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Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

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Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#11

Post by abdullahkhalids »

valleyer wrote: post #6

Why not download the mail and keep it locally, instead of accessing it only on the whims of Google security EPMs? A standard IMAP client will do this for you easily.

One should do that for all email addresses, even ones that one uses daily.

You never know when you will be screwed over by your provider.

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#12

Post by LightHugger »

ncann wrote: post #7

It's funny, I have an old Gmail account that I haven't logged in in years. That account had my current account listed as a recovery email. One day I received an email to my current account from Google saying that it had blocked a suspicious attempt to log in to that old account. So I tried to log in to that old account to change the password but Google wouldn't let me, just saying something like somethings seemed wro…

Seemingly without notifying us, google has turned off recovering accounts using the recovery email. Since a few years back they will only ever except phone numbers for this.

It's unbelievably stupid.

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#14

Post by romanhn »

kjs3 wrote: post #13

Wow...how many GB of spam is in there?

I never used this address anywhere so comparatively not much. Oddly, almost none of it is in the spam folder. The other interesting bit is that someone seems to have been using this address for online purchases and lease agreements (fraudulently, most likely).

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#15

Post by akg_67 »

swozey wrote: post #9

Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SSO to pretty much everything. One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I was…

Lesson here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. I try to make sure there is no one vendor service that can become mission critical in my life, specially not likes of Google/Amazon/Microsoft/Apple.

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#16

Post by alwayslikethis »

swozey wrote: post #9

Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SSO to pretty much everything. One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I was…

You don't have to switch to Apple though. It's a bit like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Apple has an even stronger hold on your digital life if you decide to fully invest into its ecosystem. It's much better to stay on Android, but de-google it, and avoiding the use of your Google account

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#17

Post by leadegroot »

akg_67 wrote: post #15
swozey wrote: post #9

Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SSO to pretty much everything. One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I was…

Lesson here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. I try to make sure there is no one vendor service that can become mission critical in my life, specially not likes of Google/Amazon/Microsoft/Apple.

Also, ensure your suppliers have a helpdesk where you can place a ticket that a real person who is paid by them will have to look at. Lesson learned on a bookkeeping service recently - I went for lowest price, and they had NO customer support, it was all crowd sourced :(

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#19

Post by kajecounterhack »

Google takeout is already amazing (especially compared to other companies that offer similar services) but I wish I could incrementally download whatever changed since my last backup. The amount of my data they have is huge, and I'm basically only taking a snapshot once every 6 months at this point. I have to download ~15 50gb files :(

(It's almost all from YouTube, Gmail, and Google Photos)

Re: Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years

#20

Post by darknavi »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #16
swozey wrote: post #9

Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SSO to pretty much everything. One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I was…

You don't have to switch to Apple though. It's a bit like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Apple has an even stronger hold on your digital life if you decide to fully invest into its ecosystem. It's much better to stay on Android, but de-google it, and avoiding the use of your Google account

Moving to Apple isn't necessary but it isn't a trap either for OP. A main lesson they learned was "digital diversity". If they get locked out of their phone now it would be an inconvenience instead of a life altering event.

The swap to iPhone is just another "fuck you" to Google, which they earned there.

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