Warcraft Creeper

I’ve been on World of Warcraft for 9 years, and in that time I’ve run into my fair share of account fishers, hackers, gold solicitors, noob beggers, creeps and assholes. Last night, I ran into my first swindling creep, which I didn’t know was a thing. Here’s how it went down.

I had my hunter, an alt, at a Westfall Legion invasion and getting my squishy ass handed to me. Aeneal from Windrunner whispered me and said, “hey! Long time no see. I played with you and your husband before.”

I just got married almost a year ago, and I left WoW a year and a half ago. I’m assuming the math on this is easy. Also, my husband doesn’t play WoW and never has. However, I frequently play with a guy friend of mine I’ve known since college and is one of my best friends. He’s been mistaken by others before as my significant other, so I thought this guy made that same mistake.

I was on Vent with my guy friend, and asked him if the name sounded familiar. He said no.

I returned a greeting to the guy, and he asked how I’ve been. I replied with the standard “not bad” and carried on civil, generic conversation. We talked about the new demon hunter class. During this time, I shift-clicked his name and got “0 players” and even tried to add him to my friend’s list. But it said “player not found.” I assumed it was because he was on a different server. I looked him up on WoW Armory, and while there were 2 pages of Aeneal, not a single one was from Windrunner.That means he’s on an alt that’s less than level 20. Not entirely strange, since the Legion event scales to level and is a great way to level at the moment.

After a few minutes, he said “I’ve been saving up so much money on my main. Would you like 100k? Consider it a gift.”

I told my friend. We joked about taking the money and reasoned out how, if this was a hacker, he could possibly try swindling me. I have an authenticator, so I had no fear on my account security, and I’m not dumb enough to give out my password. My friend told me to check the mail carefully that it wasn’t a COD (Cash on Delivery) trap. My hunter is an alt and she’s broke from leveling Engineering, so that wasn’t an issue either.

I replied to Aeneal, “Really? A gift like that would be extremely appreciated.” He said it was no problem. I thanked him and tried to continue generic, friendly chat.If someone goes out of their way to be generous, it seems kind of dickish to not be friendly at the least.

Then he asked my age. I ignored it the first time, and asked him if he was ready for Legion. He responded, and then he asked my age again. Well, I don’t hide my age, and it’s even clearly posted on this blog, so I told him. I’m 29. I asked him his age, and he said 37. Okay. Whatever.

A few minutes later, he says “Since I’m giving you such a big gift, would you consider me your sugar daddy for awhile? Just say okay.”

Nope. Nope, nope nope nope. I knew there was something fishy about it.

Then it hit me like a mack truck. He told me he played with my me and my husband to fish for the information of whether or not I was married, and if my husband plays WoW. Holy shenanigans, Batman. I didn’t respond and logged onto a different character.

I checked my hunter this morning, and he never sent the money. I knew he wouldn’t.

That goes to show the crazy way creeping online has evolved. Always be vigilant, be careful, and question everything online. Especially if it sounds too good to be true.