Sunday, August 07, 2011
My Gmail Got Hacked!
Relax.
I know I have your attention now. Take a deep breath before I continue with this story.
I just arrived at my pad at around 11PM (Saturday, August 6) after a meeting with an old friend.
Like you, I always check my emails every now and then. So I jumped in front of my working table, turned on my laptop and hurriedly checked my emails. Whoa! Alas! Look what I found?
How do you react if you receive an email from a friend with a subject line - “My Gmail Got Hacked”?
I know…
Below is the screen shot of the message I got from my friend. I hid her family name, email address and her friend’s name who is a System Administrator to protect their privacy.
(Click the image to enlarge)
Yes, it’s a big nightmare if someone else is in control of your email accounts whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. Worse if it’s your company email address! Argh!
Here are some options that you can do:
1) Act immediately, don’t wait.
2) Change the password.
3) Check your sent items / sent folder
4) Contact your Email Support Team (e.g. Google Support Team).
5) Check your other email accounts.
6) Send an apology to all your contacts like what my friend did
7) Pay it forward. If you receive similar incidents, advice your friend to minimize damage.
Have you been in this situation before? How did you handle it?
Oh BTW, what’s your comment about this line on her email:
(Click the image to enlarge)
Is it the fault of Gmail or the user?
Share your thoughts.
About the Contributor:
A self-confessed blogger minus the coffee. He maximizes his skills in consultancy, project management, professional networking, social media campaigns and very active in conceptualizing things. To date he already conducted several IT / Information Security events as his passion since 2007. Currently he's working as a Technical Support Specialist in a local company.
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