Gmail Strikes Again

[hari]

This is the second time Gmail got me! Well, I guess the first time it didn't really get me. But this time it did. I lost my account! Has anyone else heard about Gmail accounts being deleted?

I posted on the Gmail help forum, but I doubt anyone can help. Other posts about similar problems seem to be ignored. For anyone who might be interested, this is what I wrote on the help forum:

My account seems to have been deleted.

When logging in fails, I click on the link that says "Can't access your account?" From there, when I click on "My password doesn't seem to be working," I am told that my username doesn't exist as a Gmail account.

I filled out a "Recovering Sign-in Information: Username" form. It sent me an email to my secondary hotmail address listing gmail accounts other than the one I am looking for (two accounts I used as throw away accounts on a flash game website and one that I would have used as my primary email if it had not been mysteriously disabled by Gmail).

Part of the problem is that my secondary Hotmail address is set up to automatically forward everything it receives to my Gmail account, without saving it. My emails are still disappearing, presumably to reappear in the "All Mail" folder of my lost Gmail account. Other email accounts, both Hotmail and Gmail, get delivery failure notices when I try to email my lost account.

The help pages seem to suggest that someone hacked my account. But I don't think that's the case. I had something almost the exact same as this happen to me within days of first opening this account a month or two ago. I left my Gmail signed in at home and tried to sign in at work. The result was exactly as I have described here. Of course, I was able to access my email again as soon as I got home. And after signing out, I could sign back in again.

While trouble shooting this problem earlier today, I came across something strange. Although I was being asked to sign back into Gmail, I accidentially stumbled upon my google.com/contacts page and my google.com/account page. I remembered my previous problem (Gmail can't be opened by two different computers) and guessed that Gmail thought I was logged in when I wasn't. So I signed out of google.com/contacts, and yet, I was still unable to sign into Gmail.

I'm still under the impression that Gmail thinks that I am signed in while I am not. I tried erasing everything in my history, I did it twice. That did nothing though. I think that everything would be back to normal if Gmail just had someone tell the server that I'm not logged into my account. But I somehow doubt that will happen...

It's bizarre that I can sign into these help forums with a hotmail account and the password associated with it, or access my Google without accessing my Gmail.

Can anyone help me?

Messed up, no?
Anyone know or hear about anything like this?

[sgtcallistan]

Originally Posted by hari

This is the second time Gmail got me! Well, I guess the first time it didn't really get me. But this time it did. I lost my account! Has anyone else heard about Gmail accounts being deleted?
I posted on the Gmail help forum, but I doubt anyone can help. Other posts about similar problems seem to be ignored. For anyone who might be interested, this is what I wrote on the help forum:
Messed up, no?
Anyone know or hear about anything like this?

Had a yahoomail account; suddenly I couldn't access it. Made a gmail account. Within one day, that became inaccessible, and the reprting process was similar to what you describe in your quote, with the difference that the system could recommend nothing at all.
Yahoo came back two weeks later, an anti-virus update seemed to deal with it.
I have had no indication my accounts were ever hacked. In fact spam dropped off to nothing for a few days.
Never needed my gmail again.

[tbriggs]

I've been using gmail for around four years now as my primary email and I've never had the problems you describe. I routinely have had my home computer(s) logged in, log in at work, and have my iPhone checking it all at the same time with no problem. I also have a few spam magnet accounts on it as well that I only check once a week or so.

I'd make double sure your machine isn't infected with some nasty malware or virus. They could be harvesting your email login info and trying to send spam with your account. You may not be able to tell they are doing this if they immediately delete the outgoing mail. They also may be blocking or spoofing your access to several sites, you might check if you can see some of the big anti-virus sites too.