Protecting your account! (Advice)

Doowie

Some useful advice on how to avoid being hacked.

1) Never use the same password for your game account and email address.

This one is pretty simple. If you use the same password for both things, it only enabled the hackers to bypass the IP monitors that Zenimax is using to stop a different IP / Computer from access your account.

2) Avoid using the same login information that you've used for other games or fansites.

This is pretty much the same as number 1. Most hackers get their information from infecting fan-sites with keyloggers and of course they have lists of emails and passwords that they've used on other titles. So do the smart thing and avoid using the same password for the same game.

3) Don’t buy gold!

Well if you buy gold, you are only helping the hackers to continue ruining with the game that you want to enjoy. Also lets not forget that these hackers / gold farmers don’t get their gold from using bots over and over again to get their gold. They hack accounts and strip all that currency to then sell to someone. Most if not all those gold farming websites are also infected with keyloggers.

4) Don’t download bots!

Firstly if you get caught you will get banned and you deserve it! Secondly any “free” bot that you see out there is just a little .exe file that is in fact a keylogger! So use some common sense and just play the game normally and avoid your account being banned.

5) Don’t share your account!

Giving your friends access to your account causes issue for Zenimax and will cause issues for you. If you allow people access to your account, they should say and do something, which ends up getting your account suspended or banned and in the eyes of Zenimax this was you. They can’t see who the person is that is logging into the account.

Also can you really trust your friends? For all you know that have bots on their computers, which will get detected and boom there goes your account.
Remember that you are personally responsible for the security of your account and your computer, not Zenimax.

6) Scans.

Make sure you scan your computer for viruses/keyloggers at least once a week to make sure that it’s clear. This is because when your information is collected it’s not uses that very same moment, but the hackers will use it days or weeks later. So being able to notice a virus or keylogger was on your system, the sooner you can get the password to your email and account changed.

7) Photo ID

Make sure you never have photos of these still in your email address, which you may have sent to companies in regards to account verification. If a hacker gets onto your email address, they will have access to everything. So make sure any old (sent) emails are deleted if they contain images of your ID. Nothing more worrying that having a hacker getting hold of your ID, which just makes it easier for them to say they are the owner of the account.

8 ) Phishing websites & Emails.

Many of us have come across these emails, where it tells us our account is about to be banned and we need to confirm our account information to say that we are the real owner. If you have concerns of any kind, make sure you manually enter the ESO website and manually enter the account management page and check the status of your account. Never click then links in those emails as they will redirect you to a fake looking ESO website.

If you hover over the link in the email, you will see it redirects you to a website like elderscrollsonline.st or anything or kind of URL that if you don't pay close enough will come across as being a real link. The emails will look very official as they use a ghosting protocol to mask their original email address.

So if you ever ever have any concerns contact the customer support, so they can confirm to you if the actions taken are real or if the email is a fake/scammer/phishing email

9) Passwords.

Make sure you have a good password. Don't have something, which can be guessed. For example I know there are those of you out there, who probably have qwerty123 as a password. Make sure to have something like MyPass87OFAweSOME for example. using lower case, upper case and numbers as the passwords for ESO is case sensitive.

Everything else is ...

Common Sense

Harkrider

I think the very last one (common sense) is actually all that needs to be said.

But, if anything, you should add 'don't visit fishy (phishy) websites'.

Doowie

Good point. Thanks for the phishing websites/emails.

cheeser123

I vote for sticky on this.

Can we also add to the list "Don't send any part of your log-in details or other personal information by email or other non-secure methods"? (i.e. to prevent phishing)

Harkrider

cheeser123 wrote: »

I vote for sticky on this.

Can we also add to the list "Don't send any part of your log-in details or other personal information by email or other non-secure methods"? (i.e. to prevent phishing)

It's worth remembering that Zenimax has ensured that everybody has access to half of our login information with their foolish decision to make UserIDs public.

Doowie

I've updated the page with the phishing information and also about passwords.

Doowie

If anyone else has things that I've missed, then please let me know

Doowie

Mods, if you can get this thread placed as a sticky it may help a small number of people secure their accounts. Also it will reduce the incoming reports of hacked accounts, that your customer support team are getting at the moment.

adfb16_ESO

Points 1 and 2 can't be stressed enough.

I use a scheme for creating passwords that allows me to, in most cases, remember what the password I used for any particular site. The passwords are long making them difficult to guess or brute force.

If you struggle with remembering passwords (as I do), and so tend to use the same secure password for most sites (as I used to, which with site hacks and password dumps is bad, because your 'secure' password then becomes linked to your account name or email in the public domain and ceases to be secure any more) then using something like lastpass.com to remember your passwords for you can help.

Doowie

Some people using their phones to store passwords, which can be fine, until they are stolen/lost, then you need to get in touch with customer support to get a password reset email sent to you, once you've verified ownership xD

And other write them down on some paper. Of course this is fine if you live alone, but if you live with family or a girlfriend/boyfriend who you get arguments with, I wouldn't recommend that one :P

Turelus

CorrectHorseBatteryStaple ? :P

http://xkcd.com/936/

Doowie

Hahaha I remember that xD

Doowie

Hopefully we will see an authenticator added soon by Zenimax!

thesawolfb14_ESO

Yeah.. I'd love an authenticator. Hate using services without some form of 2-stage authentication.

Doowie

Making sure that new players and existing players get to see this information!

Yoshie

This should be a sticky

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

As the OP says at the very end, it's Conmon Sense, sadly the numbers of players of all MMOs who get their accounts stolen shows common sense is in short supply for some.

Dolnor

I have friends who use online-password-saving sites to store all their various logins-password combos. With as many sites getting hacked these days (the rule is not *IF* but *WHEN* you'll get hacked), trusting others to help you remember is rather silly and dangerous.

Try my trick which I've convinced friends to use... Get a small address book and write down your info in it. Then keep it near the computer or stash it in a secret place within your home. Hackers tend to have a hard time getting your login information when they have to break into your home to get it! -)

As for using a 2-step authenticator, I am one of those "poor people" that are constantly in the news these days. I currently can't afford a cell phone so requiring one to play this game would force me to cancel my subscription.

TQQdles™

Mallow

Another vote for a sticky here. It should be "common sense," but may not be for those who are new to MMOs. And a reminder is always good. Thanks, OP!