Gmail account has been disabled! Help!

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Hi there,

My brother just had his gmail account disabled by google. Apparently someone hacked into his gmail and started sending spam emails from it.

He has tried emailing gmail, but their initial response was that the account was closed because of the spam, and that was the end of the matter.

The problem is that he is on extended travel abroad and essentially has his entire life organised through gmail - and this is now gone - all contacts etc, with no copies.

Obviously, with hindsight, he should have backed up his data (in fact, i spent the entire day today downloading my own gmail emails and contacts as a result).

But, does anyone have any advice for him on how he can get his account back?

watna

I'm afriad I don't have anything to say to help your birthday but I'm off travelling next week and everything is in my gmail account too so I'll be taking heed of this.

/goes off to download travel details.

Thanks for the heads up! My yahoo account got hacked before and "I" sent spam to all my friends telling them to invest in a Chinese company so I'm sensitive about these kind of things.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

i used this advice: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_backup_my_gmail.html

to backup my gmail today after hearing what happened to my brother. I'd highly recommend that you download your emails to thunderbird (the firefox email service) as they advise. At least then someone on a home computer could look up information for you if it ever went missing.

Having said that, New Zealand is a safer country than Columbia (where my brother is)! Still no harm in safeguarding all those years of emails - including the memories they invoke!

Enjoy your travels watna!

Sherifu

I wonder if it would be any use to ask someone working in google. They may have some inside tips or contacts. I know some of them are posting on boards.

There's also a story about getting a disabled account back here.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

well well well - good things come to those who wait (24 hours) - his account is up and running again. Still a warning to us all about not placing too much reliance on free online email services ...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

thanks serifu: i gather that a multiple of emails to google were required to get the account back. Has me a bit scared as well - had pretty much relied on gmail to store my entire life information!

Sherifu

Roundtower2 wrote: »

thanks serifu: i gather that a multiple of emails to google were required to get the account back. Has me a bit scared as well - had pretty much relied on gmail to store my entire life information!

Seems to be the norm. From the link I posted above;

"Update: Google just reactivated my account after about 72 hours and three or four emails from me to their support team."

I have a lot of stuff on gmail too, makes me a little concerned.

watna

Roundtower2 wrote: »

i used this advice: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_backup_my_gmail.html

to backup my gmail today after hearing what happened to my brother. I'd highly recommend that you download your emails to thunderbird (the firefox email service) as they advise. At least then someone on a home computer could look up information for you if it ever went missing.

Having said that, New Zealand is a safer country than Columbia (where my brother is)! Still no harm in safeguarding all those years of emails - including the memories they invoke!

Enjoy your travels watna!

I don't know, those sheep can be crafty little spammers!

Thanks for the link. I'll add it to my list of things to so before I go!

madmoe

I had mine hacked by a spammer yesterday and its now disabled :-( I hope to hell they re-enable it. This is the second time in less than a month that it was taken over and used to send spam!!!

Anyone know any Google poster's here on boards.ie that I could ask? I done nothing wrong and did not violate Google's terms and service.

Cheers,
M

craiginireland

Change your GMail password and never ever ever enter your gmail password in any website that looks in any way suspicious. You'll just get phished

madmoe

I wish I could get them to re-enable the account, then I could reset the password. Its been disabled since Monday now!!

madmoe

Happy days....got it back today! Strong strong password from now on!!

Rb

Hitchhiker's Guide to... wrote: »

well well well - good things come to those who wait (24 hours) - his account is up and running again. Still a warning to us all about not placing too much reliance on free online email services ...

I don't know if you can really put the blame on Gmail tbh. I don't know how easy or difficult it is to 'hack' a gmail account, but anyone I know who uses the "sign in with https" option has never had a problem. I'd be more inclined to look at the computers he has been using and the security, or lack thereof, on them.

I'm open to correction on the matter but I personally haven't heard of too many gmails being compromised where the user has used secure connection and a decent password.