I’ll try to make the “rocket science” I found it to be as simple as possible. It may cut your time in half.

My experience: My entire Contact list (it was my business email) was informed I was stranded in Malaga, Spain without a passport. Phone calls and emails came in – it was very convincing. I could find no one to directly help me, who knew everything to do. Arg.

If anything like this happens to you, I hope this helps. Disclaimer: I’m not tech support, nor do I know much, so what is here below is drawn from other sites, and you may follow the instructions if you choose.

FIRST: Change your password on that Gmail account spamming people. Now, you’re “clear.”

SECOND: Quick change any other site you used that same password on. (NEVER use your same Gmail password for other sites.)

THIRD: Go to the bottom right hand corner of your Gmail account. See where it says “Last Account Activity – Details”? Click that, and you’ll see how long ago someone other than you was on your Gmail. I saw two states I hadn’t heard of. (Note – hackers apparently often use a “shadow” – i.e. someone with a name close to yours through whom they route their deed – don’t lose it over everyone that has your name who seems suspect!)

How did they get in? Possibly they got your password from some email you sent, text, or scam email, etc. (NEVER send a password over email or text, and NEVER respond to a Google email or other email asking for password or financial info.) See at the bottom of this post for more possible ways they got your password.

If your account has been compromised/hacked/stolen you will need to check and fix at least ALL of the following things, including the password change.

STEP 1: Be Thorough. Go to your Gmail Account, Mail Settings
Log in, and click on your mail settings in the upper right hand corner (the little gear). Do the following, according to a Google expert:

Account Security:
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Google Account Settings -> Change Password [pick a new secure password]
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Google Account Settings -> Change Password Recovery Options [verify secret question, SMS and secondary e-mail address]

Potential Spam:
Settings -> General -> Signature [make sure nothing as been added]
Settings -> General -> Vacation Responder [make sure it's disabled and empty]

E-mail Theft
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send Mail As [make sure it is using your correct e-mail address]
Settings -> Filters [no filters that forward or delete e-mail]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> Forwarding [disabled or correct address]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> POP Download [disabled]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> IMAP Access [disabled]

STEP 2: Review and Clean Up.

Now, after you have done all of that, you need to go to this link below, and go through each one of these tabs. It’s a burden, but you need to at least think about each thing they mention and make a choice.

Review And Clean Up
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=29488

STEP 3: Mourn, Weep and Wail In Peops Junk Filter

Here’s the reality. Right now, it seems no one can receive an email from me. I am blocked as a sender and get this message whenever I try to send an email, I get this rejection message:

“Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 535 535-5.7.1 Username and Password not accepted.”

Due to this, I chose to deactivate my account… forever. Before you do (see below) transfer all your old emails and contacts to a new Gmail account. The link at the bottom tells you how to do this, and from there you can also see how to do it with your contacts.

At the end of the day, the information above was all linked up through this page, the most helpful to me by far: http://www.google.fr/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=560d53dee40be5e6&hl=en

Neither of us had time for this, but if you want to keep using that particular Gmail account, you have to do this.

If not, delete the account forever by clicking on your face in the upper right, and under “Services” click “Delete this account forever.”

STEP 4: Due Diligence

You have no clue how much of your info they got. You can freak out and close every account or credit card you ever had, or you can do some cleanup on other sites and do your best.

• Think through all your financial sites – did you use this username and password?
• Think through all your social sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) – did you use this username and password?
• Think through your family sites – how secure are they? Give them all some lessons from the ashes of your pain.
• I will alert my bank(s) about what happened, so they can watch for suspicious activity.

Let me know if this helped you. I can’t help any more, as I’m no techie, but I can post this on my blog.

Other “Most Helpful” Posts Or Numbers

Best Gmail Help Support (Volunteer) I’ve Encountered (Fyi, if you just have a free gmail account, google won’t talk to you; this guy will)

How did someone get my password?

How do I transfer all my old emails from the compromised account to a new one?

If you are concerned someone may have seen vital information, go here in the US.  Some pre-recorded info is very helpful, and you can contact the 3 major credit bureaus to put an alert on your credit world.

]]> http://www.danwilt.com/fixing-a-spam-hack-of-your-gmail-made-simple/feed/ 7 http://www.danwilt.com/the-apple-ipad-vs-laptops-why-i-think-the-ipad-will-win/ http://www.danwilt.com/the-apple-ipad-vs-laptops-why-i-think-the-ipad-will-win/#comments Sun, 02 May 2010 15:04:37 +0000 Dan Wilt http://www.danwilt.com/?p=2190 The Apple iPad was brought into my office by two friends in the past few weeks.

I admit, I’m slightly smitten – not in an “Apple-is-a-cult-waiting-to-happen-oh-wait-it-already-has” kind of way, but rather in a design, usability and future-trend kind of way.

Here’s why I think something big is shifting, and in doing so, agree with the last issue of Wired Magazine in their assessment of the shift Steve Jobs and the Apple Core (yes, I think I made that up, but I’m sure about 2 billion others already used that little phrase).

The following is from someone who doesn’t have an iPad, but played briefly with the first generation.

Why I Think The iPad And Its Progeny Will Win

1. The iPad says “sofa and book,” the laptop says “desk and office.”

2. The iPad is the portable presenter’s laptop. The apps run the programs you create on your laptop. Travel light.

3. In the proper case, the iPad feels book-ish. We like that feeling more than the cold laptop.

4. The iPad docs into a keyboard, with a stand, or just a bluetooth keyboard works.

5. The iPad is touchy-feely – the mouse is your finger(s).

6. The iPad has enough hard drive to carry the average person’s music and documents +; i.e. it is the blend of an iPod and a laptop.

7. The iPad is new and cool, AND works.

Fanboy? Maybe. Corporation-lover? Nah. Too much need to see justice done and mercy given in the world to embrace the psycho-pathology that often follows an empire.

But, as a TechLover, ArtsyGeek and Apprecianado of good design, functionality and dollar-for-value products, I think the iPad concept will win over a decade or two.

Have said all of that, on an anthropological level, it’s all quite curious. Using our fingers and feelers we enter a little glass, metal and microchip galaxy of 1s and 0s to get our work done. We can’t farm with this, but we can meet needs, build strategies and art, and fill landfills with it darn sure.

Children of our age, I like it and hate it.

Children of This and Another World, like the sacred ingenuity but not usually the application of revenues.

Apple iPad.

Given my Mac Cult lifetime membership, I guess I shooouuuuulllld show this in the spirit of fairness.

Then again, I may live to regret it.

In this world, I prefer long sentences, big books and anything that is not a sound bite. By the same token, I love a good motto, a strong visual, and a slick Keynote (okay, PowerPoint if you must).

Here is a good read on a fresh way of presenting a strong idea. For the emerging worship world, there is some insight to be gleaned here.

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down

(subscribe to DanWilt.com)

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs | D5 | AllThingsD

Apple – Get a Mac – Watch The TV Ads

Between the new iPhone, and the new Apple TV, the JobsClan certainly are often the first out of the gate (i.e. the first to present attractive technologies in accessible manners from behind secret doors) shaping the face of pop culture.

Fascinating. I’d love to see more believing men and women at the wheel driving well-resourced, highly innovative technological advancements, along with rehumanizing ideas, into the heart of the zeitgeist.

I don’t want to see that reality as a novelty or as just another example of a “Christian person we can point out as unique and inspiring;” but rather as an example of those who bear the thought that innovation/culturally-shaping achievement is “just the way those who follow the way of Jesus do life.”

Doing things lovingly, and well, and powerfully – could that be a resuscitating creational theology that embraces the high view of the human person God seems to hold?

ThinkGeek :: Stuff for Smart Masses

The New Mac/PC Ads

The Korg Trinity is too much board, as may be the LE, but the price is right on this one. We need one for the Institute, and I’m needing to get a solid, weighted-key board (love to know how it feels – the keyboard) with plenty of sounds for live bands.

Issue is, I live in little St. Stephen’s (a musician’s haven, but with one small music store!), and I have to drive 1.5 hours to get close enough to try one. I’d get by with a little help from my friends….