So you’ve been hacked or someone sent an email using your account without your permission.
Often times, these attacks create phishing emails and send those emails out to people in your contact list. Don’t be a jerk, rectify the situation immediately. Here are some steps to take ASAP to remedy the situation.
1) Go into your sent messages and reply to every email that was sent to let the recipients know that you didn’t send the email.
2) You use gmail, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Toward the bottom right, there is a link that says details and it will allow you to Sign out all other web sessions.
3) Change all of your passwords that use the same username & password. Use something like LastPass to store your passwords so you only have to remember one. That way your passwords can be secure and they can also be easy to access for you and near impossible for anyone else.
4) Go through Google’s Security Checklist to secure your account. It’s available here: https://myaccount.google.com/intro/security
5) If the url tries to steal users information, report it to Google as a phishing website: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/
6) Report the email as a phishing email. To do this in Gmail, next to the reply button, there is a downward-facing arrow. In there, click “Report phishing”
So now you know how to mitigate the damage of your hacked Gmail and how to avoid the phishing email.
If you receive a phishing email from a friend, let them know their account has been compromised and give them a link to this webpage (or copy and paste the contents into an email) and reply to them. If you were hacked, it’s hard to know until someone lets you know. Be a friend!
What are phishing attacks?
DO NOT FORWARD THE EMAIL, REPORT IT AS PHISHING AS DESCRIBED IN STEP 6. That way it gets handled properly.
Here’s a video that shows a real phishing attack (by YouTube user te4chnology):
HOWEVER, DO NOT REPORT IT AS SPAM, REPORT IT AS PHISHING. That way it gets reviewed properly.
Featured Image Source: http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/15205/cyber-crime/business-hacked-email-account.html
