EPTHello, Teamliquid.
I'd like to share with all of you an experience I had a few years ago--one of the scariest and most memorable I've ever had on battle.net. These events took place on the US East server during the hours of 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. This story contains foul language and spoilers of the novel, Thr3e, written by Ted Dekker. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved, including my own (I'll refer to myself as John Doe). With that being said, I hope you enjoy.
...
Slater sent an increasing number of messages as the night progressed...
There didn't seem to be anything he didn't know about us personally...
He knew all of our secrets, including our passwords; there was nothing we could hide...
Whether in a channel or in a game, Slater was there somehow, listening...
Accounts were hacked, tempers flared, mice broke down, and the innocent were blamed...
Any of us could have signed off at any time and not have had to deal with this...
But...
We chose not to sign off because we wanted to figure this out. We didn't want this to hang over our heads for the rest of our lives...
Curiosity, then, ended up being the agent of our torment...
...
The Beginning - 1:00 AM
I just finished playing many rounds of a map called Dodgeball, a very competitive UMS map, with three friends I hadn't seen since the summer of 2010--Novahn, Chaos, and Cow. I rehost the map one more time since we were all having a lot of fun, and none of us felt like going to sleep. Everyone joins the lobby, and I quickly start the game. As soon as the game starts, however, something unusual happens... Everyone but myself drops from the game and leaves battle.net. They have to reboot StarCraft and log on to battle.net again. I wait for them all to return to my channel.
Cow: Wtf just happened?
Me: Wow, that was really weird.
Novahn: Did all of you guys disconnect?
Chaos: Yeah, I did.
Me: Not me. It said all you guys dropped. I didn't have to sign in again.
Chaos: Hmm. Didn't we play a lot of games already? How could we be having problems now?
Novahn: Try hosting it again.
Me: Alright, let's go.
So, I host the map again. Everyone joins the lobby successfully, and I start. The same thing happens--everyone drops, and I have to wait for everyone to sign in again. I try hosting different versions of the Dodgeball map, but the same thing keeps happening. And we were all getting a little fed up. We then decide to host a different map. Surprisingly everyone's connection holds up. We play a few more other maps before returning to Dodgeball, where everyone's connection drops yet again. Novahn and Chaos sign on again, but Cow does not... He signs on with his other account, Divide.
Divide: OMFG, someone hacked my account! My password doesn't work anymore!
Novahn: Wtf.........
Me: No way...
Chaos: ........
We decide to go ahead and play another game--a UMS RPG this time. About 2 minutes into the game, Cow's original account enters battle.net and sends the message, "SUCKERS!!!!" Suddenly everyone drops from the game and disconnects from battle.net. Once everyone logs in again, we meet up in my channel.
Me: Okay, someone's fucking with us.
Divide: Who the fuck is it?
Novahn: You guys, this is getting a little creepy.
Chaos: I thought Shala's internet was having problems since everyone except him was disconnecting, but it does seem like someone else is involved now.
Me: Cow, is your password easy to crack?
Divide: Uhhh, now that I think about it... Yeah.
2:30 AM
Just then, another friend of ours, Bug, signs on and joins our channel.
Bug: Hey, you guys. What's going on?
Me: Bug, we've got a situation here.
We fill him in on what's happened so far.
Bug: Oh, shit. It does sound like someone's hacking you guys.
Chaos: Bug, why don't you host Dodgeball for us, and let's see if the same thing happens.
Everyone joins Bug's game; I stay in the channel to see if it really was my connection. After 30 seconds, everyone comes back and says they had no problems playing. Bug hosts the map again, and I join this time with everyone else. Once the game starts, Divide, Novahn, and Chaos all disconnect, leaving me and Bug in the game.
Bug: Wow, that's really weird.
Me: I told you, man. Something fishy is going on. Let's go back to the channel.
We return to the channel and wait until Chaos and Divide sign on. This time, Novahn's account gets hacked. He has to sign on with his alternate account, Pirateer.
Pirateer: Omg, my account's been hacked now. Wtf is going on?
Suddenly I get a message from someone with the account, Richard_Slater:
<From: Richard_Slater> I see you've read the book, John.
I try to type "/r who is this?" and hit enter quickly, but the person signs off before I can send it.
Me: Uh, guys, I just got a message from Richard_Slater. He seems to know that I've read a certain book... A book called Thr3e. Richard Slater is the name of the villain who terrorizes the protagonist in the story.
Bug: So this guy knows something about you.
Me: Yeah, but I have no idea who it could be.
Chaos: You guys, if Novahn and Cow got hacked, do you think maybe you guys have been hacked also? I mean, you two are the only ones who haven't disconnected.
Me: Oh, God. I really hope my account's still safe. Bug, why don't you try to log in again. We'll wait here.
Bug: Okay, brb.
So he logs off. And indeed, Bug can't sign on his account anymore. Using his other account, Lured, he joins our channel again. Apparently, he has been hacked as well.
Lured: DUDE, WTF IS GOING ON??
Me: You've gotta be kidding me.
Lured: I can't fucking sign on my account. It's been hacked!
Just then, Lured gets a message from Slater.
Lured: ........ Slater just wrote to me.
Chaos: Really? What did he say?
Lured: He said, "Corey, I know you hacked Diablo II accounts all those years ago..." This is just impossible. I never told anyone about that. How the fuck does this guy know?
And then Cow gets a message from Slater.
Divide: That shitbag just messaged me now. He said he knows my cat, Bruno, died... If I knew where this guy lived, I would slit his throat.
Me: ............ Chaos, maybe your account's been hacked too. Try to re-login so we can see if it has.
Chaos: You try first. I've been signing on over and over again.
Me: Alright. If I've been hacked, I'll be on my other account.
So, I exit battle.net. I restart StarCraft just to be safe, and I go back to the sign-in screen. Crossing my fingers, I carefully type in my password and hit enter......
It works! I go into the default Brood War channel on US East, but there's something strange... At the top of the chat it says, "Failed number of log-in attempts: 10". I go back to the channel and tell everyone. Chaos is able to sign on again as well, but he says he has 7 failed log-in attempts at the top of his screen.
Bug's original account signs on battle.net.
Lured: OMG, it's him. He's the guy who hacked my account.
Me: It has to be.
I checked and saw he was using Diablo II instead of Brood War.
Me: So... Should we try to talk to him?
As soon as I said that, he signed off.
Me: ... There's no way. Can he actually hear us now?
Divide: If that son of a bitch is listening in on us... I want you to know you're gonna be sorry. I'll make you regret ever messing with us.
6:00 AM
One of my other friends, Savi, signs on battle.net and joins our channel.
Savi: Mind if I crash the party, guys?
Me: OMG, Savi is Slater! Why the fuck are you doing this to us?
Savi: We all get what we deserve.
Then I get another message from Slater:
<From: JohnDoe> Now just why did you do * back in high school when you were 16?
Me: OMFG! You bastard! Give all my friends their accounts back now!
Savi leaves the channel.
Me: You guys, all that's happening now seems really similar to the book, Thr3e.
Chaos: Tell us. What happens in the book?
Lured: Yeah, just who the hell is this Slater guy?
Me: Well, the villain, Richard Slater, keeps terrorizing the victim until he confesses a sin. This makes the protagonist dig deeper and deeper into his past, forcing him to remember traumatizing events that happened in his life.
Divide: What happens in the end?
Me: Man, I really don't wanna spoil the story for you guys. It was an amazing read.
Lured: Dude, fuck the story. We have to figure out what's going on!
Me: Alright, fine. In the end, it turns out the victim and the villain were one and the same person.
Lured: ...... A lot of use that is.
Another message comes from Slater:
<From: Richard.Slater> You haven't confessed your sin yet!
Me: Omg, here he is again. Okay, let's go over what we know so far. Slater knows something about all of us, he can disconnect us from our Dodgeball games, and he can probably hear what we're saying now in the channel. It's really strange. He knows personal information about all of us. It almost feels like it's someone we know in real life.
Lured: Hang on, I'll brb.
Lured signs off and signs on with his third account, Kuala.
Kuala: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? MY LURED ACCOUNT GOT HACKED! OMFG, THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING. SHALA, WTF IS GOING ON??
Me: Oh, shit.......
Now in unison,
Divide: JK!
Pirateer: JK!
Chaos: jay kayyyy!
Me: OMG! THEY'VE ALL BEEN HACKED!!
All of a sudden my mouse stops working. It was directly connected to my computer, and it didn't operate on batteries. I was sure I was getting hacked too.
Me: BUG....... MY MOUSE STOPPED WORKING. I CAN'T MOVE IT ACROSS THE SCREEN ANYMORE.
Divide: CONFESS
Pirateer: YOUR
Chaos: SIN
Me: BUG, TALK TO ME! ARE YOU STILL HERE?
Kuala: SHALA, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
Divide: LOL!
Pirateer: LOL!
Chaos: LOL!
Me: DUDE, MAN, I DON'T KNOW. BUT WHAT I DO KNOW IS THAT WE HAVE TO SIGN OFF NOW. OUR COMPS ARE IN DANGER THE LONGER WE STAY.
Divide: WAIT
Pirateer: WAIT
Chaos: WAIT
Me: BUG, SIGN OFF NOW! GO!
I sign off with ALT-Q and turn off my computer. I stare at the blank screen with wide eyes in disbelief, my heart beating rapidly, wondering if that had all really happened...
The End - 7:00 AM
=========================================================================================
Aftermath
I went through my whole day in a panic. I was trying to think just who could possibly do something like this. Why would they do it? Would I still have my account later? Would my computer still be functional? I just had so much anxiety and uncertainty. When I got home later in the evening I signed on MSN and messaged Chaos.
Me: Chaos, are you there, man?
Chaos: Yes, I'm here.
Me: How much of last night do you remember? I think Slater hacked your account at some point and used it.
Chaos: Dude, I was there the whole time. It was all just a joke. There is no cyberstalker named Richard Slater. That was just Cow and Novahn using their bots to send you messages.
Me: REALLY? HAHAHAHA Omg, are you serious?? LOL Wow, what a relief. But wait, what about Bug and his accounts?
Chaos: We were able to crack Bug's original account easily, since his password was so simple: Bug.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHA Man, with a password like that, he's just asking to get hacked.
Chaos: Lol, I know. Me, Cow, and Novahn were all on a 3-way call on Ventrilo, and we were just laughing our asses off. We were like, "Okay, Bug says his password is obvious, so let's try 'Bug'. It is Bug! lolololol."
Me: Wow, but didn't Bug say his Lured account also got hacked?
Chaos: He must've mistyped his password or something because we never tried to hack it. He probably tried it once, mistyped his password, and assumed he got hacked.
Me: AHAHAHAHAHAHA Wow. And what about my mouse? At the end, my mouse went dead.
Chaos: It was the perfect coincidence. We had nothing to do with it, but I suppose it made it all seem more believable.
Me: And how about Savi?
Chaos: It was another convenient coincidence. He was the perfect scapegoat. He came at the right time, said the right thing, and left. After you signed off we told him what happened and how it was all just a joke. He didn't take anything personally.
Me: Oh gosh, I'm glad he didn't. I called him a bastard and sounded mean to him. zzzzzz I'll make sure to apologize next time I see him. -_- What about the time you and the other guys disconnected from the Dodgeball games?
Chaos: We all used CTRL-ALT-DELETE to disconnect to make it seem like your internet was screwed up. We counted down on the microphone to make sure we all disconnected at the same time.
Me: Well man, I want to give you and the other guys mega props. This was really the best prank I've ever been through on battle.net. It was scary as hell and really exciting. Just absolutely amazing :D
Chaos: Haha, thanks. I'm glad you had fun. We all did it because we were getting bored of playing Dodgeball so much. We felt badly when you signed off because we didn't want you to feel like someone was out to terrorize you or anything.
Me: Haha, yeah... I should've stayed. -_- What about Bug? Did you guys tell him?
Chaos: Well... After you signed off, we were like, "WAIT, WAIT, BUG, DON'T SIGN OFF," and he actually stayed. We told him it was all just a joke, but he got really mad. He removed all 3 of us from his f-list and blocked us on MSN.
Me: Omg..... That really sucks. Talk about a bad sport =/
Chaos: Yeah, well, what can you do? I wish you could've been with us on Vent while it was going down. We were all just laughing and having fun. Novahn was looking through past convos on MSN to get info on you guys. And yeah, we did a lot of improvising.
Me: Haha, wow. I'll try and talk to Bug later and get him to lighten up. Anyways, man, I've gotta get going now. I'll see you later.
Chaos: Alright, have a good one.
For the next few weeks we all had fun with the whole Slater prank. "Blah blah. Do it or I'll send Richard Slater after you!!" or "Pshhh, don't make me kill your mouse again!" I don't think Bug became friends with Chaos, Cow, and Novahn again after all this happened... And, of course, I apologized to Savi!
...
Slater sent an increasing number of messages as the night progressed...
There didn't seem to be anything he didn't know about us personally...
He knew all of our secrets, including our passwords; there was nothing we could hide...
Whether in a channel or in a game, Slater was there somehow, listening...
Accounts were hacked, tempers flared, mice broke down, and the innocent were blamed...
Any of us could have signed off at any time and not have had to deal with this...
But...
We chose not to sign off because we wanted to figure this out. We didn't want this to hang over our heads for the rest of our lives.
Curiosity, then, ended up being the agent of our torment...
...
That's all, folks! I hope my story was entertaining. Any comments and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.
=========================================================================================
Update (August 4, 2013): Edited grammar and increased organization to facilitate reading.
