I fear that the Laptop i bought maybe stolen!!!

Ok so after my acer blew up (r.i.p) i went and got a desktop but so very much missed the good old days with my laptop, but just couldn't part with the $500 to get a new one, so the other day i was on my balcony and i live right near the office and the drink machine so ny dogs started barking when i looked to see hwat the were barking at there was a guy getting a soda with a laptop in his hand and i had said shoosh to my dogs he had said nice dogs anyway long story short he had this laptop under his arm and i had commented that i miss my laptop anyhow he had said well im selling this ine cause he was moving out and he needed money for bills so i had asked how much and he had said 300 and i had told him not 300 but if he could do 250 he had a deal so he thought about it and said YES..Well i had taken the money out of my rent money to purchase it, so i was happy until yesterday when i was talking to my buddy and he had said "be careful it's not stolen" and then it occurred to me, i didn't even give it a thought and i have no reciept etc so now i'm worried cause he told me that laptop's come with a GPS DEVICE to help retrieve and the police get involved and everything so naturally i am on the laptop NOW as i am typing connected to someones unsecured network and a little uneasy that i may have gotten myself caught up in something. My question would be is How can i find out if it has a tracking program installed ? There is no info of the previous owner on here at all as it wa slike NEW = COMPAQ PRESARIO C571NR Notebook. - I am so worried now but then i tell myself it may just be a right opportunity.1 HELP ME PLEASE!!!

 

Don't use someone else's wifi unless you have permission. If you want to figure out what is in your laptop, you should check the HP/Compaq website.

 

the police are coming to get you for the laptop you obviously stole, but made up this crazy story to ask a ridiculous question about. i suggest you return this laptop to its rightful owner...

 

Not all laptops are equipped with with GPS. The thing that your friend may be thinking of is called LoJack. LoJack is a service that is purchased by the owner of a laptop to recover the computer in the event it is stolen. I'm not sure of all the details of this service, but I believe your computer's MAC address is registered with LoJack and if the computer is reported stolen, then they track down the MAC address of the computer and trace that to the IP address of the internet connection that the computer is being used on. They then contact the local authorities and they dispatch someone to the source of the IP address. However, this is a service that is available only in the US, I believe. If you are in another nation, then I don't know what the service is called, but I'm sure that there is some sort of similar recovery service available. If you are concerned with the legality of your purchase, then you may want to try and see if the computer may be registered with a recovery service.

 

Heres what you do, Call the police, explain how you bought the lappy, and give them the serial number on it, and that way if it comes up stolen, you wont have to worry about anything more than losing a few hundred bucks. go on now, do the right thing.

 

And LoJack finds and recovers 75% of stolen laptops lol. It will find you at airport Wifi networks, or any other internet connect that lasts just a few seconds. Better to come clean then to get nailed if the thing is stolen and is equipped with LoJack.

Anyone have LoJack? Is it worth it?

 

That seems the most reasonable course of action (other than staying off other people's unsecured networks without the owner's permission ). If you follow steveninspokane's advice, you'll have done the right thing by making it possible for the owner to recover the laptop if it is, indeed stolen, as well as perhaps providing a description of the person from whom you bought the laptop to the police (again, if it was stolen, then your erstwhile seller was either the thief or a fence).

Other than the serial number, there may also be information registered in the applications (e.g., in MS Office) giving the name and, possibly, the contact details of the registered owner of the laptop. If that info is in the computer, it would be a simple matter to contact the person in question just to verify that the system wasn't stolen - if you reach the same person who sold it to you, then there's a very good chance it wasn't stolen; if not, well, then you should know rather quickly whether or not the registered owner considers it to have been stolen. In that case, since you're already out $250, you might make the call in a neutral tone (e.g., yah, hello, I found this laptop with your info in it, and I just wanted to verify with you whether or not it had been stolen), and - depending, of course, on how nice that person is - perhaps be able to angle your way into something of a reward or finder's fee for taking the trouble to locate the owner. I don't think you'd get back your $250, but anything more than $0 would at least lessen the sting a bit.

 

TBH $250 isnt totally out of the blue for that Compaq...

 

Asking to hinder security measures is against forum rules.

Never buy a notebook from the street mate. Clear it up with the police first.

Thread Closed.