Google is Not Helpful
First and foremost i want to offer my apologies to friends, bloggers and relatives for the "SPAM MAIL" from me requesting for financial help because I was stranded in London and was robbed of all my cash! Well, it was NOT true at all!
What happened was my gmail was hacked and hijacked by a Spammer who then changed my password ( I can no longer sign-into my gmail account now). Then this Spammer used my Contacts List to spam my friends, bloggers and relatives for money!
I believe this Spammer is porbably a Malaysian because a friend of mine, just out of curiosity responded to the spam mail in Malay and she got a response back in Malay! Hahaha! I was bogged down with doing a heck of a lot of changes to my sign-up programmes, changing email address and passwords and it took me 3 days all in all!
From this horrific life experience, I learned something important which I am sharing it here. Firstly, if you happened to be in the same situation, be informed that you get very little help from Google! Upon knowing that my gmail was hacked I contacted Google for help but I was required to prove that I am the owner of the account! Fair enough but to my horror, the information they required was something very few of us (I guess) do! Below are a just a few examples of the information required :-
- Gmail Verification Code
- Exact Day, Month and Year of sign-up
- Exact Day, Month and Year for other Google Programs like below list
- Picasa, Google Groups, Analytics, Adsense etc
I signed up for my gmail way back in 2004 and at that time, it never occurred to me to keep a record of such things! So for those who did not record such details, I advice you to create a new account so that you can record all the above details if you have never done this for your present account! It will also be good to submit a Secondary Email in all your sign-ups
Eventually since I could not furnish the details, Google just ignored my Support Ticket to them and I am still stuck! It was good that most of the Programmes I signed-up for allowed me to change my email and password and so now I have to abandon my hacked gmail account! I tried to call them via phone to their US address but don't seem to be able to talk to a person! For the benefit of others I spell out Google's Contact below.
Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: +1 650-253-0000 Fax: +1 650-253-0001 is the phone number for Google Customer Service. You need to press 5 at the prompt. No guarantees for live person.
Hi. Thank you for the info. Hopefully it is something I don’t ever need to do. Can imagine the trouble.
thanks Ocean Girl, I sincereloy hope nothing like this happen to you or anyone!
How’s it going?
I found your blog recently and I like it a lot. Very great read. In fact, I really think you could provide some valuable insight to my site DEBATEitOUT.com, where anyone can debate and discuss the most controversial topics out there.
I also am wondering if you would like to exchange links. If so, please contact me by the email address I provided.
Sincerely,
Jason
Wow! Jason thanks for your compliment. I will drop by your place to check it out. As for link exchange, its my pleasure too!
Hey John,
I believe it’s typical for a large organization like Google to be bureaucratic at times!
I hope you have got over all the trouble by now….Did you manage to recover your gmail after all?
Regards
I knew it was a spam the minute I read the mail. Thanks for sharing the info. Now I know what to do and hope my account will not be spammed.
No sonny, as I have shared that I am unable to convince Google that I am the owner!!! Just got to abandoned it! thanks!
Not surprised that you too got spammed!!!! My apoligies but its a good lesson for me! thanks!