Gmail account compromised :-(

[klacey1]

Augh-- this problem honestly seems to follow me! It happened on two Yahoo accounts I had, so I abandoned Yahoo and decided to try Gmail. It has treated me fine for about a year now-- UNTIL tonight, when I tried to log into my account and it rejected my password. I KNOW this password is correct-- this is the exact problem I had on Yahoo!
I'm honestly a curse for computers :-( I only go on "safe" sites, use a virus protector, never download ANYTHING, and yet this always, always is happening to me!
Apparently, Gmail sent my "reset password" to ****@gmail.com. I honestly can't even remember having another Gmail account. I'm assuming this same thing happened and I just abandoned that account, moved on, and attempted to block the incident from memory.
I now must wait 24 hours to reset my password since I don't have access to the other Gmail account. I played with different user names and passwords that I thought might have been my old account, but nothing stuck.
I use this email FREQUENTLY for work--honestly, being locked out for 24 hours is incredibly stressful!! I hate that I am that reliant on technology, but I am. And silly stuff is in my email box, too-- an Ebay gift cert from my brother for Christmas and our Stormstruck/fish trivia certificates from Epcot! I'm sure my brother could somehow retrieve the gift cert, but I'd honestly be upset if the Epcot stuff was gone-- they may be silly, but they're memories from a wonderful trip.
Cross your fingers that everything is sorted and I have access to my account again!! This is SO frustrating that this trouble seems to follow me, no matter what company I use!!

 

[bumbershoot]

That's pretty weird.

Gmail sent my "reset password" to ****@gmail.com. I honestly can't even remember having another Gmail account. I'm assuming this same thing happened and I just abandoned that account, moved on, and attempted to block the incident from memory.

But in order to have ***@ listed on your current account, you would have had to *put it there* specifically. And if this had happened before and you were locked out of ****@, I'm sure you wouldn't have done that with your account that you were making in response to the lockout.


So it's even more mysterious.

 

[klacey1]

That's pretty weird.



But in order to have ***@ listed on your current account, you would have had to *put it there* specifically. And if this had happened before and you were locked out of ****@, I'm sure you wouldn't have done that with your account that you were making in response to the lockout.


So it's even more mysterious.

One would think, wouldn't they??
This has also happened with Facebook-- I've been locked out and subsequently all my friends and pictures were deleted and pictures I was tagged in were untagged.
I'm just bad luck :-(

 

[sbell111]

A few bits of advice:

1. Never allow anyone else access to your password information.
2. Make sure that any password 'help' questions do not have answers that other people would know.
3. Review your account information occasionally to make sure that your accounts don't refer to defunct email addresses.
4. If you have a secure storage place (such as a locked drawer), store your password info there so you don't forget seldom used passwords.

 

[Northstar]

It does sound like you've been hacked, especially because the "forgot your password?" clue/reset code has been sent to an email account you don't recognize.

If this has happened to you before, I wouldn't just chalk it up to a glitch in the system and assume you can go on without tightening up your security measures. Might be time to get a little paranoid and start looking around to see how your accounts are getting hijacked... and what's happening with them after you lose control of them.

 

[jsmith]

hmm-i would be concerned at this point that you might have an internet stalker-someone who knows enough about you to be able to deduce what your passwords and clues are and get into your accounts. It happens more often than most people like to admit-and frequently its someone who knows you in person quiet well. I know its unnerving but definately something you should consider.

 

[klacey1]

A few bits of advice:

1. Never allow anyone else access to your password information.
2. Make sure that any password 'help' questions do not have answers that other people would know.
3. Review your account information occasionally to make sure that your accounts don't refer to defunct email addresses.
4. If you have a secure storage place (such as a locked drawer), store your password info there so you don't forget seldom used passwords.

Thanks for the tips. No one has my password, and my help questions are VERY specific. However, I never thought about making sure my account info was always up to date. I ought to have set my secondary email to my official work email.

It does sound like you've been hacked, especially because the "forgot your password?" clue/reset code has been sent to an email account you don't recognize.

If this has happened to you before, I wouldn't just chalk it up to a glitch in the system and assume you can go on without tightening up your security measures. Might be time to get a little paranoid and start looking around to see how your accounts are getting hijacked... and what's happening with them after you lose control of them.

I think you're right. The time to be paranoid is probably now. Google is so flipping hard to get ahold of, but I need to find a phone number at which I can talk to someone and find out exactly why/how I've gotten locked out.

hmm-i would be concerned at this point that you might have an internet stalker-someone who knows enough about you to be able to deduce what your passwords and clues are and get into your accounts. It happens more often than most people like to admit-and frequently its someone who knows you in person quiet well. I know its unnerving but definately something you should consider.

It is unnerving, but like PP said-- seems like I finally should stop chalking it up to bad luck and consider that I am being specifically targeted.