I just got a very worrying phone call from my Dad today about his Gmail account which he’s had for several years. Essentially he tried to log into the account and it said his password was incorrect, so he went through the various processes to try and get it reset, unfortunately he didn’t have a secondary email account, but he went through the process of answering security questions etc. At some point one of the security questions came up with Chinese charicters in it, which of course prompted him to think that this was a phishing attack. Anyway, he emailed google to say that someone might have got access to his account and he gave them a new yahoo email they could reset and send the password, and the email he got back from google was chilling (for anyone who has thousands of emails and contacts)
investigation was inconclusive, we’ve disabled this account for your
security. If you used orkut with this account, we’ve deleted the orkut
profile. At Google we take the privacy and security of our users very
seriously. For this reason, we’re unable to reveal any further information
about this account.
To continue using Google Accounts, please visit
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount and create a new account.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation and
understanding.
Regards,
The Google Team
Note: if you use AdWords, AdSense, or Google Checkout with your
account, please contact AdWords, AdSense or Checkout support directly
at these URLs:
AdWords:
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45086&topic=7033
AdSense:
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?hl=en&ctx=accounts_hc&contact_type=adsense&submit=Continue
Checkout:
http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29076
—————-
Please don’t reply to this email, as we won’t be able to review your
response. If your question wasn’t answered, please search or browse the
Google Accounts Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/
Is this a legitimate email from google? are they really going to delete years of email and contacts? Anyone know anything?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
how about if you check the email headers? (doh)
It’s happened before. Check out this post from danah boyd’s blog in february: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/08/a_google_horror.html
It is scary indeed. How does one back up a gmail account? Pull it all to a POP client?
It has already happened to some. I lost all my emails just like that without any explanation and support from google. But your case seems to be different. However, which email address did your dad write to. I could not find any support email anywhere.
- Asif
PLEASE YOU HAVE CLOSED MY MAIL ACCOUNT SINCE THE 12TH. I HAD
A NOTE THAT SAID YOU WOULD NOT LET ME IN FOR DAYS. WHY? AND
IF YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT: WHEN?
THIS IS VERY UPSETTING. I HAVE NO REASON TO SUSPECT ANY HACKERS
OR CRIMINAL INTENT. I AM A LITTLE OLD LADY USING GMAIL AND DO
NOT EVEN USE MY PASSWORD TO GET ON MOST TIMES ALL OF A SUDDEN
YOU LOCK ME OUT. WHY? HOW CAN I REGAIN ASSESS TO MY MAIL?
THIS REALLY IS A HIDEOUS SITUATION FOR ME. AND WHY?
Gmail to accounts
show details 3:47 PM (31 minutes ago)
We are shutting down some email accounts and your account was automatically chosen to be deleted. If you are still interested in using our email service please fill in the space below for verification purpose by clicking the reply button. Learn more
Account:
Password:
Birth date:
Country:
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Thank you for using Gmail !
The Gmail Team
G MAI L BETA
i got this mail.
What do i do now, how do i know its not some hacker asking for my password?
Google would never send an email like that, it is a hacker trying to get your password.