EmilyD

Oops - I spelled "account" wrong in the thread title. (I wish there was a way to edit them)


Hi. I had something happen today that has me upset and paranoid, so I'm hoping someone can help by explaining to me if I should be reacting this way.

I volunteer my services on a game site platform. We post games for PC's and mobile devices that are made by developers all over the world. I was invited to help out by the owner last year. It's been interesting and the four other people that are also involved are easy to get along with and we don't have any problems interacting with each other. We have our own chat box via Chatango, and only the five of us have permission to use this chat box.

Today we were having a discussion about v***ses in the chat box about how security is such a top priority, and it's importance to keeping our site as safe as possible. So...and here's the problem...one of the other staffers who is very tech savvy (I'm not) said she had a great link for us to read about v***ses...she posted the 'supposed' link and when I opened it, it was a link to my own gmail account! It went to my 'sent' mail box, but I could navigate all throughout my own gmail inbox, drafts, trash, etc. In other words, the other 4 people could see my gmail account and all my mail to and from everyone.

When I pointed it out to her, she just made a joke of it and said "Oops...did I just hack your gmail account? Sorry..." and she added a smiley face.

No one else said anything else about it, and a few minutes later we all signed off for the day.

I don't know how she did this...and I'm sure it was a mistake on her part, but now I know that she has access to my account....and she did NOT know my password. I never gave anyone of them - even the owner - my password to my gmail account...so she had some way of getting into my gmail account without knowing my password. And now I know...and so do the other 3 people....that she has the ability to do this - so my thinking is if she can do this to me, she can do it to them, too. I don't thinking changing my password is an effective solution, since I never gave it to her in the first place.

The thing is, I've worked with this woman and the other three people closely, every day of the week for a year, and I don't think she means me any harm, but I wonder just how c*********d my gmail account has become now. I copied the link and sent it to my husband, and he could not open my gmail account without knowing my password, so I don't think anyone can see my account without me being logged into it, but, like I said, I know just about nothing about technical things regarding emails, hacking, etc.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I should proceed with this? Thanks for any potential help.

Added: I forgot to say that the owner of the chat box died at the beginning of January, but we're still using the Chatango site that he paid for...so there's no one I can go to to see if this can be addressed. The owner of the site lives in Turkey, and is hardly involved in the day-to-day workings of the site. He just pays a few people to keep it running and relies on the rest of us to volunteer. It's been interesting and a fun thing to do for me in my retirement, so I dont' care about being paid.

Wolf counselor Loc: Heart of Texas

It is possible to edit your title

Common_Sense_Matters

I sent you a PM, please read it.

Ricktloml

That is concerning. I can offer no help. My grandchildren, 6 and 9 years old are more tech savvy than I am.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Turn her butt into the FBI. She's a thief. She's no worse than the CIA, NSA, Google or FB though. Hope you don't bank online or use your credit card number for Amazon. She may have all your data and might sell it. I would open new accounts at the bank for checking and savings and keep just enough in them to cover your purchases and get new credit cards too. Not trying to scare you but she needs some corrective action taken on her. She may have cloned your phone too. I'd h**e for you to wake up broke.

Common_Sense_Matters

Vivid imagination you have there. I don't believe they have ever met in real life, only on the internet so "cloning her phone" would be right out, most people that aren't tech savvy will not be able to locate their phone's IMEI much less give it to someone over the internet. I don't believe that the other person actually hacked Eden's anything. I think they just sent a link to their OWN Gmail "sent box" and since Eden herself has a Gmail account it navigated to her own (Eden's) "sent box" as the link would naturally do. If Eden hadn't had a Gmail account, the trick would not have worked. I really don't think Eden has anything to fear.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Maybe, maybe not. I missed the part where they never met or were in the same room. Better safe than sorry.

debeda

I'm not very tech savvy either, Emily, but it sounds like her "link" might've inserted a v***s or "back door" to your account when you clicked on it. Her reaction was also a little odd.....