Gmail account hacked/Virus??

BenEadir

Hi all,

I have a Gmail account which last night sent out emails to (what appears to be) everyone on the contact list in the account with no subject and just a dodgy looking link in the body of the email. The link is http:// publiservis dot net/google dot php

I'm sure this is a common enough problem but I haven't been able to find what the recommended steps I should take are and I have read the sticky's etc.

Can someone please give me a summary of what could have caused this and secondly what steps I need to take to restore the integrity of the Gmail account.

FYI It's a standard Gmail account run directly from their cloud servers, I don't POP emails into Outlook or anything like that.

Cheers,

Ben

BenEadir

BenEadir wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a Gmail account which last night sent out emails to (what appears to be) everyone on the contact list in the account with no subject and just a dodgy looking link in the body of the email. The link is http:// publiservis dot net/google dot php

I'm sure this is a common enough problem but I haven't been able to find what the recommended steps I should take are and I have read the sticky's etc.

Can someone please give me a summary of what could have caused this and secondly what steps I need to take to restore the integrity of the Gmail account.

FYI It's a standard Gmail account run directly from their cloud servers, I don't POP emails into Outlook or anything like that.

Cheers,

Ben

OK I sussed out that my Gmail account was accessed by a Phone based Browser in India with the IP address (122.172.19.135) and they sent the spam email to my contact list.

As Google don't provide a help desk service how do I bring this to their attention or am I just wasting my time? I'd really like to know how and why my account was accessed. What steps do I need to take to ensure I don't encounter any other problems? I already changed my password, what else should I do?

Ben

BenEadir

Bump, is the Virus and Malware forum still open for business???

FSL

You have already answered your own question in regards to how it was done.

Your password was not strong enough or is the same as one you have used elsewhere, possible on a less secure site, which could have been compromised.

My advice would be to change your password again to more complex one if the one you changed it to is a dictionary word or phrase.

Also if the original password on gmail was used elsewhere by you then change it all the other places.

BenEadir

Thanks guys.

Will change passwords more frequently and to non dictionary words with alpha and numerics from now on.

Ben

thesandeman

Exact same thing happened to me last week.
However Google seemed to suss out that my account was being being hacked and suspended it automaticaly and sent me a message getting me to answer security questions etc.
It took a couple of days so possibly they will spot yours also.