Originally Posted by SkunkWerks
I have been here a while, and this sounds like a possibility, though as others have, I'd have to question: "Why now and not when they made off with the addresses?" I've never before had this sort of issue with WoWI, and that I'm just now having it seems significant enough to mention. It also seems significant that two months after the last post made in this thread is past, this issue is still cropping up.
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See my previous post in this thread:
Originally Posted by Zyonin
Many times, crackers who swipe details like email addresses don't act on the data right away. In many instances they will wait until everyone has forgotten about the theft. In many cases, the thieves will sell the harvested addresses. This is likely the case here, the thieves have sold the addresses to numerous parties or have stashed the db in some forum/community were phishers hang out.
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Likely the folks that did the original break-in a couple of years are
NOT the ones spamming everyone's email account.
Data thieves will usually hold onto and wait to use data like email addresses, WoW Account info, Social Security numbers and other such data. It's not "perishable" like Authenticator keys, credit card numbers and bank account data; thus the thieves can afford to wait months before using or selling the data. This also adds a "fog of time" effect that causes confusion for victims as in most cases they will not be able to remember when and where the theft occurred.
This issue will keep cropping until the email addresses that were stolen are either closed, relegated to spam "honeypots" (like my old email account that was used to register here) or otherwise ignored. Change your account email address and keep an eye on the email that comes in.