I responded to Gmail’s Lockdown message with this message:
I am writing concerning an error message “Lockdown in
sector 4! Error: Our system indicates unusual usage
of your account …” that I am getting when attempting
to view my emails off the Gmail web site. I have
looked up this error but I have not been making any
“unusual usage” of my account; I have been downloading
my email via pop mail the same way ever since I opened
my Gmail account over a year ago. I download my email
through FireFox only so I am curious to know why you
are locking me out of my account.
I got an automated reply stating this:
Hello,Our system has detected abnormal usage of your Gmail account. As a
result,
we have temporarily disabled access to this account.It will take between one minute and 24 hours for you to regain access,
depending on the behavior our system detected.Your account may be temporarily disabled if, among other things, you
are:– sending or receiving an excessive volume of mail
– using any third-party software that automatically logs in to your
account and is not supported by Gmail
– using certain browser extensions that change the behavior of a
website
(Greasemonkey, a popular Firefox extension, often interferes with
Gmail.
We suggest disabling Greasemonkey to use Gmail without any issues.)For your protection, we ask that you disable any non-supported software
before accessing Gmail again.If you feel that access to this account should not have been disabled,
please respond to the following questions:1. List the date and time of day when you were locked out of the
account.
2. What task were you performing when you were locked out? (ex: sending
an
email, downloading an attachment, etc.)
3. Has access to your account been disabled before this occurrence? If
so,
when and for how long?
4. Indicate which of the following, if any, Gmail features you use:
POP,
auto-forwarding, or Gmail’s Notifier
5. Are you using any type of browser extensions? If so, please specify.
6. Do you use any third-party software in conjunction with Gmail? If
so,
please specify.Sincerely,
The Gmail Team
Now I for the life of me cannot figure out how I have somehow violated some boyscout code of honor by using Gmail. The only thing I can think of is that I use FireFox Gmail plugin; that’s it. But I have been using it for over a year now so I don’t see how all of a sudden its a problem. And so what Gmail does not support those services … I don’t expect them to.
But anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore. I stopped using Gmail and routed everything through my domain that I PAY for and I can use as much as I please any way I want it. Besides, I am sure Gmail isn’t going to be allowing POP access for free too much longer anyway; POP access is just too convenient to give it for free. Their plan is to draw people to Gmail as many as possible, offer a lot of free services, get people addicted to the services thinking they need it, and then snatch the rug from under them by making them pay for it if they want to keep their access. I know how Internet commuities think. But none of this will happen until Google finally builds up their community. It’s the same thing Yahoo! did in 1998 when I first started using them. Everything was free … including POP but then one day they took away POP and made you pay for it. Pretty soon, all their cool features were pay for. Yahoo! doesn’t even give POP access for free anymore and I don’t appreciate the thought that Gmail has the say-so of cutting off my email access when they see fit instead of emailing me first letting me know what’s going on. It’s like being dragged off to jail without even know what you’re being convicted of. I did ask Google what the problem was but no one has responded … yet.