‘Suspicious sign in prevented’ email

If you’ve received a ‘suspicious sign in prevented’ email from Google, it means we recently blocked an attempt to access your account because we weren’t sure it was really you. To help protect your account, we send you an email when we notice unusual sign-in activity, like an attempt to sign in from a different location or device than normal.

How do I know this email is really coming from Google?

Unfortunately, sometimes hackers try to copy the “suspicious sign in prevented” email to steal other people’s account information. Always be wary of messages that ask for personal information like usernames, passwords, or other identification information, or send you to unfamiliar websites asking for this information.

To be safe, if you get an email from Google notifying you about suspicious activity, follow the directions below to check for suspicious account activity and change your password if you notice anything unfamiliar.

Check for suspicious account activity

If you’ve received this email, we recommend you review your recent activity:

1. Go to your Google Account.
2. On the left navigation panel, click Security.
3. On the Recent security events panel, click Review security events.
4. Review your recent activity and look for unfamiliar locations or devices. You can also click on any event in the list to see more details about it on the right.
5. If you see activity you don’t recognize, on the top of the page click Secure your account.
6. Follow the steps to change your password.

Report a suspicious message

If you've received a suspicious email asking for personal information, it may be someone trying to gain access to your account. This is also known as 'phishing'. You can report this to Google so that we can try to help prevent this from happening in future.

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Open the message you'd like to report.
3. In the top-right corner of the message, click More icon .
4. Select Report Phishing.
5. On the next screen, click Report Phishing Message to send the message to our team for review.

Related Articles:

• Learn how we help protect your account when we notice unusual sign-ins
• Learn how to read your Recent Activity reports