World of Warcraft Weenies P0wn3d

Poor Dag Friedman.  He is an aging High School Math Teacher, living in Sacramento, California.  His only means of escape for his dreary life is to go into the fantasy realm of World of Warcraft, where he can embark on campaigns with his online friends to kill pixelated critters.  Maybe he even has a couple of online sweethearts that he intends to meet in real life one day- if only his job paid better so he could afford to travel.  If only his virtual pile of gold he has amassed as a level 46 dwarf fighter were real!  Then he would travel to Kansas City to meet that hot Elf Sorceress, Magda Palethighs in real life.  And hope she’s not really an aging creepy dude teacher like himself.

Hackers are penetrating webservers frequented by WoW players and installing drive-by download trojans to steal the credentials of these losers.  Then the hackers swipe their magic items and gold and sell them for real world cash.

From CNET here:

For months, hackers have been surreptitiously installing keylogging software on WoW players’ Windows computers, hijacking their accounts and selling off their often valuable in-game assets.

Many of the victims, no doubt, have experiences similar to that of Dag Friedman, a 37-year-old math teacher from Sacramento, Calif.

Last month, Friedman had been permanently banned by the game’s publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. The banning was punishment for “account sharing.”

Friedman tried to get Blizzard to explain what happened, but had gotten no initial response. Weeks later, however, he was contacted by Blizzard, which told him it had reinstated his account and restored his lost items.

Contacted by CNET News.com, Friedman said he had since had another WoW account hacked, and that he was disturbed that someone had broken into his computer. Worse, in the middle of an instant-message conversation with CNET News.com, Friedman reported that he had just discovered that yet another of his accounts had been broken into and all its contents pilfered.

For its part, Blizzard said it’s addressing the problem by informing players that they should ensure their computers are safe against malware.

How many accounts does this loser have?  And how many of them does he play a female?  Hey Dag-  Patch your computer, stupid.  Then move out of your Mom’s basement and try to get a real-world hobby.  Try golf.