Some useful advice on how to avoid being hacked.
- 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 make further changes to your account and even have access to more of your personal information.
- Avoid using the same login information that you’ve used for other games or fan sites.
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.
This also means it’s a good idea to use a different email address as well, for a new title, that you wish to play. Just like with the password information, that hacker may be able to get their hands on, they will also have your previous or current email address. So, using a brand-new email address can also help with increasing the security of your account. I would recommend services like Google, which gives you the option to use a 2 step authenticating for accessing your email address.
- 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, let’s not forget that these hackers / currency farmers don’t normally get their gold from using bots over and over again, once they start getting banned or having systems in place to make it more difficult for them. They start to hack accounts and strip all that currency to then sell to someone. Most, if not all, of those currency farming websites are also infected with keyloggers.
- 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.
- Don’t share your account!
Giving your friends access to your account causes issue for Steam & AGS and will cause issues for you. If you allow people access to your account, they could say and do something, which ends up getting your account suspended or banned and in the eyes of AGS this was you. They can’t see who the person behind the computer screen.
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 Amazon Games.
- 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 used at 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.
There are many free antivirus software out there, so just go onto Google and search for one which has the best reviews and try it out. Also don’t forget that many of the paid antivirus programs out there, do offer a 30-day trial period, so if you’re looking for a decent paid service, then make sure you try them out.
- Photo ID
Make sure you never have photos of these still in your email address, which you may have sent to companies in regard 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.
- 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.
- Authenticators
If you have a mobile phone, making sure that you have the Steam Guard 2-step authenticator added. It’s pretty simple & clear.
- Scams (In game whispers / emails)
Another tactic used by hackers are trying to take advantage of people’s insecurities. I’m talking about the in game whisper and emails, which will be coming very soon. One the hackers are no longer able to farm gold effectively, this will be their next tactic.
Ingame Whispers: These whispers normally will inform you that you’ve been detected cheating/selling gold/botting or any other reason that the script is set up to spam as many people as possible. It will say that if you don’t respond to the link in the whisper, your account will be banned. Now remember that the link will never be to the official page of New World https://www.newworld.com/, but will be something like NewWorld.com.sk or something close resemblance to the original URL. Just ignore the whisper and continue playing because if you were going to be banned, you would be banned and then receive an email/notification at login, about it informing you that you have been banned and reason behind that decision.
Scam/Phishing Emails: At the moment this isn’t something you need to worry about, as we’re not at that stage yet. However,; when it gets to this point, you may receive emails saying that if you do not verify you’re the owner of this account, your account will be banned. The links in these emails will look real, even the email address at the top will show that it’s from Amazon Games, but this is just ghosting, which masks the real email address.
The links, if you hover over the link in the email (do not click it) will show you it’s taking you to a completely different address to what is shown in the email.
Remember that gaming companies will not threaten you with a ban if you do not verify you’re the owner. They will ban you and then ask you to get in touch with them.
Everything else is …
Common Sense