Credit Card Fraud involving Blizzard Entertainment

rikejuca

Hi guys.

Well, it happened something a bit different with my girlfriend... she got billed for a 6-month subscription she did not buy ! Not to mention her CC wasn't allowed to do international transactions...
We haven't received any other billings until now, but we got pretty surprised when we saw that 65,94 € on her CC. We'll be checking out all CC's in the house for signs of fraud... and damn the bank for allowing that transaction without checking out with us first...

WizardOfOz

Well I guess it was only a matter of time.

I just got three fraudulent Blizzard World Of Warcraft charges on my card too.

This has been going on for years...

Surely Blizzard must be losing enough money in refunds to the credit card companies and fees to make it worthwhile for them to put processes in place to reduce these fraudulent transactions ?

Surely the banks and credit card companies must be spending enough money in employing people to deal with fraud and in issuing new cards that they would be applying pressure to companies like Blizzard to put additional security in place ?

Or is it in none of their interests because more security would in fact mean fewer on line transactions and therefore less money overall for both of them ?

Its just scary how someone could either get enough information or perhaps just guess the numbers to spend money on my card and I don't know how the hell they did it. Not sure I actually want a replacement card...

It would be great if anyone from Blizzard, the banks or the credit card companies could give their take on this.

I wonder how many of these transactions DON'T get spotted ?

speed51

Dave_Rowtree wrote: »

Are these transactions being used to play World of Warcraft I wonder? (published by Blizzard) Addicts can get so hooked on the game I wouldn't put it past them.

this is a very disturbing post
i do play WoW (World of Warcraft) a game published by BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT.


as for the charges it is not someone using the cards to play WoW. i should know bc i have used my card to play WoW.

when you use a card other than the prepaid game cards at walmart to buy time for WoW it shows up like this with no variations:



Description: BLIZZARD ENT*WOW SUB
Location: BLIZZARD.COM


they amounts change as there are some places that charge interest and others that do not but the discription and the location will ALWAYS be the same.



its not the BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT that has published so many games for computers that is causing all these charges. it is an imposter that is illegally using a trademarked name to throw people off the course that they are on. i am not posting this as an outraged WoW "addict" as some would believe. i am posting bc my grandmother got a hold of me askin if i knew anything or had heard anything bc she too had the bogus charges.

kingkano

Yes thats the code for a monthly sub fee. The code these guys are seeing is BLIZZARD-ENT*ELECUPGRD. This indicates the purchase of an account upgrade for a World of Warcraft account. Basically buying an expansion pack to download.

So I am sorry to tell you that it really is the real BLIZZARD making the charges.

accordsixspeed

I was just recently hit. I noticed these posts having been going on for about two years and Blizzard Ent is still "involved" in fraudulent charges that have been reported. Why has this been allowed to go on for this long with Blizzard taking no responsibility...nor will the city of Irvine - it is Federal Mandate that the local governing authority of the place that RECEIVED the money investigate the crime of cc fraud. When I called Irvine PD, they said they had never had any complaints of internet fraud against Blizzard, and in fact, exlaimed as if he were surprised, "BLIZZARD!?!?".

frazzlled

Was sure surprised this site popped up.
This has been going on for too long.
My card was charged 4 x in a row to Blizzard yesterday, a couple of other places as well - all online
The bank must know about Blizzard
I was at a restraint and my card was denied tonight
Now I must get a different card along with the hassle to change all auto payments etc.
Sure glad it was not my debit card the rules on what they cover regarding fraud and the time limit to report are way different and not in our favor.
I have always hated the debit card being accepted as a credit card.
Sorry to the people who got their debit cards entangled in this mess
Just had to vent and let you know it is still going on.:mad:

From California.

harryhound

The bank has a vested interest in keeping this going.
If the punter does not notice and pays the charge, the bank gets its commission from Blizzard.
If the punter does notice, the bank keeps the commission from Blizzard and does a charge-back to Blizzard, probably with an administration fee added.

Meanwhile poor old Blizzard is is selling a few watts of electricity that happen to include digital information; their exports go world wide duty free so the marginal cost to Blizzard is almost nothing. The greater majority of their customers are honest and don't want complex validation procedures before being given another fix for their addiction.
So it is not in Blizzards interests to make buying something difficult, that cost nothing to provide.
(That would be like forcing a nicotine addict to spend several minutes messing about with key pads and passwords and mother's maiden names in the early hours of the morning when all they need is "a gasper/fag/cancer stick..........". When the punter may well not speak the language of the trader.)

[We have got some examples here, even though we both speak English - would your bank call Blizzard "The trader"?
I'm sure that if I said in a pub (sorry bar) on your side of the pond "I'll have to go outside, I'm desperate for a fag!"; that might be misconstrued:D.]

accordsixspeed

Somebody clear me up on something. Is the 14.99 a monthly susbscription fee? If so, it doesn't make any sense to have over a hundred debits (with an itunes debit thrown in for good measure) if the WOW user only needs one debit to upgrade or pay their monthly sub fee. So WHO stands to gain the most in these fraudulent debits if it only takes one debit to cover monthly service or an upgrade?????????????? Very confused about this whole thing. Absolutely none of it makes sense.

Also, it seems like Blizzard should know that when multiple debits are taken off the same cc that something's not right. And, yes, I know, they're making money off of it and it's all computerized so why should they care?......But why should Blizzard be the only entity that doesn't have to utilize the ETHICAL practice of having a "RED FLAG" system in place that recognizes these kinds of things? Everybody else has to require credentials such as the three digit code on the back of your card? And is it really so hard to fill out your 3 digit code and postal code and mother's maiden name to pay for goods/services electronically????? Come on, it's not like you're having to jog five miles to accomplish this.....IT'S JUST SIMPLE KEY STROKES!!!!! And don't mind the typing because memorized all of this.

I wasn't down with blaming Blizzard, before, like a lot of the other posts did....but....usually people steal cc numbers to make big purchases like wide screen tv's or expensive entertainment systems....not petty 14.99 charges. My bank president pointed THAT out to me.

Oh and check out some of these jobs websites...it seems Blizzard has posted some openings with some interesting job descriptions...one of which is "Fraud Manager" which opened up on the 5th of March. If someone is writing cracking software that generates random cc numbers until they find something that works, then that person is probably qualified to author other sofware...um...such as maybe....gaming sofware......hummmmmmm.....

BUT....how does that individual gain monitarily from that?

harryhound

As explained at the top of the thread somewhere, there is the concept of "Gold Farming".
If you live in a part of the world where the daily wage for an industrial 12 hour day is say 5 dollars; it makes a lot of sense, if you can finance you activities with stolen plastic card details, to spend your day playing world of war craft. You build up a position in the game that allows you to enjoy a fantasy life as a master of the universe. You then sell that position for real (? fiat) money to a games addict.

I know of a friend who has done something similar: You fly to Las Vegas, with faith in your poker playing ability, for the big poker championship and win through the first few boring rounds of this knock out championship getting rid of the no-hoper's. You then sell you position to one of the real experts, who carries on with a hope of winning the tournament.
(I don't know if this is still possible - rely on your own research).

XrisB

I keep getting emails from Blizzard Entertainment, who I had never heard of, asking me to verify my account/password. I have never been on to the WOW site and am wondering how I can stop these emails - I get about 5 a day.

Any help would be appreciated.