I have chosen an oxymoron as the title to this blog.
I mentioned my problem in a note to the story I posted today ....
I have been shut out of my gmail account and I have lost contact with everybody except people I am in touch with over discord.
Does anybody know how I can get my gmail back? A "verify that you are really you" message came up giving the only option as my back email, which now has a 2 step verification using the gmail I can't access. It is driving me nuts.
In the meantime I need to hear from people who I now have no way of contacting. So if you have had my email before please send me a prvate message so I can get back in touch with you.
Maryanne
Google Services
A word from our sponsor:
Comments
Do you have android phone
Do you have android phone linked to that account? If yes - it will allow you to confirm the request.
If none of this helps message me
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439?hl=en
At the bottom is also gmail help support.
I've had several dozen try and hijack my gmail but it seems google is on top of it and sends me messages 'is it me asking to change password and if it isn't click the link provided and it will be taken care of'
As coincidence someone tried hijacking my ebay account this morning. eBay was quick to respond and confirm my email was not them.
That's not counting the ten to thirty spam flushed everyday by my ISP as soon as I let them know I don't want those messages. I love the ones where I have won "etc" or Great Someone died and left me oddles of money. In all instances they are requesting personal data to complete the transaction.
You gotta love how persistent these crooks are.
Hugs Maryanne
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Thanks Barb
Unfortunately, nothing on the "How to" seems to work.
I have not been hacked. I have not forgotten my user name or password. I simply click on an this this comes up:
"Verify it’s you / ***@gmail.com / To help keep your account secure, Google needs to verify it’s you. Please sign in again to continue"
Next
"You’ve been signed out for your protection ... We detected suspicious activity ..."
I suspect that was because I signed in when I was in Europe
Continue takes me back to my sign in - so I do that ...
"Account recovery / To help keep your account safe, Google wants to make sure it’s really you trying to sign in ... Get a verification code
To get a verification code, first confirm the recovery email address you added to your account ••••••@•••••••.•••"
It gives me no other option. It does not reference my phone - which would work. It does not offer me security questions.
My recovery email address is yahoo mail, and for some reason that does not accept my password. It requires me to enter a code sent to gmail - the account I can't get into!
So no access. All my contacts and a bunch of edits are in my mail, plus that mail is access to Google docs on some of my work in progress - so that is out of reach.
Trying to get through to to Google is like trying to claw through concrete with your fingernails.
It is all very distressing.
Has anybody got a hammer-drill?
Maryanne
.
Yahoo accounts
Should offer you the chance to send a code to your phone. At least it does here in the UK.
Perhaps this salutatory tale might serve as a warning to others who rely on 'cloud' storage (which is what Google is because it is somewhere out on the internet and not under your control) for everything in their life.
Yes, I have banged on about this before but Maryanne is suffering because of it. Yes, giving everything to Mr Google (other cloud providers are available such as Microsoft) is so easy that people forget or simply can't be bothered to take a physical backup of their files before going on holiday or just about anything. Flash drives are so cheap these days that cost should not be a reason to not do it.
Even my 'My_Ramblngs' folder tree, which contains everything that 1) I have posted here, 2) everything that I have posted on my Blog and 3) all my work in progress is less than 1GB in size (14,054 files).
The rant above is no help to Maryanne but hopefully is a warning to others. She is not the first author here to lose almost everything and I'm willing to bet a $100 donation to BCTS that she won't be the last.
Samantha
Shamed
Thanks Samantha,
I am rightly chastised and will take proper steps to record my files.
But as it happens it is less serious for me. Before I take any extend break taking my laptop, I download the entire contents onto a large drive which I keep at home, and did that here. It is just the edits on Google Docs that I could not access, but the editors still can.
Still, all my contacts are gone, and I am hoping those who have engaged with me in the past will reach out to me again.
Maryanne