Gmail account hacked

Hey guys,

Apparently my gf's Gmail account was hacked yesterday, she got all of her contacts and mails erased and spams went out to all the contacts on the contact list (that's 5GB of mails mostly), and as the settings said it was set to forward mails to a yahoo account by the same name.
Is it possible that the whole content was imported to that account? I've already sent a mail to Yahoo, to do something about it, but as it seems Google won't be able to recover anything besides contacts.

And how do they select whose mails to steal? I mean she's surely not in a position that can be that valuable. A read a lot of people complaining about having their accounts hacked from China and Nigeria (same thing here), but most of them hadn't lost their whole account, they just noticed peculiar activity.

And as I also read, some 150000 accounts have been compromised so far, isn't it a bit too much? Surely there's something to be done. And I can't say that she didn't use enough security, it is definitaly Google's task to do something.

Has anything similar happened to any of you?

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pankykapus
And as I also read, some 150000 accounts have been compromised so far, isn't it a bit too much? Surely there's something to be done. And I can't say that she didn't use enough security, it is definitaly Google's task to do something.

Given that there's an estimated to be 200 million Gmail accounts, 150000 accounts would be approximately 0.08% of accounts.

And "compromised" usually includes guessing someone else's password, as using someone's password to gain access to something without permission is deemed as hacking.

Google really need a Steam Guard kind of thing for Gmail

For anyone who doesn't know what Steam Guard is, when you login to Steam on an unauthorized PC, it asks you for a code that is sent to your email. Obviously this wouldn't work quite the same for Gmail, but it could send a code to it's backed up email. (for example, someone tries to hack your gmail, but that PC isn't authorized, so it asks for a code to login, as well as username and password. In my case, an email with a code would be sent to my Facebook email).

Anyway good luck in getting your gf's account back, panky!

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Unfortunately Google don't really seem to care too much. They don't think its odd that I always log in from the USA, and suddenly someone is logging into my account from the Ukraine?

Yeah I know it's relatively a small amount, but still a bit much to ignore the problem.

And what Loren said, Facebook noticed that someone from a million kms away was trying to sign in to her account, why doesn't Gmail have a good solution for this?
I don't think it'd be very hard to have a setting that blocks any attempts that come from farther than a certain distance. And of course could be turned off, if you travel. I'm just guessing, but it makes it real easy do screw around people.

Gav, I thought that number only counts these hacks coming from Chinese IPs.

Oh and another question: How come her Facebook indicated a sign-in attempt from the USA and her Gmail indicated activity mostly from China (and one from Nigeria)?

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pankykapus
Gav, I thought that number only counts these hacks coming from Chinese IPs.

The number I got was actually the ones who had their accounts emptied accidentally a month or so back (which were all returned to normal within a day or two).

As many know, I'm not Google's biggest fan, but you get what you pay for. If you want a free email account, then you ought to treat it as you would any free item - namely take precautions and be prepared to deal with any issues yourself.

It's for free. So you're getting the service you been paying for.

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Yeah I suppose you're right.

BTW which suppliers are worth paying for?

I've no idea. Probably some Exchange-based account, or maybe one based on a decent webhost (though email is never top of their priorities).

I'm perfectly happy with Gmail myself (indeed for a free service, I think it's epic), though I've got a couple of accounts on the my webhost at work too, for things a bit more formal.