4 months ago, I got an email from Google stating that I had suspicious activity on my Google account and I have been temporarily locked out until I can verify myself.
When I was finally able to get into my Google account my backup email it was missing and Google prompts was turned off. I've been using Google prompts for a while now as my authentication and that was turned off
I didn't turn it off. I never got a text asking if it was me trying to sign in & nothing else was touched. How that could have happened?
I now have a master password that's nearly 30 characters & it looks something like this mess of gibberish below >>>> dpj3*
[email protected]#@*vdsgv45MKhdS!era!2vbfr <<< of course that's not my password, but that's kind of what it looks like now, a bunch of gibberish and over 20 characters.
Before I had a password of about 13 characters uppercase, lowercase question marks, and it didn't make any sense similar to the gibberish one above with random letters, numbers & symbols but this time I have one that's twice as long over 20 characters.
I wonder how Google prompts got turned off? And my backup email address got removed?
If somebody did get in my account, you would think they want to do more than that they didn't touch my credit cards they didn't touch any of my pictures they didn't mess with my account other than turning off Google prompts and removing my backup email address they left my cell phone number there, and I used that to get back into my account.
Perhaps Google locked them out before they could do any more damage?? I'm kind of curious how that could have happened. I live by myself and there's nobody that could have gotten into my computer. I have a Chromebook, I'm very good with Internet Security, and I'm very good with computers.
I put my backup email address back in there now I'm looking at my Google account every day I have had no problem since I made those changes.
I'm totally stumped by how somebody could have gotten in there. Why would they get in there to only turn off my Google prompts & remove my backup email address?
I have two-step authentication on everything and I haven't had one problem anywhere else except my Google account. My banking is safe, everything seems fine except my Google prompts was turned off and my backup email address was removed.
The only thing I can figure is if I got hacked, perhaps Google recognized it and kick them out before they could do any more damage? Has anybody else had this happen I'm curious if I'm the only one?
Fast-forward 5 months and I have not had one problem and Google has not sent me that suspicious activity email anymore
I would really like to know how this happened?
It did teach me a lesson don't keep all your eggs in one basket >>>> I use Dropbox now, and I also use Mega storage now, and I also opened up an extra Gmail account in case I get locked out again, so I have a spare one to get in.
I also use Yahoo Mail as well as Gmail I have duplicates of things so if I get locked out I'm not completely helpless.
I've been using Google for nearly a decade, and I've never had a problem this is the first, and I'm wondering how anybody could have gotten in my account without me knowing and then only turn off Google prompts, and then remove my backup email and leave the rest of my account untouched.
I posted the same question in the Google support forum months ago, and I never got one response
I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me to understand what could have happened
