Credit Card Fraud involving Blizzard Entertainment

Hey all,

I wanted to give you all some info about what you're seeing with Blizzard charges. I hope it sheds a little light on the situation. First some background. Blizzard is owned by a parent company, Vivendi Universal traded as VIVEF.PK on one of the European stock exchanges (It's a French company). Blizzard is their most successful subsidiary having developed a very popular game called World of Warcraft (with around 8 million players).

What's going on with the fraud charges above is that a thief has either stolen your credit card number (along with security code and address) or gotten it through some other means. Usually they are stolen in bulk from a compromised company or bought in bulk from another thief on a credit card exchange site for low-lifes. The thief will then buy several "game keys" and other upgrades from Blizzard at Blizzard's retail price. A "game key" allows you to play their game just as if you had purchased it in a retail store (like Best Buy) except you have to download the software or copy it from a friend. Because the thieves don't make many purchases with any individual card, they avoid detection. The few dozen purchases they make get lost in the thousands of identical legit purchases made from Blizzard.

Now that the thief has a bunch of these keys, they'll log into one of several underground "key exchange sites" where unscrupulous buyers will purchase them at less than retail or trade something else for them. These buyers are usually "gold farmers" who use the keys to collect as much virtual gold in the game before the account is closed down when the fraud is reported. They will sell this virtual gold on ebay or on another virtual gold trading site (e.g. ige.com). Other key buyers include fake retailers who will re-sell the keys on sites that look like legit retail software stores or on eBay...usually at a discount from the real retail price.

Once you report the fraud to your bank, Blizzard will reverse the charges and close down the game accounts associated with those purchases.

Who loses?
- You lose...time and frustration dealing with resolving credit card fraud. You also lose expenses associated with that
- Blizzard loses...this costs them customer service time dealing with this problem, and when enough fraud happens, the credit card companies charge them more in transaction fees
- The unsuspecting key buyer loses...if someone purchased that key from a fake retail site, they (or their bank) are out the entire amount. Also, the credit card they used to buy that key is probably compromised at this point.

Who wins?
- The original thief makes money from selling the game keys he purchased with your credit card
- The gold farmer makes money from the proceeds of the gold they farmed minus the cost of purchasing that key
- The fake retailer makes money from reselling that key on their fake retail site less the cost of purchasing that key

Why do the thieves use Blizzard to make their cash? Well, it's an instant purchase and one that requires nothing be shipped. They are buying a code that can be used anywhere in the world immediately. That code has a gigantic global market, so they can immediately sell it thus getting out of sight with some cash very quickly. Also because of this high volume, they can usually manage to purchase enough codes under the radar of Blizzard's fraud detection.

Why can't Blizzard's CS department help? Typically, front line CS people for Blizzard and similar companies don't even have access to credit card details. I doubt they can even see your credit card number when you call them. You need to call your bank anyway since your credit card info has been compromised. Most of the time, the thieves will make those few purchases and then toss your info...but not always. You may find other purchases from other companies if you don't take appropriate action.

Anyway there you have it. I won't say I have everything 100% accurate, but I'd wager it's pretty close. Bottom line though it is credit card fraud, and your bank should be the first entity you call.

Also, debit cards are evil since the thieves hit your bank account directly. Use credit cards unless you have no choice .

TexAg wrote: »

Thanks for the very informative post RandomRabbit. One question:



How do you know the security code has also been stolen? Does anyone know for sure if making a purchase at Blizzard requires the security code?

Actually good catch. I don't know 100% if Blizzard requires the security code. I know other game companies do, but I can't be sure about them. If they don't ask for it on the website, then the thieves wouldn't need it.

Update: I just went to their website and tried to order a product. It did require the security code. You still can't be 100% sure unless you know exactly what the thief ordered from them. It is possible the particular item ordered did not need a security code (which would be a problem), but not probable. Most e-commerce sites use the same backend for all products, so in all probability, the thief did have to use a security code.

Beware to all with problems with Blizzard. I also had the original charges of 19.99 x 3 from Blizzard. Today when I checked my account there were 9 more charges. 3 for 49.99 each from NC soft NY and then 6 for another gaming website. That one was called Runescape and they were charging $5 each. Needless to say my debit card had been cancelled and because of some fraud I have to be inconvenienced. Good luck to you all.

Like others, I found this site by googling a fraudulent charge on my bank account. I'm in the U.S. Northeast. Apparently, someone stole my ATM card info. There are 2 charges for $39.99 and 2 charges for $41.85, all from NC SOFT 1 512 2256359NY.

In addition, I have been flooded with phone calls from online universities claiming that I requested enrollment info, and I've had 2 emails from Scholastic Books, asking to verify orders for childrens books.

This tells me that the culprits have my name, ATM card number, email address, and phone number!

Luckily, by the time I called my bank (Citizens), they were already on it and had put a hold on my ATM card (Yay Citizens!). I have to wait a week for a new card, but I am not responsible for any of the charges.

I have never played WoW or downloaded any online games. I use ebay pretty often (paypal) and make online purchases here and there from reputable places (amazon, drugstore.com, & uline most recently). This is the first time anything like this has happened to me in probably 15+ years of e-tail.

OK, here's the weird part. Not sure if it's related, but the timing is a bit creepy. Today I received a bouquet of roses from FTD. A card attached said "happy birthday" and that is all. No sender. My birthday is months from now. I called FTD and the operator said "this is strange....please hold." After a few minutes, she came back and said that she cannot give me any info without the sender's consent, but they would get back to me.

Anybody else have anything like that to report?