for the possibility of malicious software that could be used to obtain your account details again. Check out the Securing Your Computer (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„ ) section above.

Many players find that they are able to recover their account simply by resetting their password, thus allowing them to access the game almost immediately and saving a considerable amount of time. This can be done through the Battle.net password retrieval page, found here:

https://eu.battle.net/account/support/password-reset.xml

If this helps and you’re able to login, consider jumping ahead to the Items & Gold Missing (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! â—„â—„ ) section below. However, if you are not able to retrieve your password or find that you’re asked for an authenticator code, continue reading.

Our account support teams exist to help with all manner of issues, including account theft and recovery, and they are the point of contact should you be unable to access your account. They can be reached either over the phone or preferably through the web form on our support site, found here:

http://eu.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml

Choose World of Warcraft as the product, Account Security / Compromise / Hacked as the category, and select the realm that you spend most of your time on. You can also optionally choose to have the contact address changed if you are no longer able to access your original email account. Please try to give an approximate date that you last logged into the game before this happened using the boxes provided.

The original CD key and secret question answer are required by our account support team to verify your identity as the owner, but in the event that you no longer have these details or that your account has been compromised previously, you will be asked for a piece of government-issued photo identification such as a passport or drivers license in your name.

Finally, use the description box to briefly explain what happened and problem that you’re having.

Once submitted, your help request will be placed in our queue and we’ll respond as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that we reply to help requests in the order that we receive them, and so there may be a perfectly normal period of several days before you hear back.

While waiting, please take a look at our Further Reading (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.


Alternatively we now have a new system in place called the "Account Recovery Webform" this can be found by clicking on the "Can't log in?" link underneath your account name and password when trying to log into Battle.net. Alternatively you can click this link to take you to the direct page.

https://eu.battle.net/account/support/account-recovery.html

This will help you recover your account and begin the restoration of any missing items you may have. However the speed of the process is dependant on how many other players have also requested this service, so while you are waiting please do read through the Further Reading section below.

Please be aware that there may be other circumstances surrounding your inability to log into the game. We would ask that you check the realm status page and your e-mail before filling out this form. It may be that the realms are down due to maintenance or that you are unable to log in due to other reasons than account compromise.

If you contacted us through the web form or over the phone to recover ownership of your account, it’s highly likely that an investigation is already pending and no further action on your part will be necessary. If you have any questions though, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Once you are able to log into the game and access your characters, you will likely find that some or all of your items have been sold or destroyed, and that your gold has been taken. Please don’t worry! This is quite a common outcome of compromised accounts, and we are able to recover lost property in the vast majority of cases.

Simply open a ticket using the red ? icon along the action menu at the bottom of the screen, briefly describing the circumstances in the text box provided. From here our in-game support team will investigate the matter for you and attempt to reimburse all that was taken, including gold, items, guild bank contents and even deleted characters.

Once submitted, your help request will be placed in our queue and we’ll respond as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that we reply to help requests in the order that we receive them, and so there may be a perfectly normal period of several days before you hear back.

While waiting, please take a look at our Further Reading (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below.

By far the best way to protect your account is with a Battle.net Authenticator, available as a physical token or as a download for most mobile phones available in Europe. You can find out more in the following articles:

Battle.net Authenticator FAQ
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=36010

Battle.net Mobile Authenticator FAQ
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=35970

If you’re waiting for a reply to your email or ticket, or simply interested in finding out more about preventing account theft in the future, take a look at these support site articles that may be of interest to you:

*IMPORTANT* - Account Security
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=37473

Computer and Account Security
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=19385

Security Software
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=29142

Protecting the citizens of Azeroth is extremely important to us. Our new Battle.net Account Security Awareness page (http://eu.battle.net/en/security/) provides helpful advice on what you can do to safeguard your computer, how to spot scams, info on the adverse effects of buying gold (Don’t Buy Gold ), and tried-and-true methods to help prevent account compromises.

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Ppwn,

Please use the guide in this sticky to send us a webform fully explaining the situation and the matter will be looked into.

If you have already done this, then please be patient and we will contact you again once the process has been completed.

I can appreciate that this must be a frustrating time for you and I hope that you get this sorted soon :)

While you are waiting, please take the time to read through the Further Reading section as it contains some very useful information which can help prevent this from happening again.

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

The webform can be found here.

http://eu.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml

Please fill out all the sections of the form and give as much detail about your situation as you can. This way we will know exactly what is going on and how best we can help you further :)

The instructions on how to fill it out can be found here.

Unable to Login
►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

or here

How to fill out a web form if your account has been compromised
Frequent Questions and Answers

Frenkel, this is actually covered by our Frequently Asked Questions section of this thread, here:

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

---

Q u o t e:
Q. I get asked for an authenticator code when I try to login, what’s going on?

A. This happens when the person responsible for the theft of the account uses a Battle.net Authenticator in an attempt to make it more difficult for us to assist you.

The truth, however, is that our ability to recover your account and reimbursement lost items is completely unaffected, and the necessary steps remain relatively unchanged.

Should you find yourself in this situation, please follow the steps outlined in the Unable to Login (►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄ ) section below so that we can remove the authenticator for you.

---

There's also an answer about the mail you received, Stadha:

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

---

Q u o t e:
Q. I’ve received an email from Blizzard telling me that I’ve been banned for ‘involvement in online-trading’ and/or ‘use of 3rd party software’! Why?

A. Compromised accounts are, unfortunately, often used by those responsible for exploitation, such as advertising or ‘farming’ for gold. These mails and the subsequent suspension are part of our preventative measures, and prevent further damage to your account. The only way to gain access again is to speak to us first, something you will likely need to do anyway.

Rest assured that you will not be held responsible in these situations, and we will completely remove any warnings/suspensions once your ownership of the account and the circumstances have been verified.

---

Praystatìon, it sounds as though you've everything that can be done at this point, and it's simply a matter of waiting for a reply. However, I would recommend taking a look at this part of the sticky for information on how to make sure that this doesn't happen again:

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

Lifetouch, I hope you have had a chance to read all the information within this sticky post, and that you can either pass the information on to your friend, or even direct them here also.

With regards to the specific problem, it seems your friend is experiencing a very similar issue to Stadha above, and as such the following question in our FAQ should answer the ‘why’ for him or her;

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

---

Q u o t e:

Q. I’ve received an email from Blizzard telling me that I’ve been banned for ‘involvement in online-trading’ and/or ‘use of 3rd party software’! Why?

A. Compromised accounts are, unfortunately, often used by those responsible for exploitation, such as advertising or ‘farming’ for gold. These mails and the subsequent suspension are part of our preventative measures, and prevent further damage to your account. The only way to gain access again is to speak to us first, something you will likely need to do anyway.

Rest assured that you will not be held responsible in these situations, and we will completely remove any warnings/suspensions once your ownership of the account and the circumstances have been verified.

---

Finally, please do tell your friend to contact us as soon as possible, using the online webform, which can be found here;
https://eu.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml?locale=en_GB

Madstriker, as you will hopefully have seen in reading this thread and many others on this forum, both our webform and restoration investigation queues are relatively sizable at the moment.

I am really sorry that this is the current situation but, in as much as it is possible to offer certainty, if your webform was sent with all the necessary information then you will get a response.

Please do be patient, and best of luck.

Hello Wrafe,

The investigation process into recovering your items is still ongoing. While I can appreciate that it is frustrating, please continue to be patient and once it has been completed we will contact you again. You do not need to keep contacting us :)

It is a good idea to read through all the information contained in this thread as it is important to make sure that you have put sufficient security in place to avoid this happening again.

I hope you get this resolved soon :)

Hello Oerlelijk and Malanek,

I have looked into this and both of you are currently in the restoration process. When it has been completed, we will contact you again :)

While you are waiting, please take a look through our Further Reading section here :)

►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

I wish you all the best in getting this resolved :)

Golias!, I am pleased to see that your investigation should now have been completed and you are welcome to try and log into that account and continue playing. Please let us know if you have any further issues and I apologise for any trouble caused due to the delay.

Weedsmoke, please take the time to read through this sticky carefully as it addresses a number of the questions you have. If you are getting e-mails about password reset requests then they make be fake and should be deleted. What you can do however is change your registered e-mail address via the Account Management page and then read through this article to make sure that you do not have any malicious auto-forwarding active.

How to Disable Unauthorized Set-up of Mail Forwarding
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=28585

If you are ever unsure about an e-mail from us, please contact our Account and Billing team. You can also read more about bogus mails from our Further Reading section.

While I am afraid I cannot say how long the process will take, you do not need to stay online for it :)

Good luck!

Hey guys.

OK, first of all Gargantus; could you refer to my reply on the separate thread that you posted about this. It can be found here;

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=12730404066&sid=1

Benqqu, your answer is very similar to Gargantus’. As you are able to access your account then simply make a ticket ingame from any character on the account with the following details;


The last time you logged into your account and everything was as it should be.
The names of the realms affected by the incident.
A brief description of any losses or damages incurred during the incident.


We will do our best to investigate the incident, revert any possible damages caused to the account and ensure that it is safe to play again. While you wait I strongly urge you to read through the ‘Securing Your Computer’ part of this sticky thread.

Verodonyx, your situation is slightly different but things should be a bit easier for you now. You will receive a new password in your email shortly. Use this new password to access your account and make a ticket on the matter with the details outlined above. For your information, here is where you can find out everything you need to know about Authenticators;

http://eu.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=221003617

If any of you have any further queries, please be sure to carefully read over the information on page 1 of this thread to see if it contains the details that you require.

Good luck to you all.

Hi Fabre,

In order to regain access to your account you will need to complete and send in a copy of our online webform, which you can find here;
https://eu.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml?locale=en_GB

Further information on the precise steps to follow when sending in the webform can be found in one of the early posts in this very sticky;

Unable to Login
►► Account Hacked/Stolen? CLICK HERE! ◄◄

Usually, once your account has been restored to you, a member of the Accounts team will forward the information for investigation so that your gold and items can be returned to you. However, if you do not receive later notification that there is an investigation in progress, then feel free to submit an in-game help ticket reporting your possessions missing.

Best of luck in having everything back and sorted soon. :)



Gargantus,

That’s excellent news. Gogo Authenticator! ;)