If the hacked World of Warcraft account turns out to be a real gift later, the matter has a happy ending.
For everyone who has been playing World of Warcraft for many years, it is probably a sheer horror scenario. You enter the account details to log in – but nothing happens. Your account has been compromised, and a stranger now has access to the game. Such things happened more often back then, as many accounts were repurposed into farming bots. But one player even ended up being happy about it – as he could afford more and made the hacker character his main.
What happened? The player, who goes by the name Number1DestryJones in the WoW Subreddit, explains in a post what happened to him. Back in the days of Wrath of the Lich King, his account was hacked. After he was able to prove that he was the original buyer, he regained access to his account and found quite a mess, as he describes:
Blizzard gave me my account back, and I logged in expecting chaos.
And, oh my! What a chaos it was.
A Death Knight on a random realm (a realm I rarely played on, Tichondrius) was suddenly at level 62. Mining was completely leveled. All bags and the bank were filled with stacks of ores. Literally a starter kit for gold farmers.
What the gold farmer intended to use to earn gold that would then be traded for real money turned out to be a nice gift for the WoW player.
Ores of the Hacker Become a Blessing for the WoW Player
The player then quickly turned the ores into gold and stocked up nicely. Not only were the expensive riding skills purchased, but also some mounts and various equipment. All the ores were worth a whopping 20,000 gold – and that was quite a lot back then.
The funniest part of it? In the end, the hacked Death Knight became my new main. I never really planned to play Death Knights, but after I logged in and saw that he already had a head start… I just stuck with it. I played him for years. He is still one of my favorite characters I’ve ever had.
How did Blizzard react? 20,000 gold was a large sum back then, and when a just “retrieved” account spends that much at once, it stands out. However, Blizzard apparently settled for just removing the remaining gold – as Number1DestryJones was allowed to keep what he had bought with it:
I used [the gold] to learn riding, buy mounts, and everything else I could buy before Blizzard noticed.
Sure, the next day Blizzard wrote to me, and the message basically said, “Yes, the gold was earned through unauthorized activities” and set my gold back to the value I had before. BUT they let me keep everything I bought with it.
The hacker basically paid for my account upgrades. Thanks, unknown gold farmer.
For most people, the idea of the WoW account being hacked is quite unpleasant. However, it is nice to see that such a story can also have a happy ending. Has your account ever been stolen? What was it like for you afterwards?
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