Someone recently used your password to try to sign in to your Google Account xxxxxxx@gmail.com. This person was using an application such as an email client or mobile device.
We prevented the sign-in attempt in case this was a hijacker trying to access your account. Please review the details of the sign-in attempt:
Tuesday, April 6, 2014 8:59:50 AM UTC
IP Address: 69.46.75.85
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
If you do not recognize this sign-in attempt, someone else might be trying to access your account. You should sign in to your account and reset your password immediately.
Is this a legit email? I actually received 2 of these and one was later on. I havent logged into this email that much but when i do, i saw 2 messages that say this. Also it allows you to click reset password but then again… could that be the phishing link? I was close to reset it and press the link then i thought that is not a good idea.
Also the first line basically said someone used my password to sign into my account. That means they figured out what my password was? I dont understand this.
Whether the email is legit or not, changing your password probably won’t hurt. But don’t use the link in the email – log into gmail directly, and change it from the settings menu there. If you use the link you have to worry about whether the link is real or not, and if you’re not comfortable determining that, it’s best to avoid it.
Do you have an email address that could be similar to someone else’s? For example, I have [firstname][lastname]@gmail.com and at least one other person with my name seems to sign up to things now and then using my email address. Presumably he has [firstname][lastname][somenumbers]@gmail.com or similar, but forgets the numbers now and then. Could it be someone doing something like that?
If they knew your password and your email address, they should have been successful getting in, right? Since they knew your password, this wasn’t a case of someone with a similar login name mistyping a character (unless by some remarkable coincidence they had the same password as you do).
So somebody out there really does know your password. It could be Talkatone or some similar service that you gave your password to that was just trying to update itself. Or if you use the same password at other web sites, perhaps another web site was compromised.
This assumes that the message your received was legitimate, of course. Or it could be a pretty-well written phishing email the author of which slipped up and said “someone used your password” instead of “someone used your ID.”
I would second what leahcim said: Don’t click on any links in the email. If you wish to change your password, go to the Gmail site yourself, log in, and change it from there.
It might have been one of those “unrecognized computer” secondary security questions for when you’re signing on from a new computer or you’ve cleared your cache. A lot of times that generates on of those aggravating “What was your favorite teacher in elementary school?” questions. Like I remember elementary school.
FWIW …I’ve had something similar happen a couple of times.
I have a Gmail account but never use it. I set it up as a means to transfer my address book into my Kindle a couple of years ago… can’t even remember why I needed to do that.
On two or three separate occasions I’ve been driving thru Iowa and used their rest area network to check email with my Kindle. Each time I get that message.
At the very bottom right of the Gmail web page, there’s “Last account activity” and a “Details” link. The link shows you where and on what device logins and attempted logins have occurred. I noticed an attempted login from a foreign country, and went with the two-step authentication solution.
That can be useful, but you can’t rely on the countries it tells you too much. When my phone accessed my email it told me someone was logging in from the US.
Aye, it’s not 100%, but it was the browser that was being used that made me go “Hmmm”. The two step authentication is a good idea in general though, I use it on any site that offers it.