Villayna
05-29-2010, 09:28 AM
from
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25026405755
I apologize if this would be the wrong forum, but I thought this might help illustrate to hacking victims how important it is to protect your email address for WoW.
Over the last 3 weeks I did an email experiment with wow fansites, guild sites, etc, to see how many "fake" blizzard emails I'd get that were phishing and social engineering attempts to get my wow info. What I did was create a fresh gmail address for each site that I simply signed up for and used to create an account on the site. The email addresses were random jarbles of letters and numbers to try and eliminate "guessing" an email address. The addresses were shared or posted nowhere, and were used solely for the one site each was created for. I then checked the inbox and spam folders of each address after 3 weeks to see what I'd find. The results might surprise you.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the site URL, so I will instead refer to the site "name". (if this must be removed as well, a blue can certainly do it or inform me) Below is a list of the sites, along with the number of "fake" phishing/scam emails I received in a 3 week period with the above fresh email addresses and sign ups. What's surprising is that several of these sites supposedly "hide" your email address.
guild portal - 16 phishing emails
guild o matic - 16 phishing emails
guild launch - 23 phishing emails
curse - 1 phishing email
wow installer - 19 phishing emails
mmo-champion - 0 phishing emails
wow insider - 4 phishing emails
world of raids - 7 phishing emails
battle.net - 0 phishing emails
I hope this illustrates the importance of NOT using your battle.net email at any other fansites or guild sites! (or anywhere for that matter)
I do not claim my methods are perfect or infallible. Take this for what you feel it's worth, be it nothing at all, or an interesting test.
Some interesting numbers there. I wonder if anyone would get anything off of a TNG only email address.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25026405755
I apologize if this would be the wrong forum, but I thought this might help illustrate to hacking victims how important it is to protect your email address for WoW.
Over the last 3 weeks I did an email experiment with wow fansites, guild sites, etc, to see how many "fake" blizzard emails I'd get that were phishing and social engineering attempts to get my wow info. What I did was create a fresh gmail address for each site that I simply signed up for and used to create an account on the site. The email addresses were random jarbles of letters and numbers to try and eliminate "guessing" an email address. The addresses were shared or posted nowhere, and were used solely for the one site each was created for. I then checked the inbox and spam folders of each address after 3 weeks to see what I'd find. The results might surprise you.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the site URL, so I will instead refer to the site "name". (if this must be removed as well, a blue can certainly do it or inform me) Below is a list of the sites, along with the number of "fake" phishing/scam emails I received in a 3 week period with the above fresh email addresses and sign ups. What's surprising is that several of these sites supposedly "hide" your email address.
guild portal - 16 phishing emails
guild o matic - 16 phishing emails
guild launch - 23 phishing emails
curse - 1 phishing email
wow installer - 19 phishing emails
mmo-champion - 0 phishing emails
wow insider - 4 phishing emails
world of raids - 7 phishing emails
battle.net - 0 phishing emails
I hope this illustrates the importance of NOT using your battle.net email at any other fansites or guild sites! (or anywhere for that matter)
I do not claim my methods are perfect or infallible. Take this for what you feel it's worth, be it nothing at all, or an interesting test.
Some interesting numbers there. I wonder if anyone would get anything off of a TNG only email address.