I was hacked, but I wasn't...

8/31/2014

Ugh! So a few months back, it seemed my email account was hacked... but it wasn't. A look into the security showed NO suspicious activity. Naturally, I turn to hubby for an explanation. He thought some app I gave permission to was compromised and through that someone was able to spam my contact list with emails that almost looked like they were from me (they were missing my signature and Gmail tagged them as possibly not from me.) So hubby had me turn on a few verification things and revoke access to an app I wasn't really using.

Fast forward. Repeat weird emails that aren't from me. A couple friends alerted me and showed concern. I went to my settings to have a look. There was no suspicious activity in the logs Google provides. (Go to your Google+. Click on your avatar in the upper right corner. Click on Account, then Security. You'll see a box labeled RECENT ACTIVITY. Click VIEW ALL EVENTS. That shows you what you've done. If you see something you don't recognize, highlight it and you'll get more info to the right.) Also, my sent folder showed nothing out of the ordinary. A check of my apps (again under Google+>Accounts>Security>Account Permission) showed only Feedly had permission.

A possible culprit?

No, because after revoking access I'm still getting messages from concerned friends about hacking. There shouldn't be any way for someone to access my account without having my password. What's worse is I looked through Google's help for some kind of answer and found that Google is aware this is happening to people, but because it's outside their servers, they can't do anything but tag the emails as suspicious.

This is really annoying because my email is hooked up to Google+ which is hooked up to YouTube and that's where I uploaded the book trailers I made for people. But I don't want to hold onto an account that is spamming people. Somehow I have to hold onto Google+ and YouTube and get a new email address and deleted the one. Ugh!

12 Comments

Alex J. Cavanaugh link

8/31/2014 09:36:49 am

That sucks. My email is through my Internet service provider and I've never been hacked. And if I was, boy would I drop them like a hot potato.

Patricia Lynne link

9/1/2014 08:25:43 am

I would too if I were you.

Tui Snider link

8/31/2014 11:47:47 am

What a conundrum!

Thanks for the tips on how to find suspicious activity from Gmail.

I don't have any sage advice, alas, but if I do learn of anything, I will send it your way.

9/1/2014 08:26:15 am

No problem. I figured since Google has something about it in their help section, I'm not the only one dealing with this crap.

M.J. Fifield link

8/31/2014 08:28:29 pm

Ugh, for sure. What a hassle.

Isn't technology great?

9/1/2014 08:26:48 am

99% of the time it's great. That pesky 1% is super annoying though.

Larry Kollar link

8/31/2014 10:24:08 pm

Spoofing the return address is a common spammer trick—they don't want the blowback from the non-suckers, after all.

One way this might be happening is if you and the people you're hearing from are on a common mailing list—doesn't even take a hack. Join the mailing list, just listen silently for a few weeks and pick up everyone else's addresses. Pick one as a return address and start blasting.