How to get back a hacked Gmail account
A friend of mine lost his Gmail account to a hacker today. The hacker changed his secret question and secondary email to new ones. Once these two things are changed, you cannot get back your account through the forgot password tool. That is when he asked me what to do….
Well, Gmail has a special page to report such incidents when someone hacks into your account.
This page can be accessed at https://services.google.com/inquiry/gmail_security1.
The Gmail Team considers numerous data points when determining original account ownership in a hijacking case. In addition to the information requested on the form, you can also include the following information to help them process your claim.
- The email addresses of up to 3 Frequently Mailed Contacts
- The names of up to 3 Labels
- Any other Google services you used with this account and the date you started using each one
- Your ip-address
You can also resubmit the form later if you find any additional information that would help them investigate. This process is said to take about 4-10 days.
Do let me know if this worked for you by leaving a comment on this post.
76 Comments
Comments are closed.
December 2, 2015 at 12:02 pm
MyNameIs....
I have the same issue as most of the other people. I made a dumb mistake, clicked some things, and I’ve ended up here. So, my E-mail’s password was changed a while ago. Now I am trying to get the password back, since I realized everything that was under that E-mail… (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) The password has been changed for. I do not remember the information that is needed in order to recover my email (Last time I logged in, when Email was made, etc.) because it was a while ago. Seems like I’ve hit a dead end, are there any other ways I can get my email back? Please help!
March 31, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Don Graham
So what do I do when non of your suggestion would not work. I did not have my Google hacked. I deleted my google by installing a new Google in it place. Now I can not get to my gmail, youtube, or bookmarks. Why in the hell dose Google/gmail not have an on line chat/support service.
September 2, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Tania Prasad
How Do I retrieve emails that have gone missing due to hacking
July 28, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Carlos
Hello, I have had someone from my former employer hacked into one of my personal email. They have changed me password. They set up a 2 step verification. All I want is my personal contact that are saved. I’m not living in the same city and country as my family and have no way of conatcting my personal numbers. PLEASE HELP ME! Google has not responded yet. PLEASE THANK YOU!!!
May 5, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Honey
I lost my yahoo, hotmail and gmail accounts from one person. I got my hotmail accounts back but others are still a mystery. I have tried many things but no luck. If you can help I would really appreciate it.
He changed my pass word as well as secret questions. That was back in Jan and I am still trying to recover but no success. Tell me how to get them back please.
April 23, 2012 at 9:13 pm
swapnaa
Hey Alfed… plz help me… itz me swapnaa… hacker hacked my account very smartly… he didnt leave any recovery option… sry my english is weak… plz help me… using my account he can do any thing… plz stop him fast…
April 23, 2012 at 9:08 pm
swapnaa
hiiii… someone hack my both gmail n fb account.. plz help me plz…
March 21, 2012 at 8:53 am
wofgang
hi am wolf some one hack my email and this man help me to get it back?
but after that he put money to my bank account he said he can do it he send 20thousand euro but is hacking money is three mouths now wil the bank arrest me later i wont to knw he said he can do more this the man email
[email protected] but i dont want to do it again
March 21, 2012 at 8:52 am
wofgang
hi am wolf some one hack my email and this man help me to get it back?
but after that he put money to my bank account he said he can do it he send 20thousand euro but is hacking money is three mouths now wil the bank arrest me later i wont to knw he said he can do more this the man email
[email protected] but i dont want to do it again
March 4, 2012 at 5:21 pm
ali raza
my gmail account has also been hacked by someone recently and I am sure he used some technique bcoz no 2nd person used my computer ever. I guess password cracking is real .even though I dont know the guy who did this but it sure is an outside job .any ideas ??????
February 26, 2012 at 2:01 am
aakanksha
tre………………………..
February 23, 2012 at 5:29 am
Anon
The good news is, Google now has an entire team devoted to account recovery, an actual (American) human will review your claim and if need be, call you (US, English only at this time), there is a small CC charge (it’s not for profit, it’s to verify ID via CC records). The best advice I can legally give is, know your exact creation date, the exact day you last had access (including Android access, if your phone works, you have access, it does not mean the last day you physically logged in, but the last day you accessed the account), know the exact city and state you created the account. Know upto five frequent email contact addresses, know every Google service you use and the exact date you started using each service. And a few other data points. If you know these, you’ll get back into your account.
I know this because I work on the Account Recovery Team with Google.
February 16, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Jhon
Nice Article but please check this link also there is a detailed instruction of how to recovered you hacked facebook account please check this http://enzag.com/technology/social-networking/recover-hacked-facebook-account/
February 14, 2012 at 3:39 pm
subhum
hey bro can u help me out my email hasbeen hacked by someone he has changed my gmail account password…please tell me how can i get my accout back…………..please mail me on my email [email protected]
January 23, 2012 at 1:49 pm
umesh kumar
sir some body is hacked my gmail account .& i forget my security answer. so plz ………. help me
December 12, 2011 at 12:56 pm
sanjay sharma
today i found my gmail account empty, all inbox and sent items were empty.. the password is ok..Please help how do i get back my emails.
October 4, 2011 at 2:04 am
pradeepmaurya
hello…..sir some body is hacked my gmail account .& i forget my security answer.so plz ………..help mmmmmmmmmmmme…………….
September 16, 2011 at 6:59 am
anshul
is it possible that a hacked account can get recovered within minutes….even if the form was filled from a different ip???
June 19, 2011 at 12:17 pm
matthew soules
how can i get my gmail acc back please email my alternitive gmail acc [email protected]
June 16, 2011 at 3:55 pm
biswajit tripathy
One of my friend’s gmail id was hacked. The hacker sent me a link from her id. Unsuspecting that her id has been hacked I opened the link only to found my id to be hacked 5 minutes later. The hacker has changed the security question, cell no in the id. How to recover. I have asked help from google; but they are asking me the creation date of gmail id which I don’t remember at all. Can any one here help?
June 7, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Adam @ ThisIsWhyImBroke
Wow I didn’t know google was that awesome, that really brings piece of mind knowing there’s extra security incase my account gets stolen.
June 1, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Khalid Khan
Dears,
My gmail account has been hacked. All my emails as well as contacts were deleted. Can any one help me restore my account with all deleted emails and contacts.
Thanks You so much
Khalid Khan
[email protected]
May 30, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Aashi
Hi,
Like you prepare for any other emergency, it is very important to backup your email on a regular basis for Disaster Recovery. If you ever loose your email by accidentally deleting or because of any other reason beyond your control, you can quickly restore your email from the backup using Beyond Inbox. See how Beyond Inbox is designed for convenience of taking secure backups of IMAP enabled email clients. http://www.beyondinbox.com/documentation/mail-backup–email-backup-for-disaster-and-recovery.html
May 10, 2011 at 10:04 am
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March 29, 2011 at 7:11 am
Alfred
I would say Trueswitch from hotmail also works well to have a backup of your account
March 22, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Aashi
Hello,
I am one of the development team member of BeyondInbox.
many time people forget there password and there account may be hacked. To prevent such loss you must take regular backup your mail.
One simple application “BeyondInbox” for backup Imap/Gmail mail. It is much safer backups. No risk of deleting email from backup while deleting from inbox. http://www.beyondinbox.com/documentation/mail-backup–how-to-backup-emails-from-imap-account.html
March 18, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Alvin yap
Hi Alfred , i believe you have receive lots of comments regarding that their gmail been hack and i’m one of them.
So wondering just how long does Google needs to resolve everybody problem?
Even if they can’t retrieve back as least lets us close the acc as we got lots of client email & contact there.
Is there really no other ways apart from waiting for Google to get back to us ?? i have been waiting patiencely for the past 7days liao and i’m yet to get a reply back from them.
Their services really sucks !!
March 1, 2011 at 2:56 pm
tejaswini
my friend’s gmail and facebook accounts got hacked by someone.she is unable to get access through it and her account has been used by them .even after submitting the necessary information to the gmail team, they are unable to solve her out.it came to know that her system is being accessed by them indirectly. pls solve her out ..
February 4, 2011 at 1:44 am
Govind Mantri
Thanks a lot for u information it jst take 10 min to recover.
Thanks a lot man u dnno how much u helped me. m really graceful to u . may god bless u a lot and u play in green papers .
whenever u got free come to ma web i really want to thanks u at the front of all ma users
thanks a lot again
February 2, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Govind Mantri
sir,
I too a blogger i used to make blogs web on blogger and some how today ma ID got hacked its too important to me basically m running a online cricket web so i have to back to password as soon as possible. pls do help me out. The hacker did changed all ma recovery options and i fillied out the form but basically m nt sure that the info abt dates are actual. so can me tell me what can i do more
Thanks a Lot!!
January 6, 2011 at 8:05 am
Alfred
How do you expect me to know about your ID ! If it were so simple, there would be no use for passwords !
Please read the post and do the steps shown here. You should also stop posting your email ID on public comments, since spam bots will find your ID and send you unwanted offers or scam emails.
December 27, 2010 at 3:39 am
ibrahim
sir please help me,
i lost my gmail id or orkut id, it is very important for me because my sister is added in it and i don’t know her id or email please help me.
my gmail id is [email protected]
sir if you get my id please send me email on [email protected]
December 22, 2010 at 2:57 am
Stung
I was hacked in Nov. (also a writer, all kept & saved separate from any “accounts”). Experience says;back up all work/have at least two email accounts/change password at irregular periods/follow google account retrieval instructions. I’ve learned the hard way Carla, it drives you nuts but I did get my account back. Remember to be consistent each time you fill out the form; don’t do too many fill outs; await google 24hr response. Meantime, set up new accounts to get back old, you should be OK.
Also, if you were hacked, get Malware & Trojan protection from google forums. And work away from Websense or arrange a channel. I’d had a difficult time putting all my eggs in one basket & Google are just trying to protect if something is irregular on hacked accounts. Just try to cover yourself in future. BFN & Happy Holidays.!
December 3, 2010 at 1:39 am
Peter Couch
Gmail accounts are the safest accounts for the users. They have a very strong security interface as well. Check back why your a/c was hacked and set the stronger password.
http://www.hacked-email.com/most-common-cases-for-your-account-being-hacked/
November 21, 2010 at 3:43 am
Alfred
Ah Websense, I remember that thing when I used to work for AT&T. I’m guessing the password reset they sent you expired since you were unable to open it.
Sorry Carla but I don’t know any other way that you could use for getting your account back :(
November 19, 2010 at 12:21 am
Carla
Hello Alfred,
I do appreciate your responses. Thanks. But, I don’t think I’m making myself understood, even to you. I was not using company e-mail. I’m set up with wifi at my school. They use WebSense, which blocks all sorts of things. Who knew it would block me trying to recover my password! This is what Google doesn’t understand, either. And I’m not sure how to tell them with this report form. After numerous attempts at sending the password recovery url, they stopped.
November 18, 2010 at 4:49 pm
nisha
hey
my acount has been hacked i have filled the form but havent got any replay yet. i realy dont know what to do.
plzz help me and send a mail to [email protected]
November 17, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Alfred
@Carla : I’m sure you can’t sue them for anything, first off its a free service. Second we all signed the TOS which I am sure protects them.
It is best to try and explain the situation to them and next time dont use a company email address that might block messages.
Just out of curiosity, didn’t you have an alternate email setup in gmail for password recovery ?
November 15, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Carla
Hi Alfred, thanks for your reply. Here’s the problem as I see it now. Google sent password recovery, but because I was at work where there was Websense blocking, all the emails were sent scrambled. You need to know that this has never happened to me before. Not only did the emails arrive scrambled, but they went in spam folders. Anyway, I had to get home to Kingston a few days later (my work is in Toronto and I live 2 and a half hours away) to (gradually) figure out what happened. Now Google thinks I’m the hacker. It is so unbelievably frustrating. They won’t do anything for me. I want to sue them, actually. This is serious lockup of important creative and intellectual property.
November 14, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Alfred
The only way to get back your account is by filling those forms. Since you are a writer, if you have an Adsense account, it can help accelerate the process if your provide some id proof.
If not try giving some information on the articles that are saved in the draft folder.
November 14, 2010 at 12:24 am
Carla
I am a writer and saved all the first drafts of my work on another gmail account for the last 3 and a half years. I lost my mobile phone, and before Fido could block the SIM # someone had compromised my gmail account. I would like to have this account opened to retrieve my writing. Filling out numerous forms is not helping. Please advise.
November 13, 2010 at 1:24 am
priya
my another mail id is been hacked and my photos are been misused.can any one say me some solution for this plzzzz help me to recover my mail id
October 20, 2010 at 8:19 am
Alfred
Honestly most email account especially hotmail does that if you dont login for a long time… Considering that its free we have no reason to complain..
On a side note we you using these account to forward mails to each other ? The only time I have got that suspicious activity report was when I used trueswitch from hotmail to transfer my mails
October 14, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Joe
I have around 10 gmail accounts. Each one has a different password which is a random string of letters and numbers. I recently tried to access some of the older ones I haven’t logged in to in 3-4 years and am getting a message saying that due to suspicious activity my account has been most likely compromised, and thus locked.
There is no way this is due to a weak password or break on my end. What it is looking like is a failure on googles side or a way to clear out ‘dead’ accounts with an excuse. I’ve filled out the forms and even had the invite URL, email it was sent to, and referral ID for a few of them, from way back in 2004. As well as the month and year of the last time I sent mail from it, and still get a response that they cant prove it’s my account.
Google is full of shit on this one. Most of you guys are screwed.
October 11, 2010 at 5:03 pm
sweety
hey my gmail password hacked by someone. how can i getback plz help me
September 17, 2010 at 4:28 am
Aaliya
I have been trying to fill out this form but I get stuck at the part where they ask you to put in the date of when the account was created. That is a required field but it is grayed out so I cannot enter that information. Please help! all my personal info is on the account and I cannot enter it as the hijacker has changed my secondary email.
August 13, 2010 at 5:08 pm
nilam patel
dear.sir
my gmail account is hacking to some one..so my account is recover ,,how possible it, plz tell me.
August 9, 2010 at 11:17 pm
astha
my account has been hacked and that nd my friends r telling me he is miss using my a/c. how can i be safe on legal grounds if possible. plz guide me
thankyou
July 17, 2010 at 1:16 pm
steve
well two weeks now…a three year old account gone. It was tied to everything, merchant, local buisness center. wow
July 10, 2010 at 2:26 am
koushik
hiii bro my gmail account hasbeen hacked by someone…my username is [email protected]….. plzzzzzz can u get back my account plzzzzzzzz mail me tooo [email protected] this is my new account… plzzzzz help meee plzzzzz
July 5, 2010 at 3:36 pm
vasanthk464
hey bro can u help me out my email hasbeen hacked by someone he has changed my gmail account password…please tell me how can i get my accout back…………..please mail me on my email srpraksh5gmail.com
July 5, 2010 at 3:20 pm
vasanthk464
hey bro can u help me out my email hasbeen hacked by someone he has changed my gmail account password…please tell me how can i get my accout back…………..please mail me on my email srpraksh52gmail.com
July 4, 2010 at 6:58 am
Alfred
Just cause u got hacked, I don’t think the police are going to do anything about it.. and the hackers could be from other countries where your countries law has no power.
July 4, 2010 at 3:25 am
flo
I’ve been hacked-wales scam-1. what is orkut?2.shouldn’t the Wales police be notified?
May 16, 2010 at 12:20 pm
hrishi raj
hi my account has been hacked by some one….my email id is [email protected] …..hacker is misusing my id….plzz help me….
April 1, 2010 at 9:20 pm
MD Singh
I lost my gmail account to some hacker sometime back. I need the help of an expert who can save my information’s misuse. Wonder why people feel the need to do such things as it only causes unrest to others.
Can you please help me? Mr hacked gmail account id is “[email protected]”
much appreciate the help.
March 11, 2010 at 2:03 am
lucky
hey hi, my gmail a/c hac been hacked on feb 3 since then i’ve been trying to get it back. all i can do was to provide the exact information that google was asking then too i got response that they could not verify it. can anyone help me out in getting my gmail account backits very important to me. plzzzzzzz. my gmail id in [email protected].
February 26, 2010 at 5:08 am
brooks
My account got hacked last night, and he also got into my facebook account and school email. Im in dental school and have alot of patients contact in my school email which really scares me. All my contact info is in gmail and he is sending out emails saying I am stuck in Wales with no money/credit cards blah blah blah. Anyways i filled out that form this morning and they emailed me back around 12 saying they cant restore my account? WTF? arent they in charge of it? And cant they see that one IP address is in the states and the other is probably coming from NIGERIA?
February 26, 2010 at 4:57 am
Alfred
Nothing I can do to help you. That form and all the information you can provide is the only way to get back your account.
February 25, 2010 at 11:47 pm
swiny
hey my gmail is hacked since 4 days can u please help me out..i even tried filling d form on google nd all bt no response..so please help me..my gmail id is [email protected]:(
February 22, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Teresa Ford
I have been trying to get my account back for a few days now. I have sent the form in four times with varying amounts of information.
The last time I sent it I included the exact date I joined, who invited me, the url from the invite e-mail, the address the invite was sent to (and I know all this was absolutely spot on it was stored in the gmail account of the person who invited me) as well as loads of other information.
Yet still I got the same standard reply that they could not verify that the account was mine.
I have an adword, google checkout, adsense and blogger account all tied to my google account. Losing personal and business e-mails is bad enough, but with adwords and google checkout I could also lose money through not being able to get into my accounts.
If anyone knows of another way of contacting google please let me know. It would take a matter of minutes to get this sorted if a real person could look at my e-mail account.
I realise gmail is free, but adwords and google checkout aren’t…it is possible for them to verify my business details if only someone was there to do it…:-(
January 21, 2010 at 8:10 am
Alfred
I just love it when I get replies like these, it just makes my day knowing I was able to help someone out.
Getting back a hack Gmail account in just one hour, thats the fastest I have heard without pulling strings.
January 20, 2010 at 8:29 am
Justin Bieber
Thanks sooooo much! Google responded within an hour and I now have my account back from the punks who hacked it!!!!
Easy as pie.
December 10, 2009 at 9:21 pm
akhil
my a\c has been hacked.actly there was a url in an about me of a person i clicked it,a new orkut login page opened i entered my id n password n d a\c got hacked.plz help me 2 gt back d a\c guys my a\c is [email protected]
December 8, 2009 at 9:09 am
Alfred
@Mark, Do you know how much it costs to have a support service. After all its a free service that we arent paying for.
I guess if you have gone for their paid disk space upgrade, they would easily verify your ownership. Free service, you should have remembered, btw the more you submit the longer it takes
December 7, 2009 at 3:02 am
Mark
@Ben, I’ve tried to submit the forms for more than 4 times and still no answer. Gmail really needs to put some live support or an alternative way of retrieving your account. I just don’t understand some of the questions. Who really can remember when they first used their gmail account?
July 28, 2009 at 6:02 am
Ben
I tried this… answered all I could more than 5 times and still it has the same response after 15 minutes.. I thought by adding the url of the invite, date I created the account and email that the invite was sent from/to that would help but no.
I dont get gmail. Is there no one at all that you can talk to. IF they had like a more information room I could put in my name and add more info and IP addresses that I have logged in from and such, also I could say more about the emails in there but no…. I cant. btw this is what i got in all those emails
:
Thank you for your report. We’ve completed our investigation and cannot
return your account at this time. We were unable to verify that you own
this account based on the information you provided.
If you can provide additional information to verify that you own this
account, please visit
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?ara=1 and submit
another report. Whether we can return access to this account depends on
the strength and accuracy of your responses, so be sure to provide as much
information as possible. If you’re unsure about specific dates or
information, provide your best guess.
May 20, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Alfred
Really happy to hear i was able to help someone get back their email address.
May 18, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Preetha
Awesome..i just got my gmail password retrieved..thanks a ton :smile:
May 3, 2009 at 2:07 pm
keshav
====Edited by admin===========
The guy tried to post a scam to make you send you password to him, so im editing it out..
My readers safety comes first !!
-Alfred
March 27, 2008 at 5:49 pm
emran
:oops: hey bro can u help me out my email hasbeen hacked by someone he has changed my gmail account password…please tell me how can i get my accout back…………..please mail me on my email [email protected]
November 25, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Alfred
It is said to take about 2 weeks before google replies to you on your alternate mail, that was the case when my friend lost his account. Also try to resend the form with as much information as possible so that they can confirm your identity.
November 25, 2007 at 7:12 am
Sad Sack
Mine has been hijacked going on four days. Nothing from Google yet. No help at all. All my docs, gmail, website and blog are under someone’s control. I’ve got so much personal data due to things I’ve sent my family that I’m freaked out. No one cares. I’m only getting blamed by other users that my password wasn’t good enough. I’m feel so victimized. Why doesn’t Google offer live support?
November 21, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Vinay Chaudhary
Thanks for the guidance, Hope it works to recover my Hacked Gmail Account.
Regards
November 2, 2007 at 3:35 am
Alfred
hmm this one post bombarded by site with traffic :D
November 1, 2007 at 10:57 am
Noorizam Shah
good info.. thank you.. :)