Gmail account recovery question.

[DarkCyber]

A friend of mine is not able to access his gmail account, the account no longer will take his password. Also, when we selection to have his password sent via sms Gmail shows a telephone number that is x'ed out except the last two digits and those are not his phone number.

Now, to my question. At this point, the only thing I can find to do is an account recovery. We went through the steps and Gmail sent us an email. Once we click on that link it takes us to a Gmail/Goolge screen and request name, phone number and credit card number. It says the credit card will not be billed, its just used for identification. Is this really legit? Does Gmail/Google require a credit card number to recovery your Gmail account? Anyone else ever had to do this?

Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 133315]

I dont know as i have never recovered a gmail acct but i cant understand why they would feel the need to ask for cc details.

Personally unless someone else posts saying its ok, I wouldn't put your details in as you could have some spyware/malware on your pc and that might not be a legit google site that you are on.

Just my tuppence regarding the situation

EDIT

http://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/gmail/6-EFjtWclkU

Seems legit, you just havent gave google enough info to prove the acct is yours/buddies, so they ask for that.

 

[DarkCyber]

I dont know as i have never recovered a gmail acct but i cant understand why they would feel the need to ask for cc details.

Personally unless someone else posts saying its ok, I wouldn't put your details in as you could have some spyware/malware on your pc and that might not be a legit google site that you are on.

Just my tuppence regarding the situation

EDIT

http://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/gmail/6-EFjtWclkU

Seems legit, you just havent gave google enough info to prove the acct is yours/buddies, so they ask for that.

Thanks! That's what I thought also, but this person is an older person and very paranoid about doing this. So, just trying to check it out to see if anyone else really had to go through this...but like you said, it does seem to be legit from what I've found as well.

 

[Chrisroman]

I don't know if this is legit or not, but I have to ask... How does it prove the email address is yours? When I signed up for my gmail account it didnt ask me any questions that could be validated/matched to my credit card.

So even if you enter a name, phone and CC number that match each other, how does that prove the email account is yours? Sounds fishy to me...

 

[R3ckless]

It explains this with a simple search. It does a small transaction to confirm who you are.

Why is Google asking me for a credit card or a copy of my government issued ID? How will this information be used?

We ask to run a small transaction on a valid credit card or for a copy of a government issued ID in order to validate your date of birth. We only use this information to confirm your date of birth and to restore your account. If you choose one of the options to provide a copy of your government ID, we will destroy the copy of your government ID after we validate your date of birth.

If you choose the option of a credit card transaction, we make a small charge ($0.30 USD) to confirm that the credit card is active and able to accept a charge. We will retain this data as necessary to meet regulatory requirements for a credit card transaction, after which it will be deleted.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=google+account+recovery+why+does+it+need+credit+card?