Most of the time whenAngry Pepe looks at reports about hackers, hacking, and people who steal other peoples information,his reaction is the same as yours outrage. We go to enormous lengths to protect the games from hackers and thieves and I take it as a personal offense when someone violates that. There are times though, when I look at a hacking incident report and I just have to shake my head. The entry on such a report is always the same Account Shared? Yes. In terms of protecting your account and your information, the most powerful thing you can do is also the simplest.
Do not share your account!
We talked about this is a previous Angry Pepe post, but I honestly dont know how to put it any simpler than that. Dont share your account with anybody. That means nobody. Not your guild mate, not your best buddy, not your school chum, not your brother or sister, nobody. Dont share your account. Just dont.
My friend wouldnt steal from me.
The resistance to this simple piece of advice baffles me. Yet whenever we offer it, we get responses from people that range from the idea that were accusing friends and family members of being criminals to the idea that this is part of some evil plan to squeeze more money from our customers. None of these reactions passes even the simplest test of logic.
Heres the thing. In the vast majority of cases where players share their account, players are absolutely right that the person theyre sharing with wouldnt deliberately steal from them. The operative woird in that sentence is "deliberately." The thing is, when you entrust your account to someone, youre responsible for everything that happens to it. If someone using your account misunderstands the nature of the Cash Shop and goes in and drains your account of NX by buying a dozen pets because he doesnt understand how they work, Im afraid you havent been hacked. You are however,responsible for the purchase of those pets.
If the person you were showing your cool gear to gives your password information to a hacker pretending to be a Nexon employee, youre going to lose your stuff despite the fact that your friend certainly didnt set out to hurt you. As for the plot to make money?
Nexon Accounts are FREE
But what if you want to show someone your cool character with all your great gear or you want them to try out the game in the hopes theyll become a regular player? Have them make a free account and follow you around for a while. Theyll not only get in the game on the ground floor, you can give them a leg up by helping them earn XP and getting them equipment. Theres no quicker way to get a friend into the game than by helping them establish themselves. If your friend has a problem downloading the game, we have a DVD availablewith the client on it that can be yours for just the cost of shipping and handling.
One of the best and by best I mean most ridiculous -- reasons anyone ever gave me for sharing their account was the guild I joined had as a condition of joining that everyone share their account information so we would always have a variety of classes available for PQs. My quick answer to that was get a new guild. No guild should ever make part of its joining conditions that you give up sensitive information. Thats like your baseball team asking for your locker combination so they can use your uniform if you happen to be absent from the game.
Account Sharing Make Pepe Angry!
Put simply, there is no good reason to ever share your account information with anyone. I wish I could tell you the number of tragic emails we receive that begin I got hacked! Then our investigation proves that whatever happened, happened because somebody shared their account. But I never logged in at that computer! we hear, only to discover that that computer belongs to a friend or a guild mate. This warning doesnt come from nowhere. We see the dire results in forums and Customer Support tickets every day and unfortunately, it happens a lot. Keeping your account information private is simply your best shot at keeping your account secure.
