My friend's Gmail account was stolen by someone he knows, and now that person is impersonating him. I want to help my friend get his account back, but I'm not sure how to prove that the account belongs to him. What steps should we take to reclaim it?
3 Answers
Your best bet is for your friend, the actual account owner, to use Google's account recovery options. Check out this link for guidance: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439?hl=en. It's the official way to handle this situation.
Using the recovery option is definitely the way to go. If that doesn't work, though, it might be tough to prove ownership without proper verification.
Does your friend remember if he gave the account details to this 'friend'? If the details like email or password haven't been changed, he might be able to log in and reset the password. If he's signed in somewhere else, he can change the password from there. Here’s some info to help: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825. Otherwise, he'll have to go through the recovery process: https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/recoveryidentifier?flowName=GlifWebSignIn.
That’s really frustrating. The person who took the account even admitted to stealing it because of some drama between them. It seems like there's not much I can do to help.