Gmail Account Hacked

[brando56894]

I didn't believe it when I kept seeing random posts on here from people with low post counts about their gmail accounts being compromised... until it just happened to me. Five of my friends just hit me up to tell me they got spam from me. I had a pretty secure password too, so it leads me to believe its malware in android that did it.

I guess it is possible. yay...

 

[CD95YJ]

Or it could be a virus on your computer that you got from visiting websites....

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

 

[garrett]

i highly doubt its from something on your android phone..... most likely from a PC either yours or possibly if you checked your gmail from a public computer.

i worked in IT for a school campus and we would find a bunch of computers with keyloggers on them every week

 

[takeshi]

I guess it is possible. yay...

Why would people just make this stuff up? What would they stand to gain?

In any case, nothing is 100% secure unless it's completely isolated and locked down (physically).

 

[dezymond]

agreed with takeshi, nothing is 100% secured.

most likely it came from a website you visited or downloaded something on your home PC. I've only heard of maybe 2 or 3 viruses on Android from apps that aren't too well known over here in the states. I know the latest virus came from an app from China.

run a virus scan on your PC, it may be too late, but it'll save from any further damage. I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials or Malwarebytes.

 

[warrior21]

I had a problem yesterday with mine also. When I woke up my phone was blinking red and said I couldn't connect to my gmail account and when I tried the password wouldn't work. When I logged on to the computer I had to verify it was me and then they prompted me to change my password. I guess they flagged a problem and shut down my account stating suspicious activity. No spam got sent out but someone must have been trying to access my account.

 

[brando56894]

Or it could be a virus on your computer that you got from visiting websites....

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App

Not likely considering my main OS is Linux, but I have been using windows for the past few days. I do login occasionally from a (semi) public computer at my Universities computer lab, but I work there as a consultant and the computers are only used by about 80 or so people. They're also re-imaged relatively often and are protected with a program that prevents changes to the file system.

I just logged into gmail and it says that my account was accessed from China. I'll run a spyware/virus check when I get home later.

I guess it is possible. yay...

Why would people just make this stuff up? What would they stand to gain?

In any case, nothing is 100% secure unless it's completely isolated and locked down (physically).

What I meant by that was "I know its possible but havent seen it out in the wild". You always see the "proof of concept" exploits but most of that wouldn't happen in a real world setting.

 

[AngryHatter]

Many times a link from facebook or a similar site will use contact lists to spam it's message.
Once you click the link to "check out this video" or whatever, you have begun spamming your contact list with the same message.
In those cases there is no direct infection per se, nothing to clean other than the original link, email et cetera.

Yeah, sh*t happens.

 

[brando56894]

I'm not your average computer user (read: geek) so I usually pay attention to those kind of things.

I also just finished running scans of malware bytes and AVG anti-virus: both came back with no infections.