Hackers are still around…
The cracker asked then a ransom of 650$ to recover it.

The technique used to hack the Gmail account is known as the Gmail E-mail Hijack Technique, but has been fixed by Google since then.
The Gmail account get Hijacked when a user goes to an evil website. A filter is setup in the Gmail account of the victim, which forwards all the emails to the email account of the hacker.