[andybak]

Try posting to Hacker News in the hope someone with some authority deigns to intervene. It helps if you a high-profile blogger or known industry luminary.

The prospects for the rest of us are fairly bleak.

[fixermark]

> The prospects for the rest of us are fairly bleak

Mostly because if changing ownership of a Gmail account were as simple as "Post to Hacker News and complain," it'd be an obvious and exploitable security gap.

[JacobEdelman]

That idea, if extended, could be rather entertaining.

"White House Gov Account Hacked, Please Help"

[danielweber]

Obviously it shouldn't be as simple as "someone complained, so turn over control."

However, us normal plebes should be able to get some competent human on the phone and talk to him about what's going on.

I'd hop through lots of hoops to recover my google account, but without getting a human's attention I can't do anything.

[andybak]

I don't quite follow.

I don't expect it to be easy to change ownership of an account - but there has to be a secure process that one can follow in the event. I'd be happy to pay for it. It's the fear that if the worst happened you would quite simply be unable to contact anyone that concerns me

[hmoghnie]

will try, thx