I awoke to a few hundred bounced-back emails in my (Mail.app) inbox this morning. Yikes.

It seemed to all be coming from my old primary personal email address (sharrelson@gmail.com) that I’ve been forwarding to my self-hosted account.

So, I went to check that GMail account (I’ve moved my personal address off of GMail but many folks still email me there) and saw this:

Yikes again. Good morning to you too, Google.

Luckily, I had set up a few Verification Options so I could regain control of my account in case this happened.

If you haven’t yet, you really should.

Just sign into your GMail (or Google Account) and go here. If not, you’ll be faced with this, and I’ve heard that route is not always pleasant.

So, I text myself, get my verification code, type it into the little box and get to pick a new password…

I’m all set from there.

The almost insulting part is the “Read some tips on creating a secure password” since I use an encrypted password via the awesome 1Password app (which I also have on my iPhone and iPad). It looked more like spoofing from the email bouncebacks I got.

In other words, this wasn’t an insecure password issue or me clicking on a phishing email (I haven’t logged into GMail in a while since all the mail from there forwards to my self-hosted address).

As GMail and Google apps continue to climb in market share, I’m wondering how frequently these stories will continue to pop up. Google isn’t known for their “customer” service (I do pay for 200 gigs of extra storage for GMail and Picasa), which could lead to many headaches and potential brand damage.

So, be smart and update your verification info beforehand. It can/will happen to you.