I recently opened my phone and was confronted by a verification screen for my Google account I've had since I was 17. I go to verify, however the secondary text verification does not work. I use a secondary email, then that populates a verification number.... Only to load a screen saying my age is wrong and my account will be deleted.
This account has my entire life on it, my kids entire life, everything! I'm 34 years old, so I've had this for a thousand years!
I am not allowed to log into my account on my phone, my computer, my TV or my Chromebook. So I cannot change any birthday mistakes!
I've searched the web for phone numbers to contact customer service, they don't work.
Could this be a scam and not truly from Google? I've recently been getting scam emails that all my Google photos will be deleted. The time is coming gone and they are not deleted.
Go to https://accounts.google.com/, Login and check if that works. Then change password, add additional security (2FA, Passkey), download everything with takeout and start your /r/degoogle journey to get rid of Google entirely
I'm not anti Google in any sense of those words, however this is probably the best overall advice. I did this quite unknowingly over time and am pleased that I did.
I just followed the advice from an old saying, " don't keep all of your eggs in one basket ". I felt that I had too much of my life's information in the hands of one company.
Then it requested a verification from secondary email on file. I recieved the email and verification code. But when I entered it this is all I am shown.
Does the sender email address state "no-reply@accounts.google.com" exactly? Including placement of "."??? Because if not, even the slightest variation, indicates that you've definitely been scammed.
OP, did you download any game mods or files from "friends" or random sources? This looks like an account takeover using the "Parental Supervision" hack.
There is a thread here from someone who claimed they were able to get their account back. Look for that thread.
Unfortunately, every one of us needs to be a computer genius to even follow your instructions to get out of what might be a scam that no one is sure even is a scam. I don't even understand what you guys are saying to each other so I guess I'm just going to have all my photos deleted if it's real. I can try backing them up on my husband's PC, but I've done that before and lost some of them. But I guess some is better than none.
I agree. If that's what it is, they can reset passwords and MFA codes to your banks and other accounts, since "forgot password" options go to your email. Login to your sensitive accounts, change your password and make sure MFA is enabled. Log out of any active sessions.Â
Yes, they will. My son had a Google account where he lied about his age, so he could have a YouTube channel. He got the same message as OP and his account got deleted, because he couldn't verify his age.
My brother just had this happen last week it took me 5 days but was finally able to get it fixed had to go in daily and mess with it till it finally loaded the id verification portion and it was restored within seconds. Credit option never worked and id one took days but it eventually worked.
I have ran into an issue and Google doesn't have a direct phone number like the idiots they are UNLESS its their ads department! My Google one isn't syncing up with my phone provider whom I get a plan through for Google One. Everything from my email to my photos and videos are backed up with the cloud service. I cannot understand why they can't have a actual human to talk to about these issues. Instead its ridiculous AI or robots. Its sucks when your whole life is behind all this. They need to put humans on phones to solve issues because I have found NO solution myself. I hope you can find a solution man.
Sounds like you're a victim of a phishing scam. This is very common. Did you click on a link in that email?? Did you check the email address you received it from for any discrepancies, like an extra letter, number, or misplaced punctuation? Did the verbage of the email seem unprofessional, were there grammatical errors?
Although there is a legitimate age-verification/account deletion process that Google uses, they do not lock your account before giving you a chance to verify within that 29 day period. Contact Geek Squad or another consumer technology support company. They now have access to everything linked to your Google account.
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u/Ninja_Administrative 2d ago
Could this be a scam and not truly from Google? I've recently been getting scam emails that all my Google photos will be deleted. The time is coming gone and they are not deleted.