Friend's gmail account compromised

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2008
4,231
New England
Hi SoSH,

My friend's seldom-used Gmail account has been compromised. I recieved an email from "him" asking me to buy gift cards. I'm obviously not going to do that, but what's the best way for me to help this person out -- he's busy and not all that tech savvy.

Can I report his account as hacked to Gmail? I know that there is a way for me to report my own account as compromised, but I don't see an obvious way to report someone else's. Also, I probably have to go through the steps to help this friend secure his digital life. If they've compromised one gmail account, it's possible/likely they've got access to accounts that matter. This person (and everyone, yeah?) needs to start using a password manager and/or 2FA, until such time that FIDO is usable.

What else should I do?
 

Harry Hooper

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 4, 2002
34,365
Is the account truly hacked, or are they spoofing your friend as a phony sender?
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
SoSH Member
Mar 24, 2008
7,180
Can he use any of the recovery methods to reclaim the account and then enable two factor authentication? That's his best bet.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,716
Does he actually *need* the gmail account? If he barely uses it and doesn't need it for business purposes, the big issues is securing his other accounts if they have the same password.