Someone recently tried to use an application to sign in to your Google Account

Originally posted by derailed
Hi,

I had the very same message, I contacted google and it was from them, you can find more information here Google support

I also received the email at my recovery account, which I don't use for anything! So you should be safe.

Not necessarily. You can fake email addresses very easily. I used to have @cia.com emails

lmgtfy.com...

There seems to be story after story about people using this to phish and install trojans

www.spamfighter.com...

www.h-online.com...

www.examiner.com...

Google do seem to send legitimate emails for this thing after looking into it, but there are people using it to phish and encourage the downloading of viruses

For anyone reading its worth being wary

reply to post by GrandStrategy


Agreed, its always best to err on the side of caution, I should have mentioned that after receiving the email, I did not use the links in the email, I instead reset my password manually.

I should also note that since I have not had any more emails of this kind.

reply to post by derailed


Thanks for all the replies and for the help.

What would the point of this be though?

Say it is legit and from google, why would someone from Vietnam being trying to gain access to my google account of all things?

Or if we go with it being an attempt to install a "virus" why would they have picked "me" so to speak?

Thanks again.

reply to post by SyntheticPerception


There are many reasons for someone to "hijack" your email account;

Gain access to personal information,
Send out spam in your name,
Send out links to malware etc.....

Having researched it more in depth, providing there was no zipped attachment in the email, it was very likely a genuine message from google. However to be sure manually reset your password and security questions, directly from your gmail account.

It is also advisable to run anti-virus/spyware/malware scans to ensure you havent got anything nasty hiding on your computer!

edit to add, it wasn't personal, they are very likely trying at random to hijack accounts!!

reply to post by SyntheticPerception


While looking at your gmail inbox if you look below it on the bottom right hand side there is an account activity link. Click on it and a window will pop up that tells you the last several sign in attempts for your account, most recent at the top. It shows IP addresses and country of origin, also if it was from a mobile.

It happened to me once. It was someone on a mobile device from Manilla. They tried to send out spam from my e-mail address. Just change your password as a precaution. It hasn't happened again. Google is pretty quick on catching this sort of thing.

reply to post by littled16


Sweet I didn't know that.

Thank you kindly

That mail was fake...and not from Google. You fell for it based on fear. Dont believe ANY mail like that! If youre worried, send the company directly (NOT clicking on a link in that suspicious email)...and see if its legit.
I get mail all the time from "Yahoo" asking to re-submit....and I never do as Yahoo themselves said they will never solicite info like that...even if it says its from them.
Be wary....

reply to post by mysterioustranger


Thanks for the concern, it was a real email from Google though.

Originally posted by SyntheticPerception
reply to post by solargeddon

 

Try and login to this email for me if you will, I want to see the message I get. Try a few times so it will register as someone "messing" with my account who shouldn't.

Just created it

[email protected].

If I get the same message I will know if the OP email was really from google or not.

edit on 5-12-2012 by SyntheticPerception because: (no reason given)

Seriously ?!

Nooo, I'm not going to do that lol.

You obviously think its legit....Great, hope that it is, but if it's not, and you clicked anything on the e-mail to change the password, you could be in trouble.

If you changed the password by clicking anything outside of the email page, then you're golden, no problems.

I do think you are worrying a little, understandably, but like a poster said above these things aren't personal, they are part and parcel of the internet, and again as someone above said are supposed to induce fear.

You just have to understand these phishing e-mails are good, indistinguishable from the real mcoy.

I don't get the whole Vietnam thing....I didn't even know they had computers, let alone internet access ! (Jok)



Oh one other quick tip, should annyone online ever ask you what anti-virus you are running on your computer...Don't tell them, apparently hackers use the information to circumnavigate your puters defenses. So a retired hacker friend of mine says.

Oh, one other quick thing while I remember, was the e-mail addressed to you personally ?

By that I mean your username ?

I only ask because your OP doesn't have that info, if it does address you, then good chance it was legit.

Oh and general note all, use the shift key when creating the passwords, the hackers can't read the shift, so would put in the wrong password every time.

reply to post by solargeddon


It had my name in it I believe

Also wold you be kind enough to elaborate a little on this

Oh and general note all, use the shift key when creating the passwords, the hackers can't read the shift, so would put in the wrong password every time.

I had never heard of this before.. What exactly do you mean "use the shift key"

reply to post by solargeddon


I agree with most of that. Problem is, most verification emails include a link so as to be convenient for the user. Hell, my ATS email included a link. Does that mean ATS has compromised my email?

reply to post by solargeddon

Seriously ?! Nooo, I'm not going to do that lol.

It just seemed like the logical thing to do. I wasn't going to try and accse you of hacking my email or something just wanted to see if I would get a message from google to compare with the possibe "phishing" email.

Sorry bout that!

i had the same email recently too, to my google account, and it was directly after i'd registered on yelp. looked legit to me but i still went through my google channels and changed my password, i don't remember if there were any links in it cos i wouldn't click on them anyway.

reply to post by SyntheticPerception



The shift key is like a ghost key.

One of the ways hackers gain access through your computer is the keyboard memory, so say you had a password like this....

juicy28fudge, the hacker can easily gain access, because it is all lower case, and registers in the keyboard memory.

But, if you have a password like this...

juIcy28fUdge, because the shift key is like a ghost key, the keyboard memory will register it all in lower case, and this is what the hacker would try to type in, once the hacker realises its a fail, they will give up, because there are too many possibilities of where the shift key was used to create the password.

Not sure its the best explanation, but this is how it was explained to me.

Sidenote: It's ok mods no need to censor my post....Not a real password, I only use cool ones !

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by solargeddon

 

I agree with most of that. Problem is, most verification emails include a link so as to be convenient for the user. Hell, my ATS email included a link. Does that mean ATS has compromised my email?

Oh now don't be silly, you know better than to type this lol. :p

I'm just saying that you can't be too careful, in fact it is always recomended not to click on links in emails just in case, that's not to say they are all bad, just that you can't be too careful, most of the time you know what is legit, but from time to time you can end up playing linky roulette....

So, do you feel lucky punk ?!

Personaly for the extra 20 seconds it takes to go through the official channels its worth it, better to be safe than compromised.

Just in case of any doubt its called being smart.....Not paranoid.

reply to post by solargeddon


Interesting thank you for that. Interesting thing is when I made my new password I did just what you said.. Hmm like part of me new about this ghost key.. but didn't know.

Random question here, kinda off topic.

If "reality" had a shift key what would you call it?

Any ideas?

Originally posted by SyntheticPerception
reply to post by solargeddon

 

Seriously ?! Nooo, I'm not going to do that lol.

It just seemed like the logical thing to do. I wasn't going to try and accse you of hacking my email or something

just wanted to see if I would get a message from google to compare with the possibe "phishing" email.

Sorry bout that!

Your alright

Just wouldn't want to start a reputation for myself

The friend I got my info from was hacked as a kid, and decided to fight fire with fire, became a hacker (professionally trained).

The tips I've given you should go a long way to preventing an attack, but your only as strong as your knowledge.

A few weeks ago I had multiple trojan attacks on my puter,and my e-mail was either spoofed or hacked, it was a nightmare, took me two weeks to finally get on top of it....Youtube is your best friend, along with system restore, and varvious anti-virus programmes, which you can get hold of online for free.

By the time I took it to my friend, my puter was clean, and I had managed to sort it out myself, but alway's good to get a professional once over...Just in case.

One last tip though, don't pay for anti-virus, it's free if you search hard enough.

Originally posted by SyntheticPerception
reply to post by solargeddon

 

Interesting thank you for that. Interesting thing is when I made my new password I did just what you said.. Hmm like part of me new about this ghost key.. but didn't know.

Random question here, kinda off topic.

If "reality" had a shift key what would you call it?

Any ideas?

All I can think of is calling it "truth" because we all know what we call reality to be a lie !

Ooooh, that was a bit deep for this time of night lol.

What would you call it ?

reply to post by solargeddon


I think it would somehow involve time travel and possibly bunnies..

Not sure what you would call that though.

Delusional maybe?