7/21/13
Original Poster
Anne MeltzerGmail Hacked
1 Recommended AnswerMy gmail was hacked this morning from India after gmail initially denied access to the hacker. Apparently, the hacker passed an "Email Challenge." I did not have a challenge set up and GMail doesn't support challenges, so please tell me how this happened. I have recovered/reset my password and have set up 2-step authentication; however, SPAM has been sent to all of my contacts, so the issue continues to plague me. I have read multiple posts from numerous users about this same issue over the past several hours. What is going on?
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Recommended Answer
7/22/13
BrittanyBeeOver the weekend, we saw an increased amount of spam sent from Gmail accounts, which we believe were compromised due to the same password being used across a number of different websites. If your account was impacted, you will receive instructions to resecure your account when you log in to your Google Account via the web. We take privacy and security very seriously and encourage users to use unique, strong passwords for all of their important accounts and take advantage of tools like 2-step verification. On our side, our risk analysis system looks at over 120 different variables to analyze how likely it is that a log-in attempt is legitimate, which has helped us drive down successful attacks by more than 99% since their peak in 2011, and we continue to improve it.
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All Replies (59)
7/21/13
StoneyHi Anne Meltzer,
http://gmailaccountrecovery.blogspot.com/
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=checklist.cs&tab=29488
7/21/13
Jerame RiefThe same. Just happened from Russia. Logged in, sent out 2,300 emails. Then proceeded to delete my "Sent" email. Was able to login, reset my password and enable 2 step verify. It permanently deleted about one weeks worth of Sent but I was able to transfer other sents from Trash to a folder.
7/21/13
StoneyHi Jerame Rief,
As I mentioned above changing your password and enabling 2-Step, while a good start, is not enough to secure your account. Please see the articles I linked to.
7/21/13
Original Poster
Anne MeltzerI appreciate the links. I have gone through the steps to re-secure the acct. A question, though--this would not have been a big deal except that the hacker spammed everyone listed in my "Other Contacts." I only have a couple of people in my actual Contact List, but apparently Gmail adds contacts automatically to the
"Other Contacts" list. How can I prevent these contacts from being automatically added? For now, I've deleted them. Thanks.
"Other Contacts" list. How can I prevent these contacts from being automatically added? For now, I've deleted them. Thanks.
7/22/13
Katarzyna GraniczewskaSame here! My account was hacked from Pakistan today, early afternoon. After receiving a few messages and questions from my friends about a strange e-mail sent from my adress, I tried to log in. Had to reset the password (it was changed).
Also all the messages I've sent in last 3 months dissapeard from my outbox and I couldn't transfer them from Trash because they weren't there.
Also all the messages I've sent in last 3 months dissapeard from my outbox and I couldn't transfer them from Trash because they weren't there.
53 MORE
8/7/13
The C Man (Call me C) Ex TCsoptic,
I have never trusted any fruit that has only had one bite taken out of it. Almost guaranteed it would have had a maggot somewhere.
Not knowing what antivirus you have The ones that Apple advised a year or so ago were rated as the worst possible so I'm going to point you at two free apps that work for me. Avast and iobit Malaware Fighter. A boot scan with Avast is always advised and once a week is good but you need to sit beside your machine while it finds the first problem when you can tell it what you would like to do (choose "all") so it then runs on it's own. Make sure to disable whatever you have at the moment if it's not one of these as multiple AV's can fight against each other.
I have never trusted any fruit that has only had one bite taken out of it. Almost guaranteed it would have had a maggot somewhere.
Not knowing what antivirus you have The ones that Apple advised a year or so ago were rated as the worst possible so I'm going to point you at two free apps that work for me. Avast and iobit Malaware Fighter. A boot scan with Avast is always advised and once a week is good but you need to sit beside your machine while it finds the first problem when you can tell it what you would like to do (choose "all") so it then runs on it's own. Make sure to disable whatever you have at the moment if it's not one of these as multiple AV's can fight against each other.
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