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Yah. That sucked. Somone or something has hacked my email. Gmail locked the account and I had to call them to get it back, but this is crazy. Dose anyone have any suggestions to figure out how this happened?

make sure your security questions and password aren't easy to guess.

My suggestion, for the security question, don't actually answer it, but put a second password.

Don't surf Pron?

seriously, i had a friend call me not 3 days days ago saying i was spamming him.
turns out an old email my wife and i used to use "got hacked". hadn't been used
in years, but suddenly it started spamming....

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

seriously, i had a friend call me not 3 days days ago saying i was spamming him.
turns out an old email my wife and i used to use "got hacked". hadn't been used
in years, but suddenly it started spamming....

So, randomly got hacked?

Changed the password and set my phone number to verification. If it sends a mass email, locks the account and calls me.

I have an old gaming buddy I haven't seen in probably five years, but every six months or a year I get a random spam email from him. The first couple I replied back to, saying, "Hey bud! Hope all is well! Your email's been hacked!" but never got a response. He's probably not even using that address anymore.

Happygrunt wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

seriously, i had a friend call me not 3 days days ago saying i was spamming him.
turns out an old email my wife and i used to use "got hacked". hadn't been used
in years, but suddenly it started spamming....

So, randomly got hacked?

Changed the password and set my phone number to verification. If it sends a mass email, locks the account and calls me.

Okay, it wasn't random. i'm really as super, secret undercover spy. so secret....

yeah, seemed pretty random to me. been at least 3 years since that account was used by one of us to email anybody.

Make your password difficult, don't use anything on your computer to store the info, and make sure to delete everything every time you log off the internet(go to your delete browsing history and select to delete everything).

Other than that upgrade your antivirus or try avast(IIRC) its a free antivirus system and works pretty well.

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

Porn can be pretty safe if you stick to the mainstream sites.

Cheesecat wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

Porn can be pretty safe if you stick to the mainstream sites.

I like how this is a completely serious comment

DA's Forever wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

Porn can be pretty safe if you stick to the mainstream sites.

I like how this is a completely serious comment

Who the heck watches mainstream porn?

DA's Forever wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

Porn can be pretty safe if you stick to the mainstream sites.

I like how this is a completely serious comment

and i'm going to guess it a proven statement from Cheesecat's testing.....

alarmingrick wrote:

DA's Forever wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:Don't surf Pron?

Porn can be pretty safe if you stick to the mainstream sites.

I like how this is a completely serious comment

and i'm going to guess it a proven statement from Cheesecat's testing.....

Was my feeling as well...

halonachos wrote:Make your password difficult, don't use anything on your computer to store the info, and make sure to delete everything every time you log off the internet(go to your delete browsing history and select to delete everything).

Other than that upgrade your antivirus or try avast(IIRC) its a free antivirus system and works pretty well.

Fun fact, this computer has ALWAYS run off of avast.

Firefox has a setting to delete everything on exit. Might do that now.

There is no real cathc-all for computer protection; where there is protection or a preventative measure, there is always a way of breaking it or getting around it.

WoW is a classic example, allowing the use of an authenticator that you carry around with you that generates several numbers that you enter in addition to your password when logging in.

Sounds pretty secure, right? One of my friends is on his third after his account was hacked despite the use of an authenticator. Twice.

He's IT savvy too, not one of those 12-year-olds who thinks they rule the internet and clicks every link and flashing object.

Your best bet is having a secure complex password that is unique and stored nowhere other than your head (post-it notes are fine in your own home if you're the only one with access to them, but at work etc. they're still a no-no). Also, make a habit of unchecking any "Remember me" or "Remember my Username" boxes on sites you care about; if someone comes up to your computer and tries to access you e-mail, then by remembering yourself you've given them entry, and remembering your username gives them 50% of the information they need.

Windows Key + L is handy too if, again, it could be localised to people accessing your PC and you're using a windows OS (unsure if it works with others).

Anti-virus is a no-brainer, and you already seem to be okay there. Just make sure that virus definitions are regularly updated and have it audit attempts at contacting your computer etc.

Another localised tip is using Event Viewer (again, for a Windows OS) to audit and log attempts at logging in to your computer amongst other things. A lot of logon attempts in a short space of time is usually the sign of a brute force attack by someone around you.

But yeah, not really a lot you can do bar passwords (they're like underwear; once they're soiled, you can't use them, so change regularly) and anti-virus etc. etc.

Check your sent files to see if you can get some ideas of who/what was sending things around (that usually happens) Also to keep that from happening, make a 2nd email account for anything that asks for an email varification.

When I played WoW my account got hacked something fierce and even got a key logger on my PC some how. So after dealing with that lovely crap for a week or so, I finally got it all fixed. So yea, make a BS email account and use that with a VERY different password and you shouldnt have problems again