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My Gmail password has been stolen! How is that possible?

S

STR33TPIR8

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 27, 2012
11
0
Hello everyone. I received a mail from Google saying that someone tried to Access my account from Africa. I always use OS X or iOS, and I'm sure that my system is clean from malware. So how could it be possible? Is there a way to guess someone else's password? Like a brute force attack aimed on my mail address? It's so frustrating, I feel so vulnerable, and I want to find out how they did this :( Any ideas?
 
Assuming the email is real, there are plenty of ways your password could have been compromised. Phishing, reusing the same password with a site that was compromised, etc.
 
Your first step should be to change your password, regardless of the concern of the email's legitimacy. Next step should be to turn on 2-factor authentication.
 
Important distinction:

Did Google say that someone TRIED to access your account from Africa, or did they say someone accessed it from Africa?

All the former takes is knowledge of your email address. The latter also involves your password.

(Or alternatively, Google may have blocked access since they knew you weren't in Africa.)
 
STR33TPIR8 said:
Hello everyone. I received a mail from Google saying that someone tried to Access my account from Africa.
Click to expand...

No! No! No! Google did NOT send you any such email! Google does not send out emails like that! Delete that email right away and do not click any links contained within it! It's a phishing attempt!
 
Negritude said:
No! No! No! Google did NOT send you any such email! Google does not send out emails like that! Delete that email right away and do not click any links contained within it! It's a phishing attempt!
Click to expand...

I have been notified of "suspicious activity" by Google when switching proxy servers from continent to continent.

I'll note that I don't remember how they notified me.

But I sure as heck remember that they did (and while I like the security aspect, I don't like the ramifications of Google knowing where I am, and am not).
 
I would log on to your gmail account (go directly to www.gmail.com and DO NOT click on any links in the email) and change your password. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to change your other passwords too.
 
The e-Mail was sent from no-reply@accounts.google.com and seems to be real. Anyway I didn't use the link to change my PW. It says someone TRIED to access my account, and they blocked the access because it was from Africa.

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by the way, my PW is complex, case sensitive, letters+numbers.
 
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