Someone logged into my gmail account from turkey?

[Millennium]

hi there

I noticed earlier this evening that my gmail had been logged off, so I tried to log back in. Gmail took me through the full security check (text to mobile) and forced me to change my password due to suspicious activity.

Well it turned out this was right as someone from turkey had logged into my gmail and sent a spam email to about 8 recipients from my address. I have their IP as 95.10.111.183 . I've checked for viruses and spyware and come back clean. How could they have guessed my password (brute forced?) and what should I do now?

The spam seems to have been bounced a lot so that's a good thing. My password was 7 alphanumeric characters.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Thoughts welcome!

thanks

[Lanky123]

Do you use the same password for everything? If so how many websites have you signed up to using your gmail address and that password - effectively all the info anyone needs.

[jim]

Fairly unlikely that it's been bruteforced, as they're fairly good at protecting against those kinds of things. Besides, with the latency involved it would be a lot of effort for a basic spam account.

I take it you haven't logged in on any other machines?

[sadbuttrue]

Alternatively, it could simply have been a spam bot sending out emails with spoofed "from" addresses to bypass spam protection. If such an email was sent to an account inside the Google system, they could have detected a dodgy IP attached to the emails and assumed your account had been compromised.

[jim]

Sounds to me as though he's found their IP on the "who has logged into your account" page on Gmail, could be wrong though.

[Millennium]

Yes I haven't logged in on any other machines . Maybe my mum's pc but I don't think so.

Probably shouldn't admit this but it's a password I use on lots of other sites. Maybe that is how they found it. But in 15 years I've never had this problem. Strange....

Is there anything I can do with the IP address? Report it or something?

edit: SnootyJim, that's right.

edit2:SadButTrue, the email shows in my sent items so must have been sent by someone logged into my gmail. Makes me shudder...

[bledd]

Yes I haven't logged in on any other machines . Maybe my mum's pc but I don't think so.

Probably shouldn't admit this but it's a password I use on lots of other sites. Maybe that is how they found it. But in 15 years I've never had this problem. Strange....

Is there anything I can do with the IP address? Report it or something?

edit: SnootyJim, that's right.

edit2:SadButTrue, the email shows in my sent items so must have been sent by someone logged into my gmail. Makes me shudder...

Not a good idea to use the same password for any sites that can be used to access personal information.

Some online shops don't encrypt their passwords, so the staff can view them. (or at least, this used to be the case with one site that I know)

[Lucio]

Not a good idea to use the same password for any sites that can be used to access personal information.

Some online shops don't encrypt their passwords, so the staff can view them. (or at least, this used to be the case with one site that I know)

A good test is to use the "forgot my password" routine, if it gives you a random alphanumeric password chances are your details are encrypted, if it sends your normal password back it wont be.

Personally I have several passwords, write them down as my online stuff is at a greater risk from anonymous hackerd than burglers

[CaptainCrash]

Personally I have several passwords, write them down as my online stuff is at a greater risk from anonymous hackerd than burglers

No need to write them down, just use a decent password manager like KeePass or LastPass - that way they won't get lost, and they're also safe from burglars or random snoopers. You also get the option to generate strong passwords automatically using random/non-alphanumeric characters.

The only relatively "weak" passwords I use nowadays are for web forums and the like, where the only conceivable damage would be to my online reputation, such as it is.

[oolon]

I find the best one of the best ways to create passwords is to use a phrase, then select say the first letter of each word, replace O with 0 etc. Tap a 3 digit number on the start/end for every site then record the 3 digits, but not the rest of the password. Have a few differnent phrases so no part of your banking password is every used on say a web forum.

[WillUK]

change you password or you could try contacting google. It might however be a mistake like people above my have already stated

[Millennium]

I've changed the password already thanks. And google took me through it quite nicely. Someone also logged in from another location so I'm guessing my details were posted/sold. Nothing happened since I changed my password so I'm thinking I was just unlucky here.

Thanks for the help

[bledd]

If your paypal / ebay etc (or any other site with access to your card details) are linked to your gmail, I'd log in and change the passwords for them too. Just to be sure