I was gone for almost two years, NEVER had a problem until the Bnet merge, and I started playing SC2.. Gone from the net for 4 mths due to the soon to be ex-wife and when I came back, my wow account was compromised. Im not going to say the typical BS as my CPU is clean and all that crap, cause it doesnt really matter.. and in all honesty I wouldnt know if it was honestly clean or not. S#!T happens, deal with it move on..


SO went through the recovery process. It is quite painless to be honest..


Today I get this email. IF its legit, seems they are giving away free Authenticators.. Does it cost more for them to send free Authenticators, then it does man hours to restore everything....


From: "donotreply@blizzard.com" <donotreply@blizzard.com>


To: <removed>


Welcome back,


We’re sorry to hear about your account compromise. It dismays us to discover that a player’s enjoyment has been interrupted by unscrupulous thieves who pillage accounts for their own personal gain. We are committed to protecting our players and our games, and understand that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


To that end, congratulations! You have been selected to participate in a new account security initiative in which we send a Blizzard Authenticator to you for free.


The Blizzard Authenticator is a small device that displays a 6-digit code, which functions as a secondary password when you log in. The code constantly changes and is only available to the person with the authenticator. As a result, would-be thieves who acquire your login information are prevented from logging in because they do not know the correct code. Attaching the authenticator to your account will also reward your characters with the Core Hound Pup in-game pet!


Interested? Participation is easy. Simply log in to the Blizzard Online Store, order the authenticator for $0.00, and confirm your shipping address. Act quickly! This invitation expires in 14 days. Steps to place an order are included below.


Prefer to authenticate with your phone? Directions for iPhone, Android, and other supported devices included below.


Regards,


Blizzard Entertainment

www.blizzard.com


Steps to Claim the Blizzard Authenticator:


An out-of-date address can prevent the authenticator from being delivered. The authenticator should arrive in 2-3 weeks. For this initiative, Blizzard is unable to ship to international addresses, PO boxes, APOs and FPOs (military addresses).


1) Open your browser and navigate to Blizzard.com/store

2) Click “LOG IN” on the top right if you have not already logged in

3) Users with authenticators will be prompted to provide the correct code

4) Is your Shopping Cart empty? Other items should be submitted as a separate order.

5) Search for "AUTHENTICATOR"

6) Select "Battle.net Authenticator- Blizzard Logo (no charge)"

7) Select "ADD TO CART"

8) Select "CHECK OUT"

9) A “Battle.net Authenticator” with price of $0.00 should appear in your shopping cart

10) Verify that the “SHIP TO” address matches your current address

11) Click “CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP”

12) Click “PLACE ORDER NOW”

13) Your account is now queued for a free authenticator.


Steps to Claim a Blizzard Mobile Phone Authenticator:


iPhones:

1) Select the "App Store" icon on your phone

2) Search by "Battle.net Mobile Authenticator"

3) Click the "Free" button

4) Install the application as indicated.


Android:

1) Select the "Market" button

2) Search by "Battle.net Authenticator"

3) Install the application as indicated.


Other (available at a nominal fee):

1) Navigate to Mobile.Blizzard.com

2) Select the Featured Mobile Application "Battle.net Mobile Authenticator"

3) Install the application as indicated.


**Have restoration or login follow ups? You’ll get the fastest response by navigating to "Battle.net" selecting "Support" "Contact Support" and submitting a description of the issue.

**Already purchased an authenticator? Although refunds are out of the scope of this initiative, you can still redeem this free authenticator as a backup or gift.

 

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As if I don't have enough freeking passwords/code words to remember and enter a dozen times a day!

They would have to pay me $1 per usage for me to bother with it.

General Rule of thumb - Blizzard will NEVER give you a site to log in - everything should be accessible via their normal website.

I am sure someone will post an exception...but as I say, rule of thumb. So if they are only give you details on how to claim with no link to log-in - sounds legit.

yea i was gone for 2 years then out of the blue i get an email telling me my account was locked due to gold spam blah blah .. well thats funny as hell since my accounts beens closed for 2 years

the email is bogus. I have an account (long dead) tied to a seperate email then the one I currently use to log in. I get at least 8 emails per day. I was forwarding them and I wasn't sure if I got an actual response or not so I called. The guy said that 99.9% of the time, you will not recieve emails from them and you definatly won't get one asking you to log into anything but battle.net (and even then don't follow the link in the email.) Further proof, after recieving that exact email a few times btw, is that they hadn't sent an email to me for that account in years.


I was thinking of this the other day after reading an article. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927964.100-online-games-reveal-players-personalities--to-who.html


In the article one sentence in specific caught my eye:


"They then compared the responses to logs of the players' activity in the game, which are publicly available."


I'm wondering if they are somehow using this information to compromise player accounts. What this information entails and how easy it is to get I don't know however.

This invitation expires in 14 days.


This makes it bogus to me.

Classic "Act Now!!".."Limited Time Offer!!!!" crap you see on paid cable channels..

 

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Pretty sure that is an actual e-mail not a scam. Anyway, just do as they say and navigate to where they say. They don't tell you to click anywhere and they have been known to have these offers before as I recall.

 

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i got the same email still not sure if its real or not

If you want to play it safe, look up full headers, and see if the return address is to battle.net or blizzard.com, and not some random hotmail email.

Email is ligit. Just to be safe I went to the store through the game launcher. Free authenticator and and next day standard shipping.