AP: Man faces charges over World of Warcraft account fraud
Posted on | January 15, 2010 | No Comments
USA - Police in Clearwater, Florida has arrested a 23-year old Christopher H. Bouffard and charged him with two counts of grand theft. According to the Associated Press, the man was scheming to defraud people using his World of Warcraft account as bait. Bouffard never gave out the information to his account even though authorities say at least two people paid Bouffard $760 each for his virtual property.
This scam is probably the oldest one in the book and it happens almost every day. With 11,5 million monthly subscribers, the economy related to buying, selling and trading World of Warcraft accounts is huge. I am very pleased to see the authorities dealing with the losses inflicted by these scammers in such a serious manner.
Tags: account-security > accounts > Avoid Scammers > How to Sell A WoW Account > News > Safety > scammer > theft. > World of Warcraft > WorldOfWarcraft > WoW
The Reason Why Western Union Payments Are Unsafe
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | No Comments
There’s only so many payment options for you to choose between when you’re buying or selling stuff online. PayPal, MoneyBookers and Western Union. The rest are just spin-offs offering similar products in different packaging.
The thing about Western Union is that payments are in no way traceable or accountable. The underlying system behind Western Union was crafted so people could send money to friends, relatives and trusted recipients ONLY. This is a well documented fact and Western Union even have it written on their website: “The service a great way to send money to someone you know and trust but if you need to send money to someone you don’t know well you may be putting yourself at risk of fraud.” In my opinion this sums up exactly why you shouldn’t be using Western Union as a means of expediting funds to someone you’ve never met.
Accepting a Wester Union payment requires no proof of identity but solely relies on a ‘pre-established code’. This code is what proves your right to the funds. So in essence, anyone who has this code in their possession is entitled to the funds connected to it. Anyone with the requisite recipient information can claim the funds as cash and vanish! This is the exact reason why so many scammers use Western Union as their payment method of choice. To my knowledge, the only known means of checking the identity of the person drawing the funds is to contact Western Union to see whether the branch had a CCTV record which could be passed to your local police department. This would require you to file a complaint first, and as the amounts are usually small, a lot of people simply don’t bother. It’s always worth it though, perhaps not to your own personal case but it could build up a picture of the scammer, if he pulls the same stunt on a lot of different people.
A Western Union transfer as I’ve described it sounds like a pretty horrible thing, but it isn’t. It’s great for the purpose which it has always been intended to serve. Worth noting however is that you should never, never, never use Western Union to send money to someone you’ve never met and isn’t directly related to.
Tags: accounts > Avoid Scammers > MoneyBookers > PayPal > Scamming > Western Union > Wire Transfer
No Such Thing As a Cataclysm Beta
Posted on | November 30, 2009 | No Comments
Phishers adapt to the environment and current trends. Even the slightest speculation about a new World of Warcraft beta always spawn hundreds of phishing sites. As always, the quality of these sites vary. Some are hardly believable while others appear very real. Another scam related to beta opt-ins is the premature sale of beta keys.
Let’s make something completely sure: The Cataclysm expansion is no-where near release. Educated guesses indicate we’ll see an Alpha version in the first quarter of 2010. The Alpha is not open to the public and it is impossible to opt-in, regardless of what anyone tries to persuade you. Naturally, the Cataclysm Beta will be publicly available at some point and when it does, the word will come centrally from Blizzard.
To increase safety, I can recommend the Blizzard Authenticator. It comes in both a Mobile version and a physical version. An authenticator is worth every penny.
As usual, MMOwned delivers. Please find below an example of a fake Cataclysm Beta e-mail and also be sure to read my post on avoiding fake e-mails from Blizzard.
Q: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – Closed Beta
A: Blizzard Entertainment would like to present to you the World of
Warcraft: Cataclysm Closed Beta!
If you are looking at this page, you are one of the special few who will
recieve FREE invites to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Closed Beta.
You will be able to transfer one (1) of your current characters onto
our Closed Beta realm and embark on the epic journey against the
dreaded Deathwing!All participants of the Closed Beta must confirm their account by
typing their account information at the link on the bottom of this
page, so that we can verify if you are currently a subscriber to
the World of Warcraft. An e-mail will be dispatched to you, providing
further information about the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Closed Beta.
Tags: account-security > blizzcon > Cataclysm > cataclysm-alpha > cataclysm-beta > cataclysm-closed-beta > cataclysm-scam > cataclysm-scamming > phishing > scam > Scamming > scams > security > world-of-warcraft-cataclysm > wow-cataclysm
Service Scams: Power Leveling, Arena Boosting and Gold Farming
Posted on | November 29, 2009 | 1 Comment
The power leveling scam has been around for a while. Since the game first arrived, and years before in other MMORPGs, players have paid or employed other players to level up their accounts for them. Considering the amount of time leveling requires, it’s easy to understand why so many gamers choose to pay for a shortcut.
Power leveling is a service like so many others in the same category, such as arena boosting, raid boosting and plain, simple gold and/or item grinding. It’s a service that requires you to invest a lot of confidence in your counterpart, as the service can’t be performed without handing over your account information.
So-called anti-scam experts claim the easiest way is to simply avoid buying boosting services in the first place. This is sound advice because it is logically correct. Crossing a red light is generally a bad idea too, but let’s stick to reality. People do buy boosting services and people do cross red lights even though they know it may prove unwise.
I recommend you always stick to professional boosting service suppliers. The reason for this is simple. You’ll have the entire process on record: Your order, your agreement with the supplier and your payment. At the same time, paying by credit card ensures you the rights and amenities associated with online purchases of this nature. Another plus of using a professional supplier is that the agreement is clear-cut.’
When browsing the market for a power leveling service, or any other boosting service, my post on using Google in your research is relevant. Chances are other people have had experiences with the company you’re considering, so why not use the information?
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