Sh!t Happens

On June 3rd I awoke to find this message on my Google home page. I immediately changed my password and also stopped my mail from being forwarded to a Yahoo account. Then I took the kids to school and realized that I sent everybody in my contact list this email. I replied to a few friends and acquaintances that it was spam and posted the email on my blog. My home phone and cell phone were ringing all morning. I even got one person to reverse the Western Union funds transfer that he was sending me. I honestly never realized that there were people who existed in the outer perimeter of my life that cared so much about me.

But then I was logged out of my own account. The hacker changed my password and I could not log back in. It took me 15 days to convince Google that I was me.

Ya see, Google products are free, so they don't have to provide ANY customer support. I was able to post my problem on a forum and some anonymous Google volunteer would tell me that they could not help me. Eventually, I realized that Google owed me money. There are ads on my blog and I no longer have access to my Adsence account . I posted there and eventually was able to prove that I was me and got my account back.

My lack of access to my Google was much more frustrating that I imagined it could be. I had no idea how many eggs I put in that basket. Blogger, G-mail, Picassa, Groups, ( I was the only administrator of a Group for my running club). So if you are reading this...back up your email account now....

and

If you are a blogger, you must set up a new account that has administrative access to you blog so if you ever get one account hijacked you can get you blog back