Forum: empire-en

Board: [587] Alliance introductions & searches

Topic: [386370] Known Hackers on this game

[-386370] monty242 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 9, 2022, 1:16 p.m.

Recently HACKERS have desimated alliances from within. They are gaining enty by sending "Friend Requests" and the offer of "Gifts"
Delete these PM's, DO NOT OPEN.  Hacks originated when userglenwallace lvl 6 hacked susa297, JGJ and MSAGRO in the alliance HAFEN HOWYE . Since then this hacker has moved between alliances causing HAVOC.  
WHATS THE POINT OF BUYING RUBIES WHEN THEY ARE STOLEN BY HACKERS THAT GGE ARE DOING NOTHING ABOUT!!

[5230086] monty242 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 9, 2022, 3:26 p.m.

HACKER SUSA297 HAS NOW CHANGED NAME TO MAJBOOR CAFE.  and got into frost wolves.
He's still at co-ordinates 327-905.  Lets get rid of this fool and burn him to the ground in all locations!!

[5230148] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 10, 2022, 6:20 p.m.

monty242 (GB1) said:

HACKER SUSA297 HAS NOW CHANGED NAME TO MAJBOOR CAFE.  and got into frost wolves.
He's still at co-ordinates 327-905.  Lets get rid of this fool and burn him to the ground in all locations!!

I don't think this has anything to do with hackers to be honest. It has been said time and time again by seasoned professionals of empire goodgame and mods et al, that passwords should never be shared at all. This happens whether we like it or not. When players actually STOP sharing their passwords (to ensure that someone who stays up late looks after the account just in case) then perhaps we will no longer receive these pms and we know about susa297 who also has another account called Vortex. They were both booted by myself and our leader because of it. There are other players of that ilk too on EN1.

[5230153] Poseidon [Moderator] :: June 10, 2022, 6:36 p.m.

We take account security very seriously, we have yet to receive a valid report about an account being hacked. All reported cases have been investigated and were caused by other players becoming aware of the affected account’s password, either through inadequately chosen passwords or account owners deliberately sharing their password. Players are not permitted to access another player’s account, nor are they permitted to allow other players into their own account. This violation of our terms and conditions (www.goodgamestudios.com/terms-of-service/) can result in suspensions being placed on the account, and allows other players to play your account as though it were their own. It is imperative that your chosen password follows some simple rules: - Should not be your birthday or similar personal details (phone number, account name). - Should not be too simple or easy to guess. Passwords like 12345 or ABCDE are usually among the first ones tested when trying to gain access to an account. - Should not use any publicly available information about yourself. - Should not be a password you have previously used. - Should consist of randomly chosen characters and numbers. We hope this information helps you in securing your account. Please change your password to a new, secure password which only you know and make sure not to share your login details with anyone else.

[5230156] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 10, 2022, 7:08 p.m.

Its Poseidon said:

We take account security very seriously, we have yet to receive a valid report about an account being hacked. All reported cases have been investigated and were caused by other players becoming aware of the affected account’s password, either through inadequately chosen passwords or account owners deliberately sharing their password. Players are not permitted to access another player’s account, nor are they permitted to allow other players into their own account. This violation of our terms and conditions (www.goodgamestudios.com/terms-of-service/) can result in suspensions being placed on the account, and allows other players to play your account as though it were their own. It is imperative that your chosen password follows some simple rules: - Should not be your birthday or similar personal details (phone number, account name). - Should not be too simple or easy to guess. Passwords like 12345 or ABCDE are usually among the first ones tested when trying to gain access to an account. - Should not use any publicly available information about yourself. - Should not be a password you have previously used. - Should consist of randomly chosen characters and numbers. We hope this information helps you in securing your account. Please change your password to a new, secure password which only you know and make sure not to share your login details with anyone else.

This is simply because at the end of the day, it is very nearly impossible (unless you are a serious pro) to hack a server that is located in a data centre and I am pretty sure that any software used is also like vmware i.e. saved as images (most enterprises use a vmware server system so that if there is a software problem, then all they have to do is just take a look at the image instead each and every single computer.

As for hacked accounts, it is very rare to hear of players who say that their professional, banking, amazon accounts etc have been hacked too, it is always empire and thus this leads to a serious problem of simple password sharing. It causes players to be more careful about accepting new players and we begin to trust even less. I have played on the French server but I cannot speak for it however, having seena few players join and wanting promotion right away or 'to invite a few friends", then for me, those are red flags and I boot without explanation.

[5230316] monty242 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 13, 2022, 2:55 p.m.

Regardless of MAJBOOR CAFE status as a Hacker, or just being a total pain with taking someone else's account by gaining their PW. He still stole susa297's account and is still using it, as can be seen by checking out the names of his Outer Realm castles to cause havoc and stars wars!!. This is not acceptable to the majority of players on this game so why do GGE continue to make excuses and not do anything about stolen accounts?? Susa 297 was a lovely lady who played this game for many years, but due to medical reasons does not play much anymore. If this is the way the GGE treat their loyal players then it is no wonder that so many leave.

[5230322] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 13, 2022, 5:36 p.m.

monty242 (GB1) said:

Regardless of MAJBOOR CAFE status as a Hacker, or just being a total pain with taking someone else's account by gaining their PW. He still stole susa297's account and is still using it, as can be seen by checking out the names of his Outer Realm castles to cause havoc and stars wars!!. This is not acceptable to the majority of players on this game so why do GGE continue to make excuses and not do anything about stolen accounts?? Susa 297 was a lovely lady who played this game for many years, but due to medical reasons does not play much anymore. If this is the way the GGE treat their loyal players then it is no wonder that so many leave.

No-one is actually doubting what has happened however, if an alliance keeps an account alive in the hope a player comes back just in case, then password sharing must be an issue. If it was a "hacking issue", then that player who was hacked has even bigger problems than losing their account, but also major issues concerning their computer and all files/passwords that are stored on there. Again, if I remember correctly, GGE have affirmed that no-one, not one single person has managed to hack into their systems so, it has to be a local issue i.e. password sharing.

[5230683] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 19, 2022, 5:28 p.m.

monty242 (GB1) said:

Regardless of MAJBOOR CAFE status as a Hacker, or just being a total pain with taking someone else's account by gaining their PW. He still stole susa297's account and is still using it, as can be seen by checking out the names of his Outer Realm castles to cause havoc and stars wars!!. This is not acceptable to the majority of players on this game so why do GGE continue to make excuses and not do anything about stolen accounts?? Susa 297 was a lovely lady who played this game for many years, but due to medical reasons does not play much anymore. If this is the way the GGE treat their loyal players then it is no wonder that so many leave.

You have to ask yourself the question, if that player had left the game ages ago because of illness, surely it should have turned to ruins by now, should it not? There was clearly someone keeping the account alive in the hope that someone who is trustworthy enough, cna actually take over the account.

[5230982] monty242 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 25, 2022, 1:24 p.m.

MAJBOOR CAFE ( HAS NOW CHANGED NAME TO MAMOO ANJUM). He has just got into ExcalibuR and as normal causing mayhem.  How many time are GGE going to allow this individual to ruin the game for everyone. The longer they allow this to happen then they are only fueling the rumours of GGE being complicit!!!!.  

[5230995] Mikeshot2.8 (GB1) [GB1] :: June 25, 2022, 4:23 p.m.

Majboor cafe has just opened an account using my name also did the same to our leader graham1965 he even hacked into sag1960 account and was trying to get my password by pretending to be him and graham1965 time this hacker was thrown out or you are going to have more trouble and lose players

[5231012] bazzara (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 9:49 a.m.

reading above i would suggest all players within hh and those that have come into contact with the above accounts report them to support
but dont hold your breath
there are plenty of shell accounts out there that have been brought to the attention of support and are still up and running 
also these bots accounts are up and running again i see and support knows about them 
its how the game is now it seems

[5231027] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 1:47 p.m.

bazzara (GB1) said:

reading above i would suggest all players within hh and those that have come into contact with the above accounts report them to support
but dont hold your breath
there are plenty of shell accounts out there that have been brought to the attention of support and are still up and running 
also these bots accounts are up and running again i see and support knows about them 
its how the game is now it seems

Agreed!!! Some players in alliances who have been around for years cannot accept that some players move on. There are many accounts that are dead, but big alliances keep the accounts alive to stop new players from taking well developed ops from ruins.

[5231028] JPS Kills (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 1:53 p.m.

monty242 (GB1) said:

MAJBOOR CAFE ( HAS NOW CHANGED NAME TO MAMOO ANJUM). He has just got into ExcalibuR and as normal causing mayhem.  How many time are GGE going to allow this individual to ruin the game for everyone. The longer they allow this to happen then they are only fueling the rumours of GGE being complicit!!!!.  

Agreed 100%. Having hackers and large alliances that keep dead accounts alive are the biggest scourge in the game. At the end of the day, if you are going to name one because he/she is a hacker, then you need to name/shame those who are password sharing on a regular basis.

[5231033] the beast (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 3:09 p.m.

My alliance, the Diggies have today become a victim of this same group of hackers. A level 6 multi account changed their name to 'Diggy' to impersonate our alliance leader and used this to trick one of our members into giving away their password. Once they had the password they logged into the account and then proceeded to boot all of our members, spend a large chunk of our alliance funds and let in several other dodgy accounts that are known hackers. The situation is still ongoing as I haven't been able to get my rank back so I am unable to book the hackers. The account that impersonated our leader has now changed their name to iceyshades, so I suspect that there next target will be Golden Wolves.

[5231034] the beast (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 3:20 p.m.

As it is not possible for two players to have the same username, the 'hackers' are using tricks to make it look like they have the same username as another player, such as using a capital I to look like an L. For example one of the dodgy accounts associated with these hackers has their username as 'coibeck', whith the i capitalised to look like an L so the username appears as 'colbeck' which is the username of a real player on the server. 

[5231035] the beast (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 3:38 p.m.

Another tactic they use is to put characters that don't show up in the game at the end of their username.

For example, in this screenshot you can see the a gap between the end of the username and the glory title, this is because at the end of the username is a character that the game cannot process/display, so it looks like the username of the player is just 'Orca', but it isn't. you can work out if an account is using these characters to impersonate another account by looking on the world map and seeing if there is a gap between the end of the username and the glory title, or alternatively if the account doesn't have a glory title you can highlight the username like this:

As you can see in this screenshot when you highlight the username with your mouse, a section at the end will be highlighted, even though there is nothing there. This is because again they are using the characters that don't show up in the game, so this account is not the real iceyshades, it is an impersonator.

[5231036] the beast (GB1) [GB1] :: June 26, 2022, 3:46 p.m.

I will post more information on these hackers and their tactics if I discover anything else. I think its important to do this as the UK server is already on its last legs and these hackers are speeding up the death of the server by driving people away and wrecking alliances. If anyone else has any information please post it here and also send the link to this thread to people in your alliance so everyone is aware of what is going on