SOCIAL ENGINEERING

This is probably the easiest method to get access to an e-mail account, and it really isn't hacking at all as much as it is playing off the stupidity of others. This will work for most e-mail services, such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc

Here are a list of websites that will help you gather information you might need for this tutorial:

http://www.spokeo.com/

http://www.pipl.com/

http://www.zabasearch.com/

http://com.lullar.com/

http://www.emailfinder.com/

http://www.zoominfo.com/

The first step, is to obtain the victims e-mail address. This can be as easy as asking them for it in a non-suspicious way. The websites listed above can help you obtain their e-mail as well. Once you have their e-mail address, proceed to step 2.

For this example, we're going to presume or victim is using gmail, but the steps are about the same for any other service. Go to gmail, click I cannot access my account. For other e-mail services, it may be i forgot my password. What we're trying to do is get access to the security questions. For gmail it wont ask you the questions right away, it will send a password reset e-mail to the alternate e-mail account. For gmail, it will only ask you the security questions if the person hasn't logged into their account 24 hours after you submit a i cannot access my account request.

Once you're asked the security questions, the only thing in between you and their e-mail is the answers to said questions. Most questions are pretty easy to answer if you know the person. if you dont know them, just find out the answers. For example, one security question is What is the name of your first dog?. If you know the person, this could be an easy answer. If you don't, you could try bringing it up smoothly in a conversation, or by asking people close to the victim such as family or friends.

Once you've correctly answered the questions, you will be able to reset their password and gain access. Congrats Smile

Most likely the person will end up resetting their password once they realized what has happened. If you want to leave a way for you to get back in, change their alternate e-mail. If they have an alternate e-mail as victim@yahoo.com, make an e-mail account with the same name on another service such as yahoo, so you own an email account victim@hotmail.com and replace their alternate email with this. This way, they most likely wont notice their alternate was changed, and you can just have a password reset request sent to your new email account, allowing you to regain access Smile

As always, this is for educational purposes only, and is illegal to gain access to someone elses e-mail account. Only attempt this on your own accounts. Use at your own risk. 

Like always, this is for educational purposes only.