A trick auction to steal gold in World of Warcraft

When scammers target gamers, they are typically pursuing gaming accounts. Today, we’re discussing a different target: players’ gold. As games go, the massively popular World of Warcraft sees scammers target players on a regular basis, one day threatening them with a ban for alleged cheating, the next seeming to offer virtual pets (but not really; it’s a scam, after all).To get more news about Buy WoW WLK Items, you can visit lootwow.com official website.

A user nicknamed Legitamasterr posted on Reddit in late May, describing an original scam used at the World of Warcraft Classic Auction House. The player, who was trying to buy a stack of Chronoboon Displacers for 66 gold coins, instead had more than 11,000 gold coins deducted from his account. He had become a victim of a malicious script in an add-on he had installed. Here is how to protect yourself and avoid a similar fate in World of Warcraft Classic.
Add-ons are useful and sometimes indispensable in World of Warcraft. With them, you can customize the interface, filter out in-game chat spam, and do much more. For example, a popular add-on called WeakAuras can help you set up convenient access to information such as the amount of time before a boss’ next high-damage attack, a warning that you are under a curse that inflicts damage to nearby players, the mana reserve levels of raid healers, and so on.

WeakAuras is essentially a framework: all timers and indicators are added to the base add-Аon using scripts written in Lua programming language, commonly called “auras”. Many sites offer ready-made assemblies of auras for specific classes, specializations, and even professions. Sometimes, though, players are looking for something specific, such as an aura for a single quest or an experimental tactic. Some players versed in programming customize existing scripts or create auras themselves.

And sometimes, in a raid with random partners, an unfamiliar raid leader may demand, “we are using a new tactic to fight this boss — everyone needs to install this aura right now”, and send a link. Of course, the decision is yours, but anyone who doesn’t install the aura can expect to be kicked out of the raid. Worse, leaders usually drop those links into raid chats, and most players simply click on the name and install scripts without a second thought.

It is important to remember that using these scripts, which are also linked on message boards or in in-game chats, can be risky. With no centralized validation mechanism, stuffing auras with malicious surprises is easy, and unless you know Lua, you cannot check the code. In addition, a deceptive aura may behave like a bona fide script until it is triggered by certain conditions. Scammers take advantage of that in Azeroth.World of Warcraft is known for showing zero tolerance to cheaters. Blizzard’s licensing agreement prohibits changes to the game’s source code and the use of tools that give some players advantages over others, as well as any interference with game-play. So, how did the auction fraud go unnoticed?

It was because the scripts affect the interface only through WeakAuras tools, which are allowed. As far as the system is concerned, if players want to pay thousands of gold pieces for items worth pennies, that’s their choice. On top of that, most players need some help to figure out which of their many add-ons caused them to lose money. That gives cybercriminals the time they need to trick lots of users before their scheme is exposed.