I am the only person to use my computer. Yet, when I go to any of the Google sites like Google Maps, it’s already been signed in by someone/something else. In fact, the name of whoever or whatever is already signed in is usually the same each time and is, “instantdeath@live.ca” (with the apparently appropriate password also already in place).
Does anyone else experience anything like this? What is the significance if any? (Not that there’s ever been a hint of any monkey business going on, mind you.)
Is it really the case that no-one else ever uses your computer? It would only have taken a few seconds for someone to sign in to Google and leave a cookie on your machine.
Nope, no one. I live alone and my machine locks after 2 minutes of inactivity in any case. Still, I suppose anything is possible.
What confuses me even more, though, is that I, of course, log out that name if/when I see it and then immediately log in under my own email and password. Yet, the strange(r’s) name is often there, already logged in, the next time I use my computer. So, even if someone once signed in ‘when I wasn’t looking’, they’d have to then do it repeatedly.
I would guess malicious software, but it seems weird to leave such an obvious trail behind like that. I mean, I could see your machine being remotely controlled as part of a botnet, but not for using Google.
When you log in to Gmail, scroll to the bottom of your inbox screen and have a look at “Last account activity” - is there a different IP address to yours?
If you find you’re already logged in by this instantdeath thing, what happens if you go straight to the mail.google.com without logging out? Do you get access to someone else’s email? If so, does the mail look like a scammer?
It’s a bit weird that a Google account would coincide with a live.ca (Microsoft) identity.
I really appreciate everybody’s input. And, of course, now that I’ve announced this ‘mystery’, it’s not happening to me. Still, unless this is some mighty coincidence of resolution, it will occur again. It always has before. Always. When it does, I will check the things you’ve suggested.
In the meantime, I’ll note that my connection is via WiFi but it’s protected.
Not that I know anything about this type of stuff, but perhaps along the lines of what andrewm said, I wondered whether, if my access to my ISP is via a proxy server (they’ve done they in the past), then what I’m seeing might simply be the proxy’s log-in. Is that even possible?
ISPs use caching, when for example, hundreds of customers go to cnn.com during the same minute. They can fetch the content once and serve it to hundreds of customers. If the problem is occurring with Gmail, then it is not related to ISP caching because Gmail uses SSL encryption – https://mail.google.com.
ISPs normally give you direct access to the internet rather than using proxy servers.
Yes, I’d be inclined to suspect a poorly behaved proxy if it happens regularly after clearing cookies.
Yes, possible. A properly implemented proxy definitely should not do that, but your ISP may have messed something up.
You say your connection is wifi; do you mean that the ISP is a wireless one? A wireless provider is more likely to use proxies, and thus more vulnerable to this sort of screwup.
That address “instantdeath” would seem to fit with the idea that something malicious is going on.
It seems like something bad must be going on here. Either some sort of mailicious bot running on your machine and logging in, or someone remotely controlling your machine.
I Googled instantdeath@live.ca to see if anyone else has been complaining about the same thing but the only thing that comes up is this thread.
The next time you see this, maybe you should go to live.ca and see if your machine is logged in there.
I may have misunderstood what you meant by having my internet access through WiFi (I told you, I really am an ignoramus about these things). What I do know is that I use a wireless internet connection via a router with the router connected to the cable ‘outlet’ in the wall. Is that WiFi, I’m embarrassed to ask.
With the other posts quoting Google support, I am quite certain that something malicious is happening. The posters talking about caching and proxies make no sense in my opinion.
I think the first order of business should be running some kind of antivirus or spyware removal tool on your computer. Secondly, you should ensure your WiFi is secured following that I link I sent earlier.