Best Way To Get Back a Stolen Computer? 482
davidphogan74 writes "I have some stolen computers checking in with a server we have (software pre-loaded), and I have full access to the systems. What's the best way to deal with this situation? The local police (to the theft) have been contacted several times and seem to be clueless. I personally have no financial interest in these computers, I just don't like atom-thieves. What's the best way to handle knowing the IPs, email addresses, MySpace sites, the Google login, etc. when working with law enforcement? The officer I spoke with (who genuinely seemed to care) didn't know an IP address from a mailing address, so I called others. Nobody cared. Anyone have any ideas?"
Seems to be common these days (Score:5, Interesting)
See what this guy did with his irrigation controller:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/04/1228208 [slashdot.org]
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:5, Interesting)
If you don't care about getting them back... (Score:2, Interesting)
Disable volume control, load up a wav that screams "I'm stolen" in a loop, then after a couple of minutes trigger a program that reformats the hard drive and puts a garbled GRUB loader in the boot sector.
Essentially, brick it after letting the thieves know you know they stole it.
Easy (Score:3, Interesting)
Tell the police that since they were stolen, people keep sending you notices that you have signed up for child porn websites.... bet they can find the IP then, and subsequently the location and thief.
Flash the Bios (Score:2, Interesting)
Flash the bios with something unusable.......
If they want stolen stuff, then break it.....
Good luck fixing that!
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically saying "I have this data which can be varified in these ways, which will give you reasonable suspicion that these people are thieves. If you ring up the number and say you are with the police they will give you their physical address, which you can then make a quick warrant application for permission to go in, and then you have the criminals"... of course, as someone else mentioned, if you can get the FBI involved it would be better for you - probably.
On a tangent, some cops DO know the difference (Score:4, Interesting)
Setup a fake myspace page..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Setup a fake myspace page with pictures of a cute girl. Friend the dumbass thief, flirt awhile, and then get them to come out on a "date". When you finally meet up with them, bring a few of your own friends with any weapon you deem necessary. Once you meet them and they figure out what is going on, tell them how you found them and let them know if you don't get your property back you will do damage with whatever weapon you chose to bring.
In my case the guy who stole my laptop passed out when he was confronted (very pathetic) and we had to wait for him to wake up. When he woke back up he was still so confused and frightened by how we tracked him down that he gave me twice what the laptop was worth just so we wouldn't call the cops on him because it would ruin his chances at becoming a doctor (apparently he was a med student).
Some people don't like vigilante justice but from what I've seen in the past from my own experience and the experience of my friends and acquaintances, the cops aren't very good at recovering stolen property and I'm not rolling in enough money to be robbed and just shrug it off.
Posted anonymous for the obvious reasons.
forget police (Score:4, Interesting)
Unless you are extremely lucky (which you aren't, since you tried), you will not get police who cares or knows - one of either, but both is highly unlikely. Not to put them down - most officers with the know-how simply have more important things to deal with than some theft.
If your machines are brand-machines, and registered to your name or company, my suggestion would be to remotely disable them to the point where they need to be brought in for repairs, clue in the manufacturer, and they just might return them to the owner they have on record, i.e. you.
And even if not, you probably made sure the thieves can't use them any longer, which according to your words you'd also judge as a victory.
Make sure it's something a non-geek can't solve, like with a re-install. Setting a BIOS or EFI password and then pointing the boot device to a non-existant one could work great.
Re:Obvious Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
You then run the risk of alerting the thieves that the systems are remotely accessible. This might prompt them to re-format and re-install which loses you the ability of remote access.
If it was me, I'd be installing keystroke loggers and seeing what kinds of information I can capture. Credit cards, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. can give you the ability to inflict deeper wounds than than the cd tray can cause.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you commit credit card fraud with captured numbers, but you could submit those credit card numbers to a newsgroup on the net read by people that would be more than happy to commit the fraud for you.
Heh, steal a computer and destroy your credit rating. All of their friends in the address book get spammed to death, their email accounts are suspended for spam. Capture a phone number, submit it to companies that will try to sell them crap during dinner. You get the idea.
Why annoy, when you can inflict real and lasting damage.
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:5, Interesting)
The police are really clueless when it comnes to this as well as cyber crime.
A few years ago a had a debit card number stolen from a site where I purchased a CD. All of a sudden we started seeing odd charges (for body piercing jewelery). Within 24 hours, I had contacted the places where the purchases were made and had the person's name, home address, and home phone number. I did nothing illegal since he had put my name on the orders as the person paying the bill. I managed to get most of the money refunded to my account in a day but the police did NOTHING.
The bank still insisted that I fill out a theft report - which the cops did even they didn't quite understand why. I gave them the information when I filled out the report and they were kinda stumped what to actually do about it.
So this seems to be the norm (not having cops understand what to do with technology).
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:5, Interesting)
Police have two criteria in setting their priorities. The first and least important is the priority placed on the crime itself. Theft of goods worth $1000 or more ranks pretty highly, second only to violent crime.
The second criteria is the probability of an arrest. Here speeding and parking tickets rate at the top of the list.
Computer crime is only low on the list because the probability of an arrest is very low. But these circumstances make an arrest very likely and that changes the priority.
Why so many AC's wanting to diss this particular advice? They couldn't be like computer thieves upset about the risk to their careers?
Use the Press. (Score:3, Interesting)
turn on the mic? (Score:3, Interesting)
How about turning on the Mic or web cam and start taking recordings and sending them back to your computer, or better yet, email them directly to the police.
Have some fun (Score:3, Interesting)
Check this with an actual lawyer first (I'm not one). Since you (by being an employee of the rightful owner) presumably have a right to install anything you want on the machines, install keyloggers and other spyware.
If a webcam is available on the laptop, by all means take some snapshots!
Read the new user's em,ail to find hints as to who and where they are. If they admit to further crimes in email or ICQ, turn the information over to the police. Even if they have been resold, a person who buys a hot laptop might well receive other stolen goods as well. Email would help you (and polike/courts) to decide how knowingly they bought stolen goods.
Do not do anything that could tip them off that you are there or they might get someone to do a reload and you lose them.
If the police still show no ability to deal with it, copy all personal info on the machines and pop a note yup on the desktop stating that you have it and will publish it (including a nice email to everyone in their address book) if you don't get your machines back. (REALLY check with a lawyer here!!!). Note that the last one would be bad news even if the person is the thief and everyone they know is a thief or a fence. Who wants hot merchandise from someone who's being watched over the net?
THEN, mess with them. Crank up the volume and play audio files that say things like "POLICE, FREEZE!!" at 3AM.
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, that requires a court order - which would require a police department (and DA) who understands the matter well enough to initiate such proceedings. (it is interesting that when "big money" is involved - such as in RIAA proceedings - suddenly everyone involved on the enforcement side becomes far more knowledgable).
On that note, you may wish to see if your local PD has a dedicated "Internet Crimes Division" - you may just be talking to the wrong people in your local PD. Failing that, try contacting the state police (who should have such a division), explaining to them that your local PD is not equipped or sufficiently knowledgable to assist you.
Failing that (and this one is a remote one), if it was purchased with a credit card that has loss/theft coverage, contact your credit card company and explain both the situation and the information you have to assist them in tracking the laptop...
You have remote root? A few ideas :-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't even know that it is an issue of technology. Cops don't seem interested in investigating theft of any sort. They certainly don't try to track down thieves. They are used to filling out theft reports in situations where they know an insurance company want to see it, but otherwise they don't even bother with that.
I'd be more willing to say that the cost/benefit ratio of investigating that sort of crime was too low, if they didn't waste so much time and money on even smaller crimes.
Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf (Score:3, Interesting)
Cops aren't hired to retrieve your property (Score:2, Interesting)
IMHO (and this is very cynical) the cops don't seem to figure its their job to retrieve "your" stolen property. We supplied equipment to a public company and it was worth 10's of thousands. We are not talking small potatoes here. The equipment was not paid for. The company claimed it didn't exist and we hadn't delivered it (of course we had signed courier receipts). The cops claimed "where's the fraud"?
Well its called fraudulent concealment. This is where they claim something they have doesn't exist (ie they conceal it).
We could not convince the cops to do their jobs.
I am left with the impression they are only useful for collecting traffic tickets and eating doughnuts.
Needless to say, now when they call up asking for donations to their policemen's fund they are told to please don't call back.
Re:Take a picture (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Frighten them and arrange a blind drop (Score:3, Interesting)
Watch the laptops until they reveal enough information about themselves to drop them a friendly call (make sure to state their name and address) to inform them that they have stolen property, and that if they'd like to avoid being arrested they should perform a blind drop of all the stolen equipment at a location you're familiar with. Maybe just have them come in to your business (if it's large enough and public) and drop them in an empty conference room or turn it in to lost and found, saving you a lot of trouble. If they never reveal their phone number, an email would probably suffice as well.
Question (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:a little more context... (Score:3, Interesting)
While I agree with your stance on drug prohibition, the article you linked to about the man with the seven grams of cocaine got the book thrown at him for skipping bail. The article says he choked his girlfriend until she blacked out instead of being in court. So, I think twenty years isn't *that* much of an overreach.