My ESO Account Was Hacked

This morning when I logged into the game I discovered that my ESO account had been hacked and although items and gold were stolen from me, much much worse was 3 of our guilds banks were stolen from through my account. As soon as I saw this had happened I whispered one of the elders in the game and then got onto RC with Fog and them as well. We discussed what had happened and then I immediately began making steps to change passwords (for everything) and contact ESO about all of this. They have escalated my ticket due to the serious nature, and I was told they didn’t see how it would be too difficult to return the items stolen from the banks.

I cannot apologize enough that this happened, I thought I had made safe choices for protecting my account and I was honestly in shock when I realized what had happened. I can’t recall the last time I shook so much. Looking at my email I have 9 notices from ESO stating an unknown ip attempted to sign into my account between 1am pst and 7am pst. Yet somehow they got past that too.

I do promise to stay in contact with ESO until I have gotten some definitive answer as to if and when the items are restored to the guilds. I hope it will be good news and soon.
I want to thank Fog and the Elders for their trust in me, and knowing I would never do something like this, its truly appreciated.

I’m very sorry about any grief this may have caused the family and let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I can happily pick plants, mine ore, etc whatever is needed.

Geri

I'm so sorry this happened to you, what a shock it must have been when you got up in the morning! I can make armor and weapons up to tier 3 and I am happy to help get you kitted out. I'll msg you in game when I see you online to find out what level and type you need to at least get you up and running again.

I hope ESO can help you get your stuff back and thanks for posting to let everyone know :)

So sorry to hear that happened to you Geri! What a horrible shock. I hope they restore your account quickly. As for the guild, it comes down to family, not bank items. You matter more to us than those. <3

Thank you both very much! I appreciate the support <3

Haven't fully logged into the game yet but it looks like they left my gear on my nightblade on the log in, as long as she has that Im good! I guess I can count that blessing that she wasn't stripped to her underwoo's lol.

The action against the family wasn't done by you, but by a criminal element that always hangs around mmos and pester everyone's life.

As for you working to restore any items that was stolen, I would say that the items are only bits and bytes, and they don't matter.  We will as a family, recreate everything plus some.

What does matter is you, if you need something to get started again, then let us know.

Since ESO don't have a authenticator and I don't know if they have plans for one, I have personally chosen a ridicules long password that I only use for this game and it will change monthly.

Be sure to change the your e-mail password also since they may have that also.  If you have any add-ons on your account, I would disable them or delete them entirely.  I have heard stories about some add-ons.  I don't believe all the stories - but then again I also have a very limited trust of anything that I don't personally have a vested interest in.

And as a last though - be careful of any sites you visit that supplies information about the game. 

I'm sorry this happened - and hopefully they will find the culprit and be able to do something.

Very sorry to hear about this, if you need anything in game don't hesitate to contact me. I'm sure we can get you up and running real quick.

Sorry to hear about this. I wish the account/user name wasn't visible to others in-game. That seems like a security issue to me. Hopefully this will be resolved and you won't have an issue with this in the future. Maybe we'll get authenticators at some point.

I'm so sorry to hear this has happened to you Geri! I've been a victim of hackers before in another MMO title. It was such an awful feeling, and the experience left me shaking from shock as well.

If you need any enchantments for gear replacements let me know, I'm happy to create what I can for you. I'm also happy to donate any mats that you may have lost too, so that you can continue any craft levelling you were doing whilst you wait for the team to sort your stuff out.

I hope that things are sorted out for you soon.

Sorry that it happen to your account. It could happen to any of us since the login name and our game user ID is the same.

definitely agree about account names being so public Steerpike.  The gold sellers/scammers already have my ESO ID because I went afk when one of them spammed a guild invite to their gold selling guild.  By going afk for some reason the game defaults you into accepting rather than declining.  This has happened five times in the last week, and I have caught them out several more times in the attempt.  It leaves a lot to say about how little forethought and planning went into this game from a social & ui level.

So sorry to hear that! I really hope they are able to help you and you are able to secure the account! I know the feeling of being hacked, it's not fun. Usually customer service will help all it can, but in the event that they are unable to, we are here for you. If there's any way we can help, please ask! Best of luck.

zomg, that is terrible. sorry you had to go through all that, unfortunately this is something that happens in every mmo I've been a part of, personally I'd like to string those people up and slowly pull out all their armpit hair but it seems like a fact of life for big games. glad you got everything sorted but like the others said, items come and go, the members of this family are whats important.

sorry to hear about it... glad they didn't lock you out of the account though.  - M.

FYI to folks re: Addons:

Do not, I repeat, do NOT install any addons that require a .exe or a .jar file to install their crap.  If its not simple LUA files that get installed into the Addon folder, be very VERY wary of them, to the point of pure paranoia.

Now, there are some exceptions to that, but those are well established and very trusted sources (ie. Zygor Guides or ZAM's Minion).  A good rule of thumb, is that if you have any doubts, don't install it.

Now, I'm not speculating that this is how rdhddva was hacked, because I do not know and I'm not going to try and guess.  However, based on past experiences with games that use addons, a lot of friends and guild mates were infected by phony "add-on managers/installers" that were either a Trojan keylogger, or a redistributed "infected" version of a trusted add-on.

So very important:  If its a .EXE or .JAR, do not install it no matter how cool it sounds, or who told you its a "must have".  I personally use Zygor's TESO Guide and ZAM's Minion, but that's all I will trust, not even Curse's crap (their client has been compromised in the past).

Good advice, Sekker.  I never would have thought of that.

Aw, that's terrible.  Must've been a huge shock to see *hugs*.

I'd be very interested to know the result from the ticket/investigation, and any suggested security remedies from ESO (the horse's mouth).

I did wonder if some sort of authenticator would be available.  I'd certainly be happier with one.

Yeah, I was wondering what was up and unfortunately wasn't recognizing your ID when looking at the bank logs.  At least, every bank transaction is fully logged up to a certain number of transactions and with our busy guild I was on soon after the last wipe out happened to see it all.  Freaked me out.  Just to be on the safe side I kicked you out until we got things figured out and warned guildies that everyone can see who is doing what in the bank.

So here's to getting it fixed, but it's more important the real issue of a hacked account gets worked out rather than replacing stuff.  If they can replace it, fine, if not we'll have it replaced in no time.  

As suggested, change email and game account passwords.  I would definitely remove add-ons you have and if some you liked make sure you have the right one.  ESOUI is one of the more trusted places to get add-ons but still watch what you are getting.  

When doing passwords it's better to have a longer one than a shorter one.  These days the way they try to hack them funky symbols and numbers don't always help though I throw them in to break things up, but the longer ones are much stronger.  Also, never use the same password everywhere.  I may have similar ones, but with all the stuff I have on the internet I think I have at least 15 passwords just for personal stuff and really wished half of those places allowed for stronger password selection.

I'm very sorry to hear about all this trouble!

I don't like the public user names in ESO, both because of the confusion with different character names but, most of all because of the loss of security offered with a secret user name AND password. Other games I have played made announcements to subscribers NOT to give out user names for reasons of security.

Hope all turns out well in the end for us all.

peace...

Tuz

This is one of the main reasons i missed this family after Rift. I have been in several guilds, including one of mostly friends or friends of friends that have not acted this compassionately to such an event.

I applaud the maturity this was handled with on ALL sides, and with the general reaction of everyone else.  It makes me glad I am a member.

Couldn't agree more, how understanding and supportive everyone is, and in a guild with the mass numbers we have, its truly the biggest family I have had the privilege to be a part of.

Death to the hackers!.....Okay that might be too harsh....how about some really bad luck or something like may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their arm pits!

Is Zenimax planning for authenticator or authenticator app?

When I logged on and saw that Rdhddva had removed a bunch of items from the guild bank I thought someone invited a gold spammer, cuz you have to admit that your name does look like one they would use.  :)

I'm sorry that happened to you, I hope it's resolved quickly.

Lol yea sorta does, I've been using it for so long it was on my car even, Its redhead diva, shortened.

Good news, have heard from ESO, they are starting the restore process. I did tell them yes to call me, so I can make sure it's all restored.....guilds restored. More news as it comes to me.

Sorry that happened.

Changing password is one part.  You will want to change your email address to a new one, that has never been used for anything. Do not use Hotmail either as it is a bad choice.

Gmail is ok, but better to use your ISP own provided email service.

As the IP security code get sent to your email. If the hacker can access your game account, via the security code sent to email address, then the hacker knows email password.

Thanks for the update that is awesome news Geri!!

Did they give you any insight into how they might have hacked and how to prevent it happening again? I really hope they bring out some sort of authentication. I liked the code to cell phone system in Swtor and Final Fantsy 14 Realm Reborn.

Welp, he didnt call, but I just got this in an email

From what I was told - it is impossible or at least really hard to change your e-mail associated with the account.  And they do this to prevent hackers getting into your account and transferring it all to a new e-mail address so that you are never aware of it.  I questioned this during beta and was told by a CS rep they didn't have a way to change it.  I wasn't having accounts hacked - I had actually moved and changed internet providers.

I went through  the same process with GW2 (because of the move) and it took numerous e-mails and about week to get them to change my e-mail address.  With Xbox live it is a 30 day waiting process - and it is all part of security measures to prevent hackers from totally cutting you out of the loop if they get into you account page.

Just remember a password of 15-20 characters is better. Write it down and keep it safe.   My grandson had his game account hacked on WOW and when I asked him about his password - he said it was six numbers that he could easily remember... /facepalm    I have convinced him to get better but I think he only went up to 8 numbers...  :(    someday he will learn.  

When I enter my password, it is never typed directly.

I use copy and paste from a file I use to have my password for ESO. Each file never states what game or what it is.

Just a bunch or random stuff in it. I try to go 12-16 characters with upper/lower case, numbers and punctuations.

I have used the full 200 character max for my password consisting of uppercase/lowercase, special characters. I too have to copy paste my password. Yes it was probably overkill but now I have a sense of security of any brute force password attack.

from what ive gathered, they have no plans or intention to ever provide an authenticator, at least for now that is their position, which when i had suggested was a terrible idea received a form response saying that they have security methods in place (i.e. the emailed code if you login from an unauthorized computer) which to me seems like poor foresight on their part, hopefully it doesnt take many more account hacks to get them to see the light on mobile authenticators, especially since it wouldn't cost them a ton to include this security option.

Sorry about the bad news Rdhddva. What an amazing group of people you all are to deal with this so nicely and professionally. These things happen and they are just pixels. Friendships are what is real. Awesome that they have rectified the issue. The guild bank can be emptied out, but we are the sort of people that just get back into filling it again. We are stronger than some stupid hacker! Go family!

I too am impressed with the way the guild handles issues, Some issues are tough to handle but they get handled professionally and respectfully. No one ever jumps on the OMG what websites have you been on /kick ban wagon. 

If they can hack into your account - they will know what e-mail address you are using.  Then they attempt to hack your e-mail account so they can hijack that at the same time.   If you are using the same password for both you have made it easy for them.  If you are using weak passwords - you are making it easy. 

Never use the same password on any of your accounts for anything.  I've posted this before - it does take more time and, especially at my age, you have to write them down when they are 20 - 24 characters which include upper/lower case and numbers/characters and no two passwords are the same.   I keep a journal with all of them by my PC - and I have no room mates.  The only fly on the wall is an actual fly on the wall... just a sec... SWAT!!!  o.k., he's dead... we can move on now.

Keep safe.

Personally:  I could care less about what was taken out of the bank here.  I will gladly work toward helping replace it, but that isn't what really matters to me.  If you need any help getting started back up, like making some gear, a few hundred gold, etc. please let us know!

Hackings happen.  It's a sad part of life in MMOs.  Some things do help protect you, but in the end every system in the world can still be hacked... unless there is one set to detonate upon a certain number of wrong password entries!  Personally, you contacted people and let them know what was going on, and in any case where contact like that is made I think the best policy is to move forward, and make things as right as possible.  For anyone else who ends up in this position, please do let us know.  I'll help anyone who has been hacked get started back up without hesitation (ok, if there is a big family event, I might hesitate a little, but will end up delaying my involvement to help out the hackee instead.)