How to completely recover a hacked or compromised Google Account
February 15, 2022
Having a Google Account is essential for using any of the Google Suite apps and your favorite third party apps with Google Account access. But what happens when you’ve lost access to your Google Account itself? No need to panic! Google has a recovery questionnaire in place in the case that you are having trouble accessing any of your accounts. With that said, in this article we will discuss what steps you should take if your Google Account ends up being compromised or hacked.
The first and most important action Google recommends its users to take is to navigate to the account recovery page. From there, the user will be asked a series of questions at every step. In order to recover your account successfully, Google suggest that its users follow the series of prompts with a few things in mind:
- Answer as many questions as you can and make sure to answer in complete detail. Even if you think your answer may not be adequate or correct, Google suggests that you fill out everything and make an attempt.
- When filling out the form, it is suggested that you use your usual device and browser at a familiar location. For example, try to sign in on your phone at home or via chrome on your laptop at work.
- Double check that you enter all passwords and responses to the security questions correctly. Check for cases, blanks and other special characters used when typing in your response, and try multiple variations in the case you may have forgotten the exact answer.
- If you have another email address connected to your Google Account, try to use it to get back in or get more information regarding your account activity. Note that the way you are able to access your account again may depend on what kind of email address (recovery, contact or alternate) you have provided
- Check for a message from Google in your spam or junk folder, as it is possible that an email from the Google support team may have gotten lost there. However, please use caution when opening such emails and never provide your account credentials on any site other than accounts.google.com.
If Google is unable to verify your identity after filling out the account recovery page prompts, know that it is possible to try and fill out the form again. Otherwise, it is suggested that you create a replacement account.
