The UK's Halifax bank has reportedly stopped transactions to Blizzard Entertainment "due to a significant number of fraudulent transactions," meaning those with Halifax issued Visa/Mastercards won't be making their
World of Warcraft payment this month.
The Register writes that the bank doesn't blame Blizzard and is apparently tired of dealing with all the fraudulent charges using stolen credit cards. The bank will allow payment processing once customers contact it to make arrangements.
Sister-site
WoW Insider has chronicled many fraud issues on the
insanely popular MMO. Between the
keyloggers and
phishers, Azeroth can be a dangerous place. In all fairness, the Halifax issue could have happened with any MMO as they all have similar scams. Although what Halifax is doing is inconvenient, it's still better than customers checking their monthly statements and discovering fraudulent charges.
[Via
WoW Insider]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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You read that right
Although I don't play WoW I would see why the bank wouldn't want to lose money from fraud.
I rang Halifax and they said they thought I was being frauded. I said it was legit, and they said if the transaction was resent they would allow it. I rang the retailer and they sent through the transaction. Then I got an automated message from Halifax asking me to confirm the charge. I went through this, and then it refused to acknowledge my birthday, I know my own birthday, and was told the payment would be blocked.
I rang up Halifax and they said the payment had gone through, a quick call to the retailer confirmed this and the PS3 arrived the next day.
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John Smedly (CEO of Sony Online Entertainment) recently made some comments about it in an interview, describing it as causing several million dolloars worth of fines and fees for both the mmo company and the banks.
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I do
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Surely if you were a criminal with some else's credit card, you wouldn't just use it to play WoW, or have crackheads found a new addiction?
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