Decent email service to use for recovery email

[Albert F]

Ok so.... Long story short a few days ago my account was "hacked" and some bastard from Indonesia left me with an unpaid ~130 bill for running scam ads. I have no clue how this happened as I am pretty carefully with my data and don't go on shady websites. Ever since a few days ago I keep getting alerts that I've been logged out of my Google account because a suspicious app was found on my laptop (I'm resetting the whole thing tonight) and I started thinking about getting a recovery email.

 

The question is: What other options I have besides creating another google account to get a recovery email?

[Needfuldoer]

Creating another GMail account shouldn't be a problem, but if you want a completely separate address from a completely separate provider, Microsoft Outlook isn't likely to go away any time soon.

 

https://outlook.live.com/owa/

 

If you do create another account for recovery, use a completely separate device to do it. It's likely you were compromised client-side.

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, Albert F said:

Ok so.... Long story short a few days ago my account was "hacked" and some bastard from Indonesia left me with an unpaid ~130 bill for running scam ads. I have no clue how this happened as I am pretty carefully with my data and don't go on shady websites. Ever since a few days ago I keep getting alerts that I've been logged out of my Google account because a suspicious app was found on my laptop (I'm resetting the whole thing tonight) and I started thinking about getting a recovery email.

 

The question is: What other options I have besides creating another google account to get a recovery email?

DO NOT RESET WINDOWS.

That is unlikely to fix shit with a data breach of this nature.

 

You need to make a Windows 10 (or 11) USB install stick on a non-compromised computer.  (Can download the files off MS' website for free.)

 

Then during install:  Delete /all/ the drive partitions and let the installer create new ones.  

Do NOT do a windows reset.

[Albert F]

1 hour ago, tkitch said:

DO NOT RESET WINDOWS.

That is unlikely to fix shit with a data breach of this nature.

 

You need to make a Windows 10 (or 11) USB install stick on a non-compromised computer.  (Can download the files off MS' website for free.)

 

Then during install:  Delete /all/ the drive partitions and let the installer create new ones.  

Do NOT do a windows reset.

I did not reset windows through the little reset option in settings. I just went in with my trusty install USB and overwrote the partition the the OS was in (about to delete the Windows.old folder). The other partition I have are just 2 games and a few of my photos. (20GB at max)

[tkitch]

I would not trust overwriting the data like that, either.

 

If you have raw data files (JPG files, etc.) copy them off onto a USB Stick or something like that and fully wipe the drive.  

 

Don't bother saving game installs, you can just re-download them.  (Save files are okay to save)