Gmail acct hacked

[jalaram]

My Anandtech account (and many other forums) are linked to jalaram@gmail.com. However, I found out this morning that someone has taken it over. I have filled in gmail's account recovery form, but the scammer could theoreticaly reset many of my logins.

What should I do here to unlink the account for now? I obviously can't reset the password.

Should I even worry about it right now?

[edit] Okay. I have my account, but the scammer cleared it out. No more contacts or email (sent or otherwise).

 

[thescreensavers]

Change all your passwords and use set up googles 2 step verification.

I found out the hard way my self, same user and pass for forums and email is a no go. Plus forum databases get compromised all the time. maybe not here but on another forum.

 

[jalaram]

Thanks for the advice. I did 2 step for 2 of my gmail accts. I need to do the other soon.

Luckily, I also followed Gmail's advice here. Because of the tips in there, specifically the email theft section, I noticed that forwarding was still enabled to the scammer's account.

One item I left out was how I found out. My wife had gotten an email from the scammer using my account. It said that I was robbed while travelling in the UK and needed money quickly. Luckily, all my gmail contacts could smell this scam a mile away.

Not sure why he did it, but one of my really good friends decided to reply to the email. He asked for the hotel and a phone # to reach. He got the following response.

Glad to hear back from you.It has really been embarrassing for me. $2,500
will cover all my expenses but i will appreciate whatsoever you can afford
to wire right now, I promise to refund it to you as soon as I arrive home.
You can wire it to my name from a western union outlet around. Here are the
details you need to get it to me;

Name - John Chitalia
Address: 11, Richmond Mews, London W1D 3DH, England
Amount: $2,500

I still have my passport so I can use it as identification, e-mail me the
transfer details and the confirmation number include the amount sent..


kindly email me the western union details once you have it done...

John.

Not sure what I can do about it, but thought I would post an update.

 

[ViRGE]

jalaram, if you still need your AT Forums account dealt with, please post a thread in the Moderator Discussions forum. Only the admins can mess with accounts, so I can't do anything for you.