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Google hacked account

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Re: Google hacked account

#91
post #36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking: is there a paid email provider roughly on par with Google's offerings in terms of usability and uptime? I'd consider switching.

Microsoft actually do a good job and you can always call someone who can actually do something. Never thought I'd say that. However, I'm using an IMAP box on Gandi.net and a domain purchased elsewhere and that is it. I refuse to use any services tied to a single company any more. This change has given me a lot of headspace for other things.

That seems phishable. I wonder what method Microsoft uses to verify that I'm not calling in to steal someone's account.

Re: Google hacked account

#93
post #6

Try posting to Hacker News in the hope someone with some authority deigns to intervene. It helps if you a high-profile blogger or known industry luminary. The prospects for the rest of us are fairly bleak.

> The prospects for the rest of us are fairly bleak

Mostly because if changing ownership of a Gmail account were as simple as "Post to Hacker News and complain," it'd be an obvious and exploitable security gap.

Re: Google hacked account

#94
post #79

I guess you just need to be faster than the person who hacked your account. Just before the cancel link is clicked you gotta make your move. Yeah, and the cancel request was a total stroke of genius!

I imagine that Google would allow the "cancel request" to override recent password alterations to avoid accounts being taken over simply because the cracker moved faster than the owner once it was realised the Google account was cracked/accessed.

It may not be enough to run a password update before they act on the email. It also may not be physically possible if they have a script watching for such emails from Google and cancelling the request immediately, you'd then need to set up a faster method and/or receive the email before they did.

Re: Google hacked account

#95
post #32

Unfortunately (because their services are quite good) google has no support staff. This is well known, and you should take it into account when using the services they offer. It is not difficult to do without them. Asking for help on HN or Reddit works sometimes, but if your business (or personal life for that matter) relies on their services you should really work towards being able to do without them.

simply untrue that google has zero support staff. a better statement would be they have an automated support process for free gmail accounts. they have support staff for many of their products, including the paid version of gmail.

It'd be nice if you could pay for per-incident support on their free Gmail.

Re: Google hacked account

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember: We're not Google's clients, we're Google's products

Only in the sense that I'm the "product" of broadcast television, terrestrial radio, and my local free alt-weekly. Calling someone a "product" is a great way to make a flippant jab at a company but as far as a product is something a company produces, it's just not the case. Google, like these other companies, produces useful (to many at least) services. The way they make money on this is by selling ad space or access…

> Only in the sense that I'm the "product" of broadcast television

Well, yes you are. Some years ago, a CEO of french television said that his business was to sell "available brain time" to advertisers.

Re: Google hacked account

#97
post #34

> So far not a problem, but the email you get back after sending the password reset request contains a link to a page that allows you to cancel the request (not sure the genius who had this idea) Did you set the recovery email the same as the main email? Cause I only get password reset to the recovery email. If you used the same address for recovery email, then it defeats the whole purpose

no i set another email. but still both emails will get the link.

Is the person that hacked the account just sitting there waiting for emails to come in and hopefully can click the "Cancel Request" before you can reset the password?

Re: Google hacked account

#98

> What to do? The first step would be to edit the title of your submission to begin with "Ask HN: hacked Google account, what to do?", since you're asking a question. "Google hacked account" means, to an English speaker, that Google perpetrated hacking against some account somewhere (subject-verb-object, right?) E.g. Google people gained access to your bank account. I.e. your current submission title is clickbait.

Your nitpicking isn't helping anyone.

Re: Google hacked account

#99
post #33

Unfortunately (because their services are quite good) google has no support staff. This is well known, and you should take it into account when using the services they offer. It is not difficult to do without them. Asking for help on HN or Reddit works sometimes, but if your business (or personal life for that matter) relies on their services you should really work towards being able to do without them.

Genuinely asking: is there a paid email provider roughly on par with Google's offerings in terms of usability and uptime? I'd consider switching.

I have no idea about usability because I don't use the online interface, but Microsoft's Office 365 offerings are great for $5/mo. You also get unlimited OneDrive space.

It also comes with 10 minute turnaround time on phone support. You get a little popup asking if everything is okay and if you want to receive a call for support when you login to the admin interface.

I've been quite happy with it for the last three months.

Re: Google hacked account

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that now Google has my phone number linked to my identity too. I know this is not everyone's use case, but for those of us that care deeply about privacy, that's not a good alternative. If that's not a good counterpoint, my phone/SMS service sucks when I'm traveling abroad, which is exactly when Google thinks I'm not me. I wish Google supported TOTP like Github does, without asking for a phone number.

Does gmail support using a second email as the second factor? Hotmail does...

The entire account system does.
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