A family friend’s Gmail account was recently hijacked. We noticed because we got strange e-mails from her asking for money so we called and told her what had happened. By the time she got around to check what was going on, she was locked out of her Gmail and her Facebook accounts. In the panic that followed her question was “what do I do”? My response was “Google it”. But then I realized that although there is plenty of forums where people ask for help because they are locked out of their accounts, there doesn’t seem to be many sites covering the fact that one account is seldom hacked in solitude and some basic help in what to do when your account(s) has(have) been compromised.

So, voila! I’ve set up a couple of pages in this blog that are primarily dedicated to help people who can no longer access their accounts for one of the general on-line service providers (Gmail, Facebook, Hotmail, Twitter, etc). If you can still access your account but someone is using it to send spam or such then you may still get some benefits from these pages, but I’d suggest you go to the help section of the service provider and find their instructions on what to do. Or simply change your password and the emergency verification questions that most service providers have.

On the other hand, if you can no longer access your account, then some serious trouble may be coming your way, so please read on.

Table of Contens

First Things First

Immediate Responses
– Financial or Work Related Implications?
 – Checking for Viruses

Assess the Damage

Contain the Damage
– Setting up a New Email Account (IF NEEDED)
– Changing the Passwords

 Fix the Damage
– Google Accounts
– Facbook
– Yahoo! Mail
– Windows Live Hotmail
– Twitter
– PayPal