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United States6335 Posts
Today, I noticed that Gmail was down for quite a while. Earlier today, I was unable to log in for at least half an hour, could have been longer.
Just about twenty minutes ago, I tried to log in tonight. It said there was suspicious activity on my account, etc... and it needed to verify me VIA text message or some garbage.
Now I am, in all honesty, quite suspicious of big companies data mining- etc... so I was very reluctant to send them my phone number, though I eventually did. Trying to "personally contact" a company like Google, without access to my primary email, for what would probably be a couple of days, did not sound very appealing to me. I got the text message and entered my account fine.
Upon entering, I found that a couple advertisement emails were sent to everyone on my friends list. Though, my #1 suspicion is still Google twisting my arm to get my phone number, both to get info and to limit me to 1 account (at some point they implemented a phone verification system to limit the number of accounts that one can make.)
My question is if anyone has recently had the same problem with their Gmail account. Because, like I said, I am first and foremost suspicious of Google itself.
I am very good with my anti virus scans, keeping a clean internet cache, scanning for mal-ware and use Spy-Bot every day. I've NEVER had a problem with any of my game, email or bank accounts up until today... which is part of the reason that I raged so hard... because I put a lot of thought into these things.
Now the bastards got meh number, and I have to go reset all my passwords to everything because that is the smart thing to do, after scanning with all my AV programs right now.
Any feedback is welcome, Thank You.
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I'm not clear on what you're saying, but you think google used your account to send your friends advertisement emails? If google wanted to spam your friends with advertisements, they wouldn't need to tell you someone messed with your account.
If you're super suspicious of big companies snooping your data, you should disconnect your internet, since all of your traffic flows over their routers, and they can sniff it without sending you any warnings about suspicious behavior.
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Not sure what time of day you couldn't log on but I didn't experience an outage today. You know you can see which IP address logged onto the account if you click Details at the very bottom of the page.
Why not go back to hotmail or yahoo if you are so paranoid of google?
I've never been forced by them to have a phone tied to my accounts but I actually find their phone verification feature a welcomed feature if one would ever lose access to their accounts.
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United States6335 Posts
My point is, possibly they temporarily close accounts that don't have Phone Numbers attached, to force the users send in a phone number to re-open it. The emails sent really doesn't tell me much.
Also, the access is a problem. I'm pretty sure whoever it was didn't gain access from my end.
edit: Skyr, thanks for the info. It was about 1pm PST. First off, I'd be generally suspicious of anyone and 2... I really had no reasons to worry about Google until today. It's all I could imagine as the scenario as I was locked out and they "needed my cell number" to get me back in. o.O
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Mine's been working perfect like it always has been. The cell phone number thing is pretty odd, I've never heard of a legitimate company/site use those means to verify an account.
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It seems quite clear that your account was locked out because it was compromised by someone who sent out advertisements to your contacts. Even if you're quite diligent, that's far more likely than Google perpetrating a phone number scam and sending out fake spam to cover it up.
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I had some issues logging in earlier, but they went away eventually.
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United States6335 Posts
Thank you guys, ya it looked like the server was busted earlier- but it seemed to coincidental that it happened today...
Grobyc... ya... when I made my Gmail accounts... they didn't require a phone Text. But now, ANY new Gmail account you open will want to Text a number to Verify your account, and only one can be made per number.
I first encountered this at work, helping someone make a Gmail account. I couldn't believe it was the standard, but I've encountered it each time since as well. I guess its obviously an attempt to limit the accounts made, hopefully not to farm up phone numbers.
This thread is, basically, a way to check if this has happened to other people who don't have Numbers attached to their accounts... to determine if it's regular in anyway. I understand it's unlikely, but I wanted to check with anyone who would respond at TL.
Still don't know how my account got compromised but, meh, what are you gonna do.
Thank you.
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Bot edit.
User was banned for this post.
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