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From: WOWAccountAdmin (sxxfeytk@sina.com)

To: raim@lagwar.com

Subject: Wold of Warcaft-Remote Login!

Dear Sir or She,

Our record indicate that your account has been log in from outside computer.  In order to please keep your account secure, we urge you to use Blizzard mobile phone authenticator.  Work with any mobile phone.  Please go to www.theblizardphone-auth.net and enter your proper account name and passcode for your account into database to receive Blizard mobile phone authenticator today.

WOWAccountAdmin

The Blizzard Company

Beware: Phisher infested waters

Believe it or not, I don’t think this email I received the other day was from anyone associated with Blizzard Entertainment!  Nope, this email was an attempt by a phisher (and a crappy attempt at that) to secure my username and account password.  Tsk tsk.  If I had actually entered my info into that site I am pretty sure my level 80’s would have been stripped down faster than a souped up Civic in a chop-shop, or just plain auctioned off to the highest bidder long before I would have been able to reset my password.   Phishers, like the people that sent out that horribly worded violation of the English language, are just one of the different types of “cheats” you will see in WoW.  It’s not just phishers though, if you have played WoW for any length of time at all you know that players cheat too.  While phishers are angling (pun!) to steal your account, players are trying to bend the rules of the game to get an advantage.  Just like in real life there are people in WoW that just don’t seem to be able to play by the rules.

-WoW’s most wanted: Hackers and bots.

Big time cheats

These guys are big time.  They aren’t the people the occasionally “forget” to pay for the pack of gum from the convenience store.  These guys are more like the Bonnie and Clyde of cheating in WoW.  Hackers, or players that use hacks, basically employ some script that allows them to change the rules of the game for their character.  One of the most nefarious hacks was the run-speed hack, basically as the name implied it allowed your character to travel at superhuman speeds.  Most people used this to farm herbs or mining nodes.  Essentially teleporting from one local to the next as it turns out is a lot faster than mounting up and running from point A to B.  Like famous bank robbers of the past the time of hacks is largely passed; thankfully Blizzard has been able to eliminate most hacks from the game.  Bots however are still very common.  They are basically programs that control your character with a simple set of input commands to perform particular actions.  Bots are kind of like white collar crime, people who “bot” their characters are getting someone else to do their dirty work.  Bots are most often seen in battlegrounds, rather than collect honor themselves players use bots to join queues, enter battlegrounds, and participate just enough to earn some honor.  It may not be the fastest way to accrue honor points but it is the easiest.  Players can sleep while their bot tirelessly toils away in AV.  Bots are generally hard to spot and if you happen to report them to a GM they are generally programmed with a getaway – logging off.

-Small time crooks: The buyers-characters, levels, or gold.

Speed hacks..you go fast.

If prostitution may be the oldest profession, but buying characters, levels, and gold is the oldest crime in WoW.  These are the players who operate outside the laws of the game and buy gold for their accounts, buy a service to level their character for them, or buy whole previously leveled characters.  Unlike botters and hackers though, these players will never show up on an FBI’s most wanted list.  You will never see their picture in your local post office. They aren’t big time cheaters, and lots of people do it.  It’s like running red lights or stealing batteries from the convenience store.  It happens.  Blizzard has tried to cut down on the buying and selling of gold, characters, and levels and has been about a successful as a band-aid on a broken arm.  Most of the time these actions are impossible to trace and players never get caught.  They are the vast collection of unsolved crimes in WoW.

While some players are big time cheaters and some small time cheaters I find both odd.  Whether they are botting a character to earn honor points or buying a freshly minted level 80 character, they all are essentially doing the same thing.  They are just finding ways to cheat around actually playing the game.  If you dislike playing the game to the point where you can’t level a character or earn gold yourself, then maybe you should think twice before you click resubscribe next time your account time is up.  Leave the playing to the people that are still willing to do it.