How Gmail account got hacked

If your Gmail account got hacked, hold responsible your friends.

You are 36 times more probable to get scammed if your contacts' accounts have been hacked, according to a study out this week by Google.  

It's unusual. happening an average day, only nine in 1 million accounts gets stolen. But when it happens, the action is quick. These are focused criminals at job, looking from first to last your email to steal your bank account information.  The criminals are resolute in five countries. Most of them live in China, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa. But they molest people worldwide, duping them into handing over Gmail usernames and passwords. Google has effective scans to block them and emergency options to get your account back. But criminals still administer to pull rancid the attacks.

Here's some more of what Google found in its three-year study.

In the mind of a hacker

Effective scams work 45% of the time. This quantity sounds colossal, but well-crafted scams can be believable. They send official-looking emails requesting your login testimonial. And sometimes they redirect you to a page that looks like a Google login, but it's not.

protection tip: Don't ever email your username or password -- anywhere. And for all time check the Internet address in the URL above to make certain you're at the definite Gmail site.

They frequently steal your account in less than a day. Once they have your login identification, the average immoral hijacks your account within seven hours. For an ill-fated 20%, the bad guys do it in just 30 minutes. Then they transform your password to lock you out.

protection tip: Sign up for account alerts on your phone or a backup email. And move fast.

It takes only 3 minutes to search your email for important stuff. They're looking for any email that shows your bank account information and images of your real life signature. They also explore for login testimonial for other accounts at Amazon or PayPal. They use the email search facet, looking for phrases like "wire reassigns," "bank" and "account statement."

Safety tip: act upon this search yourself. Go ahead and erase any email with this sensitive data. Don't leave this stuff lying around.

Expect your friends to get preyed on too. Criminals will send emails in your name asking friends for money. Typically, they use a sob story, claiming you got stuck somewhere and need help.

Fraudsters are smart at trust this under the radar too: 15% of them create repeated email rules that forward your friends' responses to an additional email address. So even if you get your account back, you won't know your friends were targeted, because you'll never get their responses.

Worst of all? Sometimes fraudsters delete all your emails and contacts to check you from warning friends afterward. Google has an account upturn option to bring them all back -- but that's only if you actually recover your account.

Safety tip: Just make it not viable to break into your email in the first place. Sign up for two-step authentication, a second password you get by text message. It's an extra 30 seconds on every new computer, but it's worth it in the long run. For further guidance see Google Update