So you’re visiting the World of Warcraft realm forums. It’s the usual flaming, loot drop bragging and guild drama when a new post pops up that says “Pic’s of My Teacher Nekkid!!1!”

There is a link. Do you click it? If you do, chances are that you are going to find your lvl70 paladin for sale on eBay.

In a startling report from ESET.com, the computer security site reveals that the number one worldwide malware threat for July was against online gaming.

According to the security site, malware attacks against MMO players have been the number one threat for the last three months.

More than 12 percent of all attacks are credited to the malware family known as Win32/PSW.OnLineGames. Essentially a keylogging Trojan that also sports rootkit capabilities that surreptitiously relays your information back to hackers.

According to ESET: It’s important for participants in MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games) like Lineage and World of Warcraft, as well as “metaverses” like Second Life, to be aware of the range of threats ranged against them: not just harassment nuisances like griefing and pointless quasi-viral attacks like grey goo, but phishing and other scams that can result in financial loss in the real world. Their objective in such cases is to steal account information or game items and then resell them on the black market (or at any rate on eBay).

Source: ESET

Tags: malware, MMO, nekkid, scams, World-of-Warcraft

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3 Comments » Haven on August 14, 2008 7:54 pm Insomnia FTW! Chad, joo da man! Jarkheld on August 14, 2008 8:22 pm Wow, so is that why I logged in naked today, I mean, seeing my teacher naked might have been worth it but damn! Chad Lakkis on August 14, 2008 8:53 pm Who are all these cool people commenting on this story??? RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.