Google shut-down my Gmail account... WTF?!?!?!?!

[Ian David]

Cross-posted from the Computer Help Forum

Google shut-down my Gmail account... WTF?!?!?!?!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=242&topic_id=15713&mesg_id=15713

[DS1]

1. Ok, so contact them about it like the message suggests

my account is working fine btw

[Ian David]

2. Already done. No response yet. Not holding my breath. n/t

[northzax]

3. well, did you violate the terms of service?

i think you have to be fairly extreme to get banned from gmail.

[Ian David]

4. No, but I have two good guess what happened.

I think I'm doing something that might look "weird" to them, and may have raised a red flag.

I've got accounts with Netmails.net and Spamcpop.net

What I did was set-up multiple "netmails" identities going through SpamCop, and then forwarded on to Gmail.

The other possibility is that someone got that email virus that impersonates people in your address book, and reported ME thinking it came from me.


Edited to add:

See these guys with similar problems



My Gmail (and Google) account is disabled!

On Friday, I noticed odd behaviour in Outlook Express when trying to login to my Gmail account, it threw an error and couldn’t access it. So went directly to Gmail’s webmail and tried to login to my account from there. Low and behold, when I tried to login, Gmail produced a message saying “Sorry, your account has been disabled. For more information about Google Accounts, please consult our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/accounts”.

What is going on here?! I emailed the Gmail team, but no luck, just got a friendly automated response back. I am hoping it will be re-activated in the next few days.

I noticed I am not the only one with this problem:

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-6053454-7.html

and

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/14932.html

Gmail offer no explanation of why the account is disabled, only suggestions as to why it might be disabled in their help. I certainly have not knowingly violated their Terms of Service. Neither am I a hacker or scammer.

Anyone have similar experiences with Gmail?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 am and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

More:
http://mgnetuk.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/my-gmail-and-google-account-is-disabled/



August 19, 2006
Gmail Account Shut Down

Original post: Wed 16 August -- Some asshole is spoofing my gmail account (stowe Dot boyd AT gmail Dot com) stoweboyd DOT com domain, and is using it to spam people. This account is redirected to my gmail account (stowe Dot boyd AT gmail DOT com). I got a gazillion of bounced emails yesterday so Gmail shut my account down for 24 hours (I hope). If you need to get in touch, use aworkingmodel AT gmail DOT com. I will update this post when all's well.

Update: Sat 19 August -- Getting some mail, but still getting bounce messages when I test things from Yahoo. Most anoying: no response form Google at all to my support inquiries. Since within-gmail email is working, couldn't they take the time to repsond? Or set things up to send automatic notification of changes in your email account status? It's incredibly bad not to have any recourse.

http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2006/08/gmail_account_s.html



Gmail Account Re-enabled
Update: Google just reactivated my account after about 72 hours and three or four emails from me to their support team.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The issue you described should now be resolved.

However, please be advised that we have received reports regarding unsolicited messages sent from your account.

I'm following up on the latter but this should at least offer hope for others who have had their accounts disabled.
http://corfield.org/blog/index.cfm/do/blog.entry/entry/Gmail_Account_Disabled

<snip>
For no good reason, my Gmail account (seancorfield) was disabled this morning (18th). Searching around the Google site uncovered that over the last few days many, many hundreds of users have also been locked out of their accounts. In one thread, someone quotes a Google employee as saying:

Hi all, We have been investigating these disables and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Be advised that we received reports regarding unsolicited messages sent from many of the accounts that were disabled. We are investigating accounts in accordance with Gmail's Program Policies and your account may remain disabled or be re- enabled as a result. Gmail's Program Policies (http://mail.google.com/gmail/help/ program_policies.html) prohibit the use of Gmail accounts for sending unsolicited messages, or spam.

Seems like a massive SNAFU on Google's part, given the volume of complaints on their forums in the last few days. Hopefully they'll get their act together and fix the problem soon.

More:
http://corfield.org/blog/index.cfm/do/blog.entry/entry/Gmail_Account_Disabled

[Ian David]

5. See also:

March 23, 2006 6:31 PM PST
Gmail problems... again?
Posted by Elinor Mills

Seems like every couple of months reports surface about outages with Gmail (and Yahoo Mail too). Lately reports about Gmail accounts being disabled and people being unable to access their mail for hours, if not days, have been heating up. Google says it has received feedback from some Gmail users who were having trouble accessing their accounts but that the incidents were isolated and have been fixed. The causes were "user-specific (i.e., a local server issue)," a Google representative said in an e-mail Thursday. "Nonetheless, the actual errors and problems that users have experienced are things that we take very seriously, and we are continually working to offer the most reliable e-mail service to our users," the e-mail said.

Problems like these, even sporadic and eventually fixed, can damage the reputation of any Internet service provider, but particularly one that's increasingly marketing itself as the go-to company for hosted applications aimed at consumers and businesses. People are putting more and more of their lives--the data and communications they rely on for work and play--on to the Internet. Having that link severed, even briefly, can lead to immeasurable inconvenience and even financial loss.

CNET News.com interviewed a Gmail user who said his wife's account was inaccessible for up to two days this week and received an e-mail from a reader who complained that his account was disabled for about three days as of Friday. This ZDNet UK article includes information from several people who have had problems recently, including someone who said he lost access to his Gmail for about a week. Reports of Gmail problems have been circulating on blogs and forums for much of this month, according to the article.

And in these blog postings this week you can hear the desperation of Gmail users:

More:
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-6053454-7.html

[Ian David]

6. Yes! My Gmail account is back up and running!

Hello,

Thank you for your report.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The issue you
described should now be resolved. If you continue to experience
difficulties, please respond to this message, and we'll investigate
further.


Sincerely,

The Google Team