The team of hackers were led by two men, Chen and Zhu, who would hack World of Warcraft accounts and then extract all the gold and items found in each character, and then sell the rest on auction for $3, making it ideal for gamers looking to save time leveling up a high level character. By the time they were caught, Chen and Zhu reportedly managed to rake in around $10,800. While Chen was fined $8,000, his partners in crime were fined $1,000 each, while all of them received 2 years of prison each.
Hacking has been an issue with World of Warcraft and Blizzard has warned in the past that by purchasing gold, you could be encouraging hackers to hack accounts to steal the gold in which they then sell back to you. Granted it is possible that the gold is being farmed without hacking, but sometimes it is done through the use of bots which also goes against Blizzard’s ToS.