What to do when your gmail account is hacked (aka Cyber-Rape)

Sep
16

What to do when your gmail account is hacked (aka Cyber-Rape)

This is the location of the Nigerian Hacker sitting in a cyber cafe, attempting to have my contact list wire money to an accomplice in the UK

The longest 15 minutes of my life was waiting for the password reset instructions for my hacked gmail account this morning. The second longest 15 minutes were those that followed AFTER I logged into my account and was promptly kicked out of the session, and had to start the whole process over again.

Read on to learn about what to do when your gmail account is hacked and how to prevent it in the first place.

I am a bit of a techie. So shame on me for allowing this to happen but the Norton 360 subscription on my desktop has been expired for- oh- probably 18 months. Since I use my laptop for EVERYTHING, I keep that protected and up to date. The desktop is what I use for watching movies, playing games and occasionally surfing the web.

The first sign something was wrong this morning were the 6 text messages that woke me up asking if I was OK. Then I look at my desktop monitor and I see that my gmail is looged out. My Gmail is NEVER logged out.

I feel a swell in my throat. Try to sign in. No good. Run out to the living room and see that on my laptop gmail is also signed out.

Oh. F@#%.

Back to the desktop, whihc I know must be the culprit due to the Norton expiration. and I make my first mistake of the day. I try to sign into my facebook to warn everyone. As I log in and write on my wall I am kicked off within 60 seconds and cannot log back in.

OH. F@#%!

I immediately unplug my network cable from the computer (take that asshole) And power down my computer. But I know the damage has been done. My facebook and my main gmail account are compromised. “Screw facebook I think, I’ve been wanting to thin out my friends list forever now. Time to focus on getting back gmail-” and that is when I have a thought that almost causes me to throw up.

All of my banking and account passwords are stored in my “Google Tasks”.

Reeling, I SPRINT to my laptop and try to find out how to reset my google password. But, Clever Girl, the ass-hat has changed my secondary e-mail address. This is T-10 minutes in. Panic and Adrenaline kick in. My dog pisses the rug and is hiding under my bed.

I go through the not-too horrible gmail form. I urge you to take a look at it now so you will be aware of what you need to verify if this happens to you.

I was completely unaware and wasted valuable time trying to figure out things like “5 most recently contacted people” and “4 filter names you use” or month and day you opened your gmail account which I thought was September 2006 but I was more than a year off. thankfully this didnt matter. Within 15 minutes I got an email from gmail with reset instructions.

I go through it. Log on. AND SEE THE SPHINCTER-CLOWN CHATTING WITH MY CONTACTS! Like an idiot I type something in the chat window like “this is a hoax”. Why was this stupid? Well because it alerted him of my presence as being logged in. And since gmail allows you to end all other session remotely, just as I’m about to kick him out, HE KICKS ME OUT.

For the second time that morning I almost threw up.

I try the old password reset link but it doesnt work. I request another through that same form process and again wait 15 minutes. This time the second I log-on I kick him out. I change my password one more time for good measure and I copy his IP address and track him to Nigeria.

Gotcha!

I then got his phone number which he CLEVERLY entered into the account recovery options so that he could at any time in the future, text google and reset MY password to whatever he wanted.

I texted him later.

You found me... but I could find you.

The rest of the time since then was spent signing up for lifelock and changing all my account information. Only the next few months will tell if I escaped completely unscathed.

Thankfully he was focused on getting a wire transfer instead of stealing valuable account information.

Notice how he knew my brother's name and the fact that I call him 'Mikey' not 'Mike' or 'Michael' probably by going through the recent chat history of whomever he was speaking to at the moment.

I think that his main focus was trying to get the wire transfer, but had he been a little more alert, they would have found a treasure trove of info which I have since deleted. I am also downloading all my gmail archive and deleting it from online as we speak. Talk about closing the barn door after the horse got out.

For my next installment, I will talk about how to prevent all this and what you should do to prepare TODAY.