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WoW Players Targeted By Windows Flaw Exploit
grimwell writes "The BBC is carrying the story that the ANI flaw is being used to target World of Warcraft players, as hackers search for account details. 'Analysis of that malicious software showed that it lay dormant on a victims machine until they ran World of Warcraft (WoW) at which point it captured login data and sent it to the hacking group ... Research by security firm Symantec suggests that the raw value of a WoW account is now higher than a credit card and its associated verification data.'" Doubtless, any compromised accounts would quickly see their equipment sold, and the resulting gold transferred to another account. This gold would then be sold for US currency to Real Money Traders like the company IGE.
Gold no, but most equipped items are soulbound. So they will only be sellable to NPC vendors. But there's nothing to stop Mr. Hacker from doing that. You can usually buy stuff back from the vendor but not after you've logged out. And Mr. Hacker will have helpfully logged you out. But he'll also have stolen your gold and the NPC's don't accept credit...