Something interesting brewing on a couple wine enthusiast websites. Apparently, a large quantity of users there have suddenly been hit by multiple credit card charges from "Blizzard Entertainment".
The situation is suspicious because so many users grouped together on these very specific forums are all being charged fraudulently by the same company. Most of the charges are Blizzard related, and there are also common iTunes purchase trends. Check out the Wine Library forum, for example. This one too, but it requires an account.
Many of the users there weren't familiar with Blizzard, so many guesses were about the "Wizards of Warcraft" game and if Blizzard was some kind of Adult Entertainment company.
What is apparent, however, is that there have been many fraudulent credit card charges just recently and dating back over the past couple months. They all probably use the same wine (or related) online ordering site, and their credit card numbers have been compromised. (They have not received any breach notifications, however, which most companies aren't required by law to report anyways.)
Normally, I would suspect overseas farmers.. but most of these charges are for continued monthly subscriptions (only subscriptions, no extra purchases like software), and they're also making iTunes purchases. Maybe teenagers? :)
SS Chris wrote:
"Blizzard must be having a spectacular quarter from a Revenue perspective."On a related note, Blizzard is actively investigating the issue it seems. I received Blizzard HQ traffic from the wine forums which I found highly unusual, and it was really the only reason I looked into it. Perhaps it was one of the "legendary" Fraud Specialist / Billing employees. According to Blizzard experts, though, the position does not exist, it has never existed, and only a raving lunatic wearing a tin foil hat could ever imagine and make up the fact that Blizzard would ever actually hire for a "Fraud Manager" or "Fraud Specialist" position. :)
I never realized this was such a problem, but apparently the issue goes back for many years.
Here's an older one that probably was farming related:
Blizzard just took $1100 out of my account and I've never even heard of them before today let alone bought anything from them! They took out 6 lots of $91.63 & 3 lots of $183.27.These other, more recent ones, are just for continued monthly subscriptions, and they've ruled out their own children.
After seeing all of this, I have to wonder if any of these Active Subscriptions were used in their vanity figures? Some fraudulent charges might never get caught, or are only discovered after several months. I wonder what percentage of "Active Subscribers" are actually fraudulent charges? :)
* UPDATE (11/22/2011):
Looks like it finally got picked up by some other sites.
Apparently, the Winelibrary site itself maintained a list of user's credit card numbers. Possibly unencrypted plaintext?
* UPDATE (11/29/2011):
Blizzard has just updated their MVP FAQ.
One of the readers here was very upset that a MVP could ever be considered a Blizzard expert or ever be credible:
And btw, calling a MVP (which is not paid by Blizzard) a Blizzard expert isn't doing good for your credibility. You're starting to employ the same tactics as those that you pretend to uncover.According to Blizzard, though, they have officially stated that:
"MVPs.. answer other players' questions consistently and accurately. It lends a note of credibility to what they post; it allows players seeking answers to take what they say at face value, and frees up Blizzard representatives so that they can focus on their primary responsibilities."And the MVP that was quoted in regards to the Fraud position was the #1 MVP of them all. That's pretty credible, wouldn't you say? :)
"MVPs promote constructive posting wherever they can. They contribute to the community and encourage polite discussion throughout the forums. When you see an MVP post, listen to what they have to say—they were also chosen for their knowledge of the game."
So you all know the story: Joystiq received a rumor last week that John Staats was terminated, but they never released any source details so I followed up to find out how they could have possibly known this. One explanation was that their recently updated FB statuses showed past employment with Blizzard. A couple of them have corrected their mistakes, but others have still left their FB profiles as ex-Blizzard employees.
Blizzard denied multiple layoffs, and most news media blogs/sites re-posted it as "NO LAYOFFS CONFIRMED". Joystiq denied any layoffs, and started throwing people under the bus.
Very well-known and public Blizzard employees and "professional journalists" found it hilarious that a profile site could ever be used for reliable information. You know, even though John Staat's recent unemployment was confirmed through Facebook.
I also discovered, much to my disappointment, that many blogs and "professional journalists" never actually read the blog entry and they misreported it on purpose to try drive up visitors I assume. There's a metric ton of misinformation out there.. if you want to know the truth, just read it from the source.
So, my last comment was:
So, this brings us all back to the original speculation. We may learn more in the coming weeks or months.Well, it just happened. Paul Richards (who was on the Titan team for about 1 year) has just confirmed a recent termination as well.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011Paul Richards (Titan Concept Artist) as you know was one of the speculated terminations in my earlier post. He had also updated his FB status entry showing past employment with Blizzard.
LOOKING FOR WORK
The short story : A month ago I quit Blizzard after one year of service. This wasn't exactly my plan, but my hand was more or less forced. That's as far as I can discuss it publicly. I've a few promising leads -- have been interviewing here and there -- but want to see what posting this does. Call it an experiment.
If anyone's got a suggestion/contact, I'm currently seeking a full-time position doing concept art*, and would love to hear from you personally at the following address :
djunderfoot(AT)gmail(DOT)com
*portfolio
http://www.autodestruct.com/
There are still many more to go.. and I'll update if I receive any other confirmations.
So basically, it appears that the initial reports of "NO MASS LAYOFFS" or "NO MASSIVE LAYOFFS" were defined as Blizzard as more than 1000 people. Which is incorrect and THAT rumor is false. However, when I defined "MASS LAYOFFS" meaning multiple, then YES that rumor appears to be true. Apparently, there are a lot of people who owe me an apology. :)
(Like everything on the internet though, this source might not be accurate or correct. But, like I said earlier, I'm reporting on something with real sources, a real person making the claim, and reasons to support the information. If it turns out to be one giant troll, which is unlikely since Blizzard would be purposefully deceiving the public, I'll update with new information. Simple as that.)
* UPDATE:
More confirmed names that can be added to the list of recent terminations:
(John Staats)
(Paul Richards)
Trent Kaniuga (Feb 2012 - Sr. Concept Artist, left his status as still "Working At Blizzard" too)
David Lesperance (Nov 2011 - Sr. Environment Artist Titan)
Stephen Lim (Aug 2011 - Sr. Producer Titan)
Constance Wang (Aug 2011 - PA on Titan)
Morgan Fainberg (Oct 2011 - Systems Engineer)
David Pacanowsky (Aug 2011 - QA Game Tester D3)
Jodi Armstrong (Aug 2011 - HR)
Annika LaVallee (Sep 2011 - QA Analyst)
Daniel Favela (Sep 2011 - Software)
Nick Downs (Sep 2011 - IT Admin)
Jordan Schwob (Oct 2011 - Accounts/CS)
Colt McAnlis (Jul 2011 - Titan)
There's also atleast 20 CSRs, but they worked out of call centers outside of the US so I didn't include them. These are just the ones that happened to have LinkedIn accounts with confirmed terminations, which is a very small percentage of Blizzard employees. I haven't even looked at potential layoffs with Activision either.
* UPDATE (01/18/12):
Another name confirmed! And this was one from original suspicion list.
Matt Milizia has finally made a comment on his Facebook account confirming his last day with Blizzard. This was one of the names I suspected along with Paul Richards (who was also later confirmed.)
Today was my last day at Blizzard Entertainment. It was very much time for me to move on. It was a pleasure working with such a talented team, but just wasn't a work cultural fit. I wish you guys the best.
January 13 at 3:15pm
* UPDATE (01/20/12):
Senior Game Producer Steven Parker just announced that he has left Blizzard Entertainment as well (December 2006 – January 2012).
3 days before his announcement, a couple coworkers left him some new recommendations on his LinkedIn page too.
What a coincidence. More than one termination right before their next Quarterly Shareholders meeting (February 9, 2012). :)