I'm sending this with Dale's permission as some suggested I share the process of recovering an gmail account which is the email service many CRers use.
There have been a number of recent reports of gmail being hacked, and it happened to me as well on Monday. The hacker changed the password which left him in total control of my account, and I couldn't get into it at all.
GMAIL does not have telephone support. You must complete complete an
"account recovery form":
http://mail.google.com/
I completed the form to the best of my ability and submitted it but it was rejected for not containing enough information. I submitted it a second time with what I thought was surely enough information but it was denied again. By the third time I was ready to submit the form I was freaking out. Fortunately, for this try I had found my "account verification code" (which you receive at the time you become a gmail user) and that with other information I provided persuaded gmail support that I was the rightful owner. To their credit it only took about 15 minutes to receive a reply to the account recovery form each time. Of course, for this process to work you must have a second email address established. Through this second account you receive instructions for changing the password on the hacked account. Once you do that you are back in business.
I can also say that my contact list is totally gone. So, it's a good idea to back-up your contact list periodically if you are using gmail.
I checked the activity log after I signed-in and could see that the account was accessed from an IP address in Nigeria.
Angel Garcia
Long Valley NJ