When an account is compromised, you want to ensure you take steps to help address the problem. Below is a list of the most common ways that accounts become compromised. If you're account was compromised, it is possible that more than one of these applies to the situation:
- Access to your e-mail account has become compromised.
- Through use of a phishing e-mail, someone has gained access to your account credentials or personal information. For more information on phishing and how to protect yourself from it, please see this article.
- Log-in credentials similar to those used for your Guild Wars 2 account previously became compromised through a different web or gaming service.
- You entered your log-in credentials on a computer running malicious software.
- You willingly gave your login information to someone else, for example, through account sharing.
If you believe that your account was compromised, we encourage that you take the following steps to secure your account before contacting the Support Team:
- Scan your computer with a virus and/or malware scanner. For more information about how to secure your computer from malware, please see our guide to security software here.
- Secure your e-mail account by immediately changing the password to a new, unique password you have never used before on any other account or website. For help on choosing a good password, please see this article. Additionally, if your e-mail providers offers two-factor authentication, please consider using this feature for added security. Note: If you don't have access to the email address on the account, please skip this step.
- Finally, please review our full article on Guild Wars 2 Account Security, located here.
Once you have taken these steps in the order they are listed, please send a ticket or reply to an existing ticket of the same issue with a brief outline of what steps you took. For example, let the Support Team know what virus scanner you used, what the results were when you ran the scan, and confirm that you are using a completely unique password for your e-mail account that you have not used anywhere else. At that point, Support will take the necessary steps to get you back into the game.