After hearing the news yesterday about Halifax not accepting payments from World of Warcraft subscribers due to fraudulent accounts, some of you might be thinking to switch their accounts to a different bank.

However, Halifax made sure that this not entirely necessary. Know more about this after the jump!

It looks like there's too many moochers playing online games: major UK bank Halifax decided to block payments made to Blizzard Entertainment after many instances of people using stolen credit cards to pay for their World of Warcraft subscription. It's quite the troublesome thing indeed, especially if you're a legit banking client and suffering the inconvenience of having to find another way to pay for your WoW fix, like Brit Michael. More details in the full article.

Uhh...big whoopee? Probably for the addicted World of Warcraft player who forgets to bring cash the next time he renews his subscription, the World of Warcraft VISA card is now available to provide a better payment option for purchasing gold...err. Or something like that.

 

Together with the First National Bank of Omaha, Blizzard will be providing added offers and benefits to the plastic wallet that caters to the avid World of Warcraft gamer. Aside from an introductory 0% APR and no annual fees, the card will also offer gametime rewards for qualifying purchases, plus one month subscription-worth of World of Warcraft. Other features include:

• Purchase Protection
• Extended Warranty
• Travel Assistance Services
• Travel Accident Insurance (US$ 250,000 for you and your family)
• Up to a 25% discount at select car rental agencies

But handling a credit card is a big responsibility and no laughing matter. Pay your dues late, always maximizing your credit and other derogatory purchase activity will force the service to impose certain changes on the account terms. Hop on over to the "Read" link below to learn more.

You remember that security advisory both issued by Microsoft and the World of Warcraft about Windows' vulnerability? Hackers are apparently taking advantage of how Windows handles moving cursors and are now targeting WoW account information.

Microsoft released a patch to counter the problem that surfaced late last month. Investigators have discovered that hackers can insert their malicious codes via a number of ways. They can create a dummy site (for phishing), have other sites host the code, or hack into sites and insert the codes into it (preferrably a popular one). It was reported that a Chinese hacking group cashed in on the animated cursor flaw by hacking into the Superbowl site and inserted the spyware there.

The analysts learned that the hackers are focusing their attention toward World of Warcraft account information - which is now surprisingly more expensive than credit card information. According to Symantec, a credit card can be bought at US$ 6 while WoW account info rings in at US$ 10. When you consider rare items and gold sales, it could go up some more. Much more.

The patch to remedy the flaw was released last April 3. Be sure to run automatic updates or download the patch manually. You can't be too careful.

Have you ever thought of the possibility that MMORPGs could be used by terrorists to recruit and teach people how to blow up stuff? The Counterterrorism Blog ("The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues") has. Here are a few snippets from an entry by Andrew Cochran.

Many of the overwhelmingly positive features of Second Life can be adapted for negative Real Life means. The rapid and potent way in which communication takes place would seem to be an ideal platform for recruitment into radical groups, especially given the age range of those engaged in the world, which is typically 18-34. The teaching capabilities of the world can clearly be adapted for use by terrorists.

You may be asking yourself (or your monitor, if you're one of those kinds of people), "How's it going to work, anyway?" Cochran has the answer.

Streaming video can be uploaded into Second Life and a scenario can easily be constructed whereby an experienced terrorist bomb-maker could demonstrate how to assemble bombs using his avatar to answer questions as he plays the video. Using the decentralized organization effect, already successfully used by SL companies, the bomb-maker and his pupils can be spread around the globe and using instant language translation tools (available in the world) could be speaking a variety of languages.

And that's not even the worst part.

...possibly by far the most useful tool currently available to radical groups is the ability to transfer in-world money between avatars that can be translated into real currency. The Second Life currency of Lindens (approximately $270L to $1US) can be bought using a credit card in one country and credited to one avatar (account) and can be given to a co-conspirator avatar in another country.

Please note that the article also mentions other MMORPGs, (World of Warcraft, for one), but Second Life is mainly used as an example because it is, in the author's words, the "purest version of a digital 3-D world."

The whole thing sounds a bit farfetched, but who knows? If the terrorists haven't thought about it yet, then they certainly know about it now. Click on the "via" link below for the full article on the Counterterrorism Blog.

If you're one of the people who didn't manage to snag one of the 2.4 million copies of Burning Crusade that got sold on launch day - or you just couldn't bear the thought of getting out of your chair, driving to the store, and buying one - then stop fretting.

Blizzard updated the official World of Warcraft website today with news that The Burning Crusade is now available as a direct online upgrade for the game. To download your copy, just log in to your WoW account, click the Burning Crusade "download now" button, and shell out US$ 39.99 using your trusty old credit card.

No more exhaustive physical activity, and while you've got your credit card out, grab a pizza or two. You can munch on it while waiting for the download to finish.

It's been another week, and you what that means, boys and girls - time for another round of WoW mods. We've got three new interesting mods from over at the World of Warcraft, with two mods perfect for the money-conscious WoW gamer, and one Druids might wanna take a gander at.

AuditorFu v1.2.2
Author: Alari
This mod allows characters to keep track of their recent monetary transactions, with the FuBar interfacing allowing for easy access to the detailed categories recorded in this mod - like a credit card tracker. FuBar recommends using it with FuBar installed for best results, and further adds this is an improvement on Accountant/AccountantFu. You'll have to remove the FuBar_AccountantFu folder to swap this one in.

The full article awaits after the jump!

DLgamer today announced the official opening of a new payment method service which is tailored for the many MMORPG gamers not owning a credit card or having problems finding prepaid cards in retail channels. The service is available to customers throughout Europe.

The online realtime bank transfer payment method allows players to pay their subscription fee online directly from their local bank account. DLgamer.com accepts payment by bank transfer from every European country with no restriction on the minimum amount.

Says Stephane Martinez, CEO of DLgamer.com : «We’re offering this new service to help those gamers who are excluded from playing an MMORPG because they either do not have a credit card or are uncomfortable with using it to pay online. So far, in the trial run we’ve conducted over the last few months, the simplicity of the system has convinced over 15 000 players from 47 different countries.»

In addition the company also offers online prepaid cards from major MMORPG publishers payable by bank transfer and all major credit cards.