Beware of "Quitting FFXIV Giveaway" messages

I just got sent a message "Quitting FFXIV Giveaway in 15 minutes, go to URL for raffle", and it took me to a legit looking page, and I fell for it like a complete muppet.

It takes you to a lodestone forum post and you click to reply, wondering why you aren't signed in, then it takes you to a Mogstation page and asks for your login.

I promptly changed my account password a few times on the official Mogstation straight after realising what an idiot I've been.

Hopefully this will raise awareness for anyone seeing these messages in game. I have the character name that messaged me the link, not really sure if I should be naming any names here. If any mods want to message me I'll give the name to you.

I won't be posting the link either in case it gets misused.

The link looks a lot like the official link bar a couple of letters, so be careful!

If you were using the same or even similar passwords on other services, accounts, websites or anything better change those aswell.

Thank you for your concern, Saraide, thankfully I'm password tidy and this is the only place I use that account and password.

To add to this, the player that sent me the message was not a randomly named bot type player or new player, they had a few jobs at level 80, including some DOH/DOL ones near 80. It's possible that character's previous owner also fell for the scam but was not quick enough to realise what happened.

I've filed an in-game report ticket on the support desk with the information on this, hopefully they can investigate this further.

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Originally Posted by Vimanis

It's possible that character's previous owner also fell for the scam but was not quick enough to realise what happened.

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This is indeed the case. If they successfully hack you, they'll clean out your gil, then use your character to continue spreading the scam until the account is locked. This way, account bans don't really affect them.

This scam has been around for a few years now. Everyone here is probably well aware of it because mostly veteran players just come here to complain. New and casual players don't come here as often until they are through the MSQ and by then they probably fell for it if they were going to.

You shouldn't name them, but you can report them via the support desk. They are a victim as well and SE can ban their account temporarily until it's recovered.

If you aren't using OTP, do that too.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

If you aren't using OTP, do that too.

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While an OTP is a good idea in general, from my understanding of these website scams, it doesn't protect you from the ones that redirect you to a fake site as it will ask you for your OTP there as well, but since your login attempt does nothing (being a fake site and all), the OTP is still viable and they use that to hack you right away.

But sorry to hear that happened, OP. Hopefully the GMs will be able to fix ya up quickly if any damage was done to your account.

How people actually fall for this kind of stuff is absolutely beyond me. Like, someone random you've never met just whispered you a link for a free raffle of a "FFXIV Quitting giveaway" that requires a sign-in... and you're not even a little suspicious? It should be a natural, common-sense reaction to ignore/report for anyone even a little familiar with the internet as a whole. This is just the old school "Congratulations, you've won a free iPhone!" translated into FF.

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Originally Posted by MontecristoSandwich

How people actually fall for this kind of stuff is absolutely beyond me. Like, someone random you've never met just whispered you a link for a free raffle of a "FFXIV Quitting giveaway" that requires a sign-in... and you're not even a little suspicious? It should be a natural, common-sense reaction to ignore/report for anyone even a little familiar with the internet as a whole. This is just the old school "Congratulations, you've won a free iPhone!" translated into FF.

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Literally. Really mindblowing how people still fall for this stuff, it's just so obvious, right in your face, and yet people still fall for it.

I hate to be that person but honestly if you fall for that kind of stuff, you deserve to be hacked. You have absolutely 0 common sense.

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Originally Posted by MontecristoSandwich

How people actually fall for this kind of stuff is absolutely beyond me.

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Literally everyone has done at least a few stupid things in their life. Even if you'd never fall for a scam, you've probably done some other things in your lifetime that others would shake their head at. Let's not be too judgmental...