The first thing you shouldn’t do is panic when your Gmail account gets hacked! This is exactly what most people do in an emergency and we all know it will not help. You always hear about Gmail accounts getting hacked and it is not Gmails fault. People just don’t implement all of the security options available to them.
But if your Gmail accounts gets hacked you can follow these steps to recover your account.
See If You Can Login To Your Gmail Account
Let’s face it, after a hacker has gained access to your Gmail account, the first smart thing would be to change the login password. But not all hackers are that smart so you should definitely login as soon as possible. If you can still login to your Gmail email account then I suggest you immediately change your password and upgrade your security settings.
Reset Security Questions
Again this steps depends on being logged into your account. If you can login we should celebrate by changing your password and other settings.
1. Go to your account settings at the top left of the screen. See the screenshot below.
2. From the drop down menu, choose settings.
3. When your Gmail account settings open, choose the accounts tab.
4. Then click on change password, as shown below.
5. When you are done you should then press on change password recovery options so you can implement the following security measures:
- Add a mobile phone to your account.
- Add a recovery email address to your account.
- Add an alternate email to your account.
- Add a security question to your Gmail account.
This is all fine but what about if your Gmail account gets hacked and you can’t gain access to it?
Unable to Access your Gmail Account After Hacking
Gnail has another option that might help when you can’t access your account. You can visit this address https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery and also try to login to your account, proving you have an alternate email address setup or you know another email associated with your account.
This is the first step to recovering your Gmail account.
Think About Accounts That Use This Email Address
- Did the hacker have access to your contacts list? If they did then you should actually phone them up and tell them of the breach. Also tell them not to open any emails from your account until you sort this out.
- Did you redirect email to another account or setup a pop3 account in your Gmail account? If so, think about what a hacker might have seen and what they could do with that information.
- Do you sign into other important online accounts using this email address. For example, is this compromised email associated with your Ebay account or maybe Facebook?
- Did you use the same password for any other accounts online? If so, change them as soon as possible.
