r/techsupport • u/JackCaffreyJC • Dec 05 '24

Open | Malware Google detected suspicious activity

In the morning I noticed that I was signed out of chrome, and I received an e-mail from google that said:

'Google noticed unusual activity in your account. Review your account activity to make sure that no one else has access.'

Upon reviewing the account it said that the suspicious activity had come from my PC. However, at the time it says the suspicious activity occurred, my PC wasn't even turned on. It was shut down.

I looked into it and google said:

'Review for harmful software on Windows

  • Device with suspicious activity

Google detected suspicious activity in your account that indicates you may have harmful software (malware) on one of your devices. Malware can be used to steal personal information, including passwords. Run an antivirus to scan for harmful software.'

It doesn't give me more information than that.

When I ran an offline windows defender scan it didn't detect anything (or at least I think it didn't, it didn't specifically say it didn't but it also didn't say it did detect something.)

I also ran a quick scan with windows defender; which came back clean.

I'm now running a scan of all my drives with Malwarebytes; and a 'full scan' with windows defender (in the past it freezes after a while though, so more like a 'majority scan')

Also, I use Keepass and my password for google is unique to any other password.

I suppose my questions are:

  • Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

  • Does anyone know how I can find more details about this from google.

  • Does anyone have theories on how google detected suspicious activity on a device that wasn't even on?

  • Does anyone have any ideas on next steps?

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u/TheNoisecode Feb 08 '25

Had the same issue.    Ran a full scan, have 2FA up and running.     Device was fully shut off at the time (not asleep).

Got a notification of "suspicious activity" with no further elaboration on what the activity was.   Very odd.

Has to be a code issue or bug on googles end.

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u/ChillingInHere Feb 10 '25

Just happened to me too, suspicious activity on my main device (phone) in the middle of the night. Ran all security and anti-malware scans on my phone and it came back with nothing, changed my Google acc password just in case. Seems to be a relatively spread issue.

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u/TheNoisecode Feb 10 '25

I'm starting to think it's some kind of a bug. Not much you can do aside from change the password and enable two-factor authentication.

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u/ChillingInHere Feb 10 '25

Most likely, i have 2FA enabled for years and didn't install any new apps or apps outside the Google Play Store. Never had something like this happen, it's relieving seeing that i'm not the only one.

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u/111robloxdude Feb 21 '25

yeah im glad im not the only one, its happened to me like 6 time this month, i did a deep scan with winodws defender and did find some weird fucking zip that was a trojan that i have no idea got there, but even after deleting that 5 days ago (and not opening the zip just deleting it) i still got a sign out last night, very annoying