Email saying someone requested password reset.

Just a fair warning to those that don't already know. Someone is attempted to gain access to accounts using a phishing scam. Phishing is the method of using fake emails that look similar to the real thing, or in some cases, may actually be the real thing. With links to cloned or fake websites that claim they are affiliated or are actually a member of the primary site. In the case of this morning, I recieved an email saying someone requested a password reset on my account.

I was sleeping at 2:58 this morning so I know it wasn't me. If you get one of these emails. Do Not Click Any Links! Go to your account immediately and change your password, you will not receive a password reset email unless you click the forgotten password.

These scammers/hackers to have databases of email addresses they try on various websites wherein they use programs or what have you to input random passwords, words or any other combination of keys to try and hack your account. This is why it is always good practice to use different passwords on different websites. If they figure one out, they will try others.

I am just sending this out there because I would hate to see any of yall with your accounts getting compromised.

ArenaNet also tweeted about this this morning, saying. "Please be ever vigilant with emails that you reveive about the game, if you didn't request it, don't click the link;)."

So they are fully aware of this issue too.

Good luck, and becareful what you click.

I was just coming to post the same thing. I have 5 of those emails

Thank you! I have received three of these emails in the last two days and deleted them, though they do give me a nervous feeling. I logged in before coming to work and Twilah is safe. I think I have a pretty good password...guess I'll find out!

this is unsettling just logged in and checked security and saw this as a current login 12, CN (116.209.199.205) 25 minute(s) ago IP address "116.209.199.205" is located @ China Hubei Wuhan

» Edited on: 2012-08-29 06:00:10

I've received several of these as well. Good to know Arenanet is aware of the issue.

I got this as well. Thanks for the info about it.

I have received five of these in the past 24 hours, as has my wife... hopefully arenanet makes an authenticator.

Now I feel bad. I've only gotten one!

Wow, the bots in China have started, Bashir. Not good :o(

I can't emphasize this enough - you really need to have an unique email address for each MMO that you play, and use those emails for nothing else. Hackers know that if in the past you've played WoW, or Rift, or TERA, or EQ2, or SWTOR that you're likely playing GW2. These emails are phishing attempts to get you to click through and input your password information.

Also these bots will go looking for game forums (like this one) and scrape all the email addresses they can find.

And don't forget, complex passwords. Use those special characters

Make use of the new Microsoft email address outlook.com or send yourself an invite if you use Gmail.

Also, Mr. Moxie (who is a cyber-security engineer) passed this awesome website to me a while back: howsecureismypassword.net Check your passwords there - you want to go for at least 14 characters long, using numbers & symbols if you can.

I had my e-mail address hacked back when I played WoW. Took control over my Battle.net and Aion Accounts. Changed all passwords to be different back then and havn't had a problem since. I'd suggest checking your deleted folder occasionally. That is how I found out, they would reset the passwords to the accounts, get the e-mail, then delete the e-mail, but they forgot that deleted e-mails go to a new folder for a while.

Bashir, I hoped you changed your password immidietly. Make sure your chars still have their money and equipment, report any loss to arena net, and make sure your PC is clean.

I haven't had a chance to check my chars. Changed password of course.

It is a bit of a problem. GW2 uses account name a lot. Thus scammers can get your account name easier and just try to get your password. In other MMOs, you mostly go by your character name and the scammers first need to get your account name. I think we should refrain from using our account name on any forum as much as possible.

Well the nice thing for me is that these emails are not coming to the email address I am using for GW2... so it was easy enough to tell gmail that they are spam - once I had 7 of the emails I figured it was time to block them.

I appear to have had someone try to use the actual arenanet password reset tool to reset my password. As a precaution I have strengthened my login password for both email and gw2 from my phone. suspect they got the account info from game and reset pass to find email address used. fun.

I have gotten an e-mail similar to that and have received them in the past during my WOW years - popular games always have things like this. The trick is to never click on anything in an e-mail. Just go directly to your account page and change your password. Game accounts will never tell you you have to use a link in their e-mail. They will say use the link provided or go to the account page. They will send out e-mails after you have changed your password - or send e-mails where you have to click on a link to verify your e-mail address. Scammers are tricky, so beware. Change your password often even if it is by one letter or making a small case capitol - and write them down. I do have very complicated passwords - they are different for every account I have and as someone mentioned in Raidcall, I write them all down in a journal that sits by my PC. Games, e-mail, bank accounts - et al ... It is my life - I want to protect it. Ohhh - another thing.... thanks go out to my e-mail provider - as Arenanet is an authorized sender - the two e-mails I rec'd were dumped into my spam folder so it was easy to tell that they weren't actually from Arenanet.

» Edited on: 2012-08-29 15:28:48

Thanks for the update. I have been receiving many of these emails and figured that it was a scam. I have also strengthened my password as well just to be on the safe side.

If you have an IP from China report it to ANET immediately. They were asking people to on Reddit. I also got three of these emails. They're using the account recovery to spam emails at and tell them which ones are accounts, then they run their database of pwds or bruteforce your pwd. Also just a little PSA. Passwords like "1337 Hax04z" are actually easier to crack than something simple to remember like. Baste Pinapples During The Summer. Easy to remember, harder to crack.

I created a gmail account that will be used only for logging into GW2, and never entered any other place. I then set up 2nd verification required to access that email account. Then I created different passwords for both that email account and GW2 login that I have never ever used anywhere else. I had a hack attempt once in my 7 years in WoW, but the authenticator prevented it. Well, and ya lots of fake Blizzard emails that I never really counted as hacks but just silly efforts. Jeez all this to play a game...lol.

» Edited on: 2012-08-30 09:43:17

Absolem has some good suggestions for passwords, if I may suggest an even better one. Chose a phrase you can remember (don't use this, it's just an example) "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" but instead of using the whole words, just use the first letters and mix in some numbers and special characters too, if your email provider allows it. So "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" becomes something like |?tQbF,JoTlD( Again, easy for you to remember, but hard for a brute force or dictionary attack to crack. It's more important to make your password long than it is to make it cryptic. I think the recommended length is 20 characters or more. Another technique is to take a random book and use bits of a sentence with rarely used words. As long as you can remember them, or use something like Lastpass or Keepass. (There's nothing more frustrating than having a nice long password and then forgetting it!)

» Edited on: 2012-08-30 12:04:10