Gmail Locks Out User For Using Greasemonkey & Reports Of Gmail Contacts Disappearing

The Inquirer reports that a user received an unusual error from Google when trying to access his Gmail through a Greasemonkey script. The error was a “lockdown in sector four” message, basically describing that the user account has been found to have “unusual usage” and the “account has been disabled for up to 24 hours.” […]

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The Inquirer reports that a user received an unusual error from Google when trying to access his Gmail through a Greasemonkey script. The error was a “lockdown in sector four” message, basically describing that the user account has been found to have “unusual usage” and the “account has been disabled for up to 24 hours.” The greasemonkey script was code that was used to help the Gmail user manage his Gmail emails. He recommends that you no longer use such unauthorized scripts until you hear back with permission from Google on the matter.

On a related note, Philipp Lenssen reports that many Gmail users have noticed that their contact lists have mysteriously disappeared. You can see from the Google Groups reports that it was only temporary, and the users now see their contacts again. Phew! Maybe we should all export our contact lists or manage them elsewhere?


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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