In this post, we will get your through the process of recovering your hacked Gmail account and securing it afterwards to avoid future threats.
Ensure Your Gmail Account is Hacked
First, let’s make sure someone hacked your Gmail account before we go through the recovery process. Below are some factors that should indicate your account is hacked:
You found unusual activity in your account, such as email sent that you don’t remember sending, changes in Gmail settings or changes in labels. Spam being sent to your contacts. Google notified that your password has been changed or suspicious account activity has been detected. In your Last account activity, there are sessions you don’t recognize or there are devices attached to your account that you don’t recognize. You can’t access your account even when you are entering the right password.
Recover Your Hacked Gmail Account
After confirming that your account has been hacked, lets recover it:
You can Still Access the Account
If you can still access your account and found suspicious activity, then I will recommend you to immediately go through Google Gmail security checkup to secure your Gmail account. The steps taken in the security checkup are more than enough to secure your Gmail account and kick the hacker out. Below is an explanation of how you should handle each step: Note: You need to be logged in to be able to use the security checkup. Step #1 Change Password: Here click on “Change password” and provide a new password. Make sure you choose a strong password with random words, characters and numerals.
Step #2 Check Account Recovery Options: Check both recovery email and phone number and ensure there are no changes. If you haven’t setup recover options at all, then please do so right away. They will immensely help if you’re locked out of account in a hack attempt.
Step #3 Check Account Permissions: Here you will see all the permissions you have given to third-party apps and services to access your account. Click “Remove” next to each service that you don’t use anymore or don’t recognize at all.
Step #4 Check Gmail Settings: Google will automatically check for privacy and security settings of Gmail and let you know if it finds any compromising setting enabled.
After going through the above steps and taking the right measures, your Gmail account should be secured.
You are Locked out of the Account
If you Gmail account is compromised and the hacker also locked you out of it, then you can go through the Google account recovery form to recover Gmail password. While trying to log-in click on the “Need help” button to open the recover form. Alternatively, you can also directly click on this Google recovery form link to access it. Here you will find different ways to recover your account. If you have setup recovery options (that we mentioned above), then Google will try to use that to recover your account.
Otherwise, you can answer questions like, what is the last password you remember or when did you created the account. If you answer these questions right, then Google will help you recover and secure your account.
Secure Your Gmail Account
Once you have successfully recovered your account, it is time to secure it to prevent this from happening again. The best you can do to secure your account is enable Google’s 2-Step Verification to make your account foolproof. Once enabled, you will have to login to your Google account using both your password and a code sent to your phone. This will make it almost impossible for hackers to hack your account as they will need your password and physical access to your phone. Do check our Gmail Security tips article to protect your account from the hackers. Additionally, make sure you apply all the security measure to both your main Gmail account and the recover email account. If recovery email account is hacked, then your main account can be easily hacked as well. I will also recommend you to scan your PC with a good antivirus program to ensure there is no malware that may be monitoring your activity or stealing information.
Did You Manage to Recover Your Hacked Gmail Account?
Your Gmail account is extremely sensitive as you use it to create other online accounts and all Google services can be accessed with it. Even if you get a hint that your Gmail account is hacked, then you should take the right measures to secure it. If someone hacked your Gmail account even for few minutes, it will be more than enough to steal important data and cause havoc. Did you manage to recover your Gmail account? If you are still locked outside for some reason, let us know in the comments; we may be able to help.
