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A comment on Tell HN: Locked out of Gmail account even after right password, recovery email. Parent comment

Re:Tell HN: Locked out of Gmail account even after right pas... by cycomanic on Friday September 16, 2022 @03:25AM (#32863155)
> At one point I had to click a link in the recovery email and enter the month when the account was created.

Seriously?! Who comes up with these security questions? This is such a useless question, on the one hand it's insecure because it is a 1/12 chance of guessing right, but also who remembers what month they created an email account? I would venture a guess most people here couldn't even get the year right (I certainly couldn't). Seems the question is only useful to lock out the legitimate owner.

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Re:Tell HN: Locked out of Gmail account even after right pas... by mimimi31 on Friday September 16, 2022 @08:02AM (#32864941)
>on the one hand it's insecure because it is a 1/12 chance of guessing right, but also who remembers what month they created an email account?

IIRC, they require both month and year, so there'd be a bit more guesswork involved. I added the exact creation date for all my Google accounts to my password manager when I learned about this verification method.

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Re:Tell HN: Locked out of Gmail account even after right pas... by Izkata on Saturday September 17, 2022 @12:36AM (#32874789)
Ouch... I just checked mine, and I was right about the month but off by 3 years.
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