Account Phishing

[Kalagg]

Watch out folks, the Find Group channel had 2 of these special individuals this morning. They used messages like the following to try and get your account details:
[Prompted] :To celebrate the success of the game open beta Please visit na.aiononlinegm.com and collect rewards

Notice how convincing the site is but it is using an older version of the site, easy to compare against Aion's real website (http://na.aiononline.com/). Also notice the lack of flash animations on the site.

Please be aware of this and do not input any account details into any of these sites.

[Drakhon]

I've never understood why people fall for scams like this. It's not even a question of the site appearing legitimate once you're there - the URL is a dead give away.

[Isak]

I checked the page out for giggles, all they did was copy & paste the aion site and added an iframe instead of the content.

[Aoann]

I've never understood why people fall for scams like this. It's not even a question of the site appearing legitimate once you're there - the URL is a dead give away.

because people don't read.

[Drakhon]

Does the game create links from URLs in chat that you can click on to launch your browser? (I doubt it, but I haven't actually checked, so legitimate question) If not, then they would have to type it in, thus they would have to read it.

[Gisli]

Yes, but the typical player is not sensitive to what the "right" URL is.

What we really should be concerned about here is whether NCSoft took action. Did anyone get banned over this? If not, then their "public service announcements" are worthless. This is a consistent issue, and we should all be working forums, feedback forms, etc. to put steady pressure on NCSoft. We need to see real progress made, and not public relations efforts.

* If they post news releases saying they banned 60,000 accounts, that means nothing. If the amount of spam whispers we get in game goes down, that means something.

* Is there a direct connection between making reports and bans? Do they provide a mechanism that eases making reports? If not, what they say means nothing.

* Is there a meaningful response to bots? To RMT farming guilds that take over farming spots? If we can't see anything happening to stop this behavior, then what they say means nothing.

[Aoann]

It was nice of Kalagg to mention it.

[Drakhon]

Yes, but the typical player is not sensitive to what the "right" URL is.


And that (if we generalize the situation) is the main reason we have so many problems with these sorts of things.

It wasn't that I don't know how it happens, but rather why. Why don't people pay attention enough to notice things like this? I find it hard to believe that players wouldn't have been to aiononline.com at least once.




...stuff about results, not talk...

Well, the game operators never discuss specific accounts and their status with anyone other than the owner of that account, so somewhat hard to tell right at the moment. As for the rest, it's too early to tell.

[Kalagg]

This was more of a post for those not in "The Know".

Not everyone is a huge computer nerd like we are Drak and so this was for those people to make sure they don't get their account phished.

It was posted here because I like the people here and we don't need anyone in the legion/alliance/asmodian side getting their account jacked because of some a**hats that think they are cool for sending out these messages in public channels in game.

[Drakhon]

Oh, I think it's good that you posted it, it just amazes me that methods like theirs work at all.

[Vasan]

Oh, I think it's good that you posted it, it just amazes me that methods like theirs work at all.

Confidence scams work more often than you think, even the very obvious ones with high enough volume of scamming.

It's just how things are.

[Drakhon]

Again, I'm aware that they are prevalent, that they work and that lots of people fall for them (so no, it's not more often than I think), but that doesn't mean I'm not amazed at the number of people that do, at least for this type.

[Vasan]

Again, I'm aware that they are prevalent, that they work and that lots of people fall for them (so no, it's not more often than I think), but that doesn't mean I'm not amazed at the number of people that do, at least for this type.

Like Aoanna said, people simply aren't paying attention.

Sometimes people get confused and make mistakes. Often times they aren't the most computer literate anyway or their greed overwhelms their common sense. I wouldn't really consider it amazing people fall for it, just sad people get taken in due to carelessness, lack of knowledge or greed.

At any rate I am also glad that Kalagg posted about it and NCSoft is taking such it seriously. Why ideally, yes people should know better, it's good to have warnings about it and actions taken against it.