For those of us itching to play as the ridiculously-awesome Death Knight in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft, here's something you should know: Blizzard reaffirms that it has not yet opened up an open beta for the expansion, nor are they close to opening one anytime soon.

This little reminder comes from the latest outbreak of phishing sites disguised as online contests with the prizes being beta keys to an alleged Wrath of the Lich King public beta.

Blizzard warns players not to visit nor enter these fake contests, as doing so could and will lead to your account's security being compromised. Blue poster Vaneras puts it best with a forum post:

It would seem that there is a new trend of "malicious" sites, as well as e-mails, claiming to provide contests and other opportunities for WoW players to win an entry in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. We want to make it absolutely clear that we have NOT yet opened any form of public Beta. Nor do we currently have an ETA for one.

If and/or when we should decide to start a public Beta for WotLK, we will endeavour to make sure that everyone is well informed and timely notified of such an event.