[Alison C]

This morning my email account was hijacked by spammers, who sent an email to pretty much everyone I've ever emailed (not just the addresses in my Contacts). It's a Gmail account, and I've never had this sort of problem before.

The only thing I can think of that I've done differently is that yesterday I used my Kindle to access emails; just playing with it at home to try it out really. When I'd finished I just went back to the book I was reading, without signing out from Gmail on the Kindle. (This may well have been stupid of me.)

Maybe I'm paranoid or ignorant or both, but could the fact that I didn't sign out of Gmail on the Kindle have allowed the spammers access to my account somehow? The Kindle has not left the house in the intervening period, and access is via my home wireless network.

The spammers were operating from an IP address in China; I've changed my password, followed some security settings advice from Gmail Help, and submitted a report to Gmail. I'd appreciate any comments or advice from people with more technical and Kindle knowledge than me (that's pretty much everyone!).

Coincidentally I have a computer technician coming round tomorrow to deal with issues I've been having about slow running and odd error messages relating to a plugin-exe application error; I'll ask him about this issue as well, but it's likely that he's never seen a Kindle before, as they're not exactly common here yet.

Alison