UK bank Halifax and its subsidiary Bank of Scotland are blocking credit card transactions that pay for World of Warcraft subscriptions, after the massively popular MMO was linked to an unseasonably high number of credit card fraud incidents.
Halifax is the only bank to take this action thus far, and doesn't blame Blizzard, but notes that a large number of stolen cards are being used to fund WoW subscriptions and that the bank is therefore being cautious.
The Bank of Scotland, part of the Halifax group, are also blocking payments at present.
HBoS customers now need to contact their branch in order to authorize future transactions involving Blizzard.
"We have seen a significant number of fraudulent transactions through Blizzard's gaming sites. We have, therefore, blocked the majority of Visa/Mastercard transactions we receive from there in order to combat this," the bank explained.
"We do not believe the fraud is anything to do with Blizzard themselves, their sites or the integrity of their billing systems, rather it is site users utilising stolen credit card details to pay for subscriptions. If a customer does want to subscribe to a game site operated by Blizzard, using a Halifax or Bank of Scotland credit card, we can arrange for the payments to be processed for them if they contact us."
