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Phishing In A World Of Warcraft


Posted by Graham Cluley, Aug 25, 2009 10:19 AM

Hackers are once again targeting players of the fantasy game "World of Warcraft" in an attempt to steal passwords and other game credentials.

Emails intercepted by researchers at SophosLabs, pose as official communications from World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment but are really intended to lead players to a phishing website.

Phishing email claiming to come from the makers of World of Warcraft

Players of what is claimed to be the world's most popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) may be tempted into clicking on a link to receive a sneaky preview of new game functionality.

By the way I was a little perplexed as to what the "mounts" referred to in this attack might mean. It turns out that in the fantasy online universe of World of Warcraft, you're not just limited to riding on horseback. If it takes your fancy (and if your online character has the right attributes) you might choose to ride a wolf, a ram, a gryphon or some other fantastical creature.

Of course, clicking on the link is not a sensible move as game players will be taken to a bogus website asking for their World of Warcraft login details.

Fake World of Warcraft website

Keyloggers and password-stealers targeting on players of World of Warcraft are definitely not a new phenomenon. The techniques may change, but the effect is still the same.

Last year, in a trick pinched from an increasing number of online banks, Blizzard introduced an authentication fob that produces a one-time six-digit number that can be entered at login alongside the user's regular username and password. But until use of such devices is mandatory there will still be many online accounts putting themselves at risk of compromise.

Game players would be wise to remember that if something sounds too good to be true (free gold, free weapons, free expansions), it invariably is too good to be true.

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos, and has been working in the computer security field since the early 1990s. When he's not updating his other blog on the Sophos website, you can find him on Twitter at @gcluley. Special to Dark Reading.

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