What to Do When Your Email Account is Hacked?

It can be a real nightmare if someone hacks and takes control of your email account as it may contain confidential information like bank logins, credit card details and other sensitive data. If you are one such Internet user whose email account has been compromised, then this post will surely help you out by suggesting some of the steps that you need to take as soon as you realize that your email account is hacked.

Here is a list of steps and procedures that you need to follow in order to initiate the password recovery process:

Steps to Recover Gmail Password:

It can be a big disaster if your Gmail account has been compromised as it may be associated with several services like Blogger, Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Orkut etc. Losing access to your Gmail account means losing access to all the services associated it with too. Here is a list of possible recovery actions that you can try:

Step-1: Try resetting your password! This is the first step and probably the easiest way to get your account back in action. In this process, Google may ask you to answer the secret question or may send the password reset details to the secondary email address associated with your compromised account. You can reset you password from the following link

Gmail Password Reset Link

Update:

Gmail has now introduced a new feature wherein it is possible to reset your password using your mobile number. Once the reset process is initiated, Gmail will send new login details to your mobile number itself.

If you cannot find success from the Step-1, then proceed to Step-2.

Step-2: Many times the hacker will change the secret question and the secondary email address right after the account is compromised. This is the reason for thepassword reset process to fail. If this is the case, then you need to contact the Gmail support team by filling out the account recovery form. This form will ask you to fill out several questions like:

1. Email addresses of up to five frequently emailed contacts
2. Names of any 4 Labels that you may have created in your account
3. List of other services associated with your compromised account
4. Your last successful login date
5. Account created date
6. Last password that you remember and many more…

You need to fill out this form as much accurately as possible. It is obvious to forget the dates of last login, account creation and similar terms. However, you need to figure out the closest possible date/answers and fill out this form. This is your last chance!

The more accurate the information filled out in the recovery form, the more the chances of getting your account back. You may reach the account recovery page form the following link

Account Recovery Form

Steps to Recover Yahoo and Hotmail Password:

Unfortunately, for Yahoo/Hotmail there is no second option like filling out the form or contacting the support team. All you need to do is either answer the secret questions that you have setup or reset the password using the secondary email option.

To initiate the password reset process just click on the Forgot password link in your login page and proceed as per the screen instructions.

I hope this post will help you recover access to your hack email account. I highly recommend that you also read my post onHow to protect your email account from being hacked and Tips to find unauthorized activity on your Gmail account so that you always stay protected!