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Gaming Security: Protect your Gaming Account's Email Address! Plus Security Tips!

Orvago

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I am making this post to raise awareness and caution when requesting Founder's Referrals since I have not yet posted any type of "Security" thread here like I had in the past on the UO Stratics Forums when I was an Administrator for that department of Stratics.

The Founder's Referral system for LotRO Requires that the founder input the recipients email address in a form, from which Turbine will send the Founder's Referral code to the email address the Founder inputted into the form.

This email address does not need to be one that you will use to register your Founder's Referral with -- and I strongly suggest you do not use that email address you received the Referral in.

Give the Founder who is offering you a Founder's Referral an email address that is not tied to any Gaming Accounts, Bank Accounts, or other personal identifying traits. This should be a given precautionary measure taken to ensure your privacy and your game accounts' security.

As an example, I use several email addresses through Gmail to maintain my anonymity and gaming security.

Junk Email Addresses
I have three email addresses that I use for all my junk email things, like signing up for contests or subscribing to newsletters and mailing lists. Depending on what I am signing up for, I will use one of my three "junk" email addresses, which does not contain any personal information and does not resemble my game accounts username.

Game Accounts Email Address - Strictly Private!
I then have another email address that I use solely to sign up to a reputable game company like Turbine, NCSoft, and EA/Mythic. This email address is only given out to those companies and never used to sign up for newsletters or to register on web sites or forums.

Public Community Email Address
I then have a more public email address that I use to sign up for at fansite gaming web sites and forums. I never use this email address to sign up for a new game or register at a reputable game company, like Turbine, NCSoft, and EA/Mythic.

Public Work Email Address
And of course, I have lastly a public email address for my work here at Stratics that I only use for Stratics Business needs.

It may seem like it could be an annoyance to have so many email addresses, however with them all being Gmail email addresses, I can easily set up one of those email addresses to receive emails from all my other email addresses that I choose. I do this for all but 2 of my email addresses. The ones that I do not are my private "Game Accounts Email Address" and my "Public Work Email Address."
So, in short - Never give out the email addresses that you use to sign up for your gaming accounts. Never use that email address to sign up to fansites. Keep it private between only you and the reputable game companies you registered your game accounts with.
If you have given out your game accounts' email address or used it to sign up at fansites, I strongly suggest that you go and create a new and private email address and then change your game accounts' details to the new and private email address.

I suggest using Google's Gmail as it is very secure, has a great deal of customization settings as well as a superb junk mail filter.

You can go here to register for a Gmail Address: http://mail.google.com/ and then click on "Sign Up for Gmail" at the bottom right of the page.


Further Account Security Tips and Information will follow eventually. I wanted to get this information about Founder's Referrals out there in light of the growing requests (not just on Stratics) for Founder's Referrals.

Until then, you can review this thread, which much of the information contained within is still relevant.
 

Orvago

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This advisory has been posted for some time now by Turbine on their LotRO Game Patcher:

Turbine Advisory: Protect Your Account Information

We've recently seen an increase in the number of reports of suspicious account activity. These simple precautions are vital to protecting your account information:
  • Change your password on a regular basis
  • Don't share your account information with anyone
  • Never use the same login and password for your Turbine account that you use for any other account, including websites, forums, or games!
Thanks for your cooperation. Enjoy the game!
 

Orvago

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Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Space Reserved for future use.

Please feel free to post your own Security Tips, when I get the time I will combine posted security tips with security tips I have in the works into one of these reserved posts.

Thanks and be safe out there everyone!
 
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