Computer Stolen: Way to find it?
- Thread starter Michael Silverbane
- Start date
KeithCrimson
First Post
Michael Silverbane said:
Microsoft will not be able to tell you where it is coming from after doing some research. They can only tell you the last time it was used. The next time you talk to the police let them know that someone is using your stolen 360 and Microsoft has the IP of the person who is using it. Of course it wouldn't hurt to call Microsoft and report your 360 stolen and see what they can do for you.
Well, first off, given that you were sleeping in the house when it was stolen, be glad that you didn't wake up while it was happening, and get into a confrontation with the robber. I'd rather have to make an insurance claim than risk a confrontation with a potentially drugged out thief.
Too bad you can't just call it. An old coworker of mine had his cellphone stolen late at night from his car. He called the thing, and the thief was dumb enough to answer the phone. In the few brief moments that he was on the line, my coworker heard someone in the background asking "do you want fries with that"? Given there was only one fast food joint open in the area at that late area, he beelined for the place, and found the thief at the local Burger King...
Hopefully you didn't have personal info like credit card or banking data on the machine...
You might also want to change the passwords for your e-mail etc. If they're in the memory or preferences of your browser etc. the thief could gain access to your accounts.
Banshee
Too bad you can't just call it. An old coworker of mine had his cellphone stolen late at night from his car. He called the thing, and the thief was dumb enough to answer the phone. In the few brief moments that he was on the line, my coworker heard someone in the background asking "do you want fries with that"? Given there was only one fast food joint open in the area at that late area, he beelined for the place, and found the thief at the local Burger King...
Hopefully you didn't have personal info like credit card or banking data on the machine...
You might also want to change the passwords for your e-mail etc. If they're in the memory or preferences of your browser etc. the thief could gain access to your accounts.
Banshee
borc killer
First Post
Bad Paper said:
... I know someone that used this... on someone else’s mac...
(note: not sure it was this very program, but it did what this described)
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
Banshee16 said:
Well, I did wake up, when the burglar came into the bedroom. I suspect that I frigthened him (or them) off, and that they did not think that anyone was in the house. Unfortunately, I was pretty groggy ( I do not wake up quickly at all), and was unable to give much of a description to the police...
I have changed all of my account info, for essentially everything, including putting out fraud alerts on any cards or accounts that I even thought I might have ever used in the past (essentially, all of them).
Right now, I'm trying to do a couple of things to possibly find the computer and/or xbox...
I've been calling xbox support pretty often, trying to see if I my gamertag is in use. And trying to get to a person who at least says that they know what ip the last connection was from (they keep saying that they don't even get that information, but that seems pretty unlikely, given how easy that information is to get).
I've got a service request in with the makers of my antivirus program, to see if they can pull the ip when the computer updates its antivirus definitions.
I've got my isp looking for my computer's MAC address to connect to their network (my isp has a pretty strong stranglehold on the internet access in the area, so its a good chance that if my computer connects to the internet in this area, it does it through the same isp that I use).
Once ony of these folks gets any of this information, I'll hand the situation over to the police. One problem that I am having on that end is that the local police have ZERO computer training, so they don't really know what to do in these situations, at all, as far as using the internet or internet service providers to track down a stolen property like this. I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for them, because they really don't know who to ask or what to ask them (of course, until I started getting help from here and other places, I didn't know who to ask or what to ask them, either).
I'm thinking that maybe after this ordeal is over and done with, I'll try to get together with a few of the local ISPs and see if we can't put together some sort of a presentation or seminar or something for the police... Because they really don't know jack...
Later
silver
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
Thanks a bunch.
And thanks to everyone who had suggestions and advice. I haven't had much luck so far. The folks over at xbox live continue to insist that they don't even collect the ip when there is a connection, and there haven't been any hits from my computer.
So... This weekend, I'll be going around the crappy neighborhoods and asking around to see if anyone knows about someone having gotten a new 360 and or gateway. That'll be a good time, I'm sure.
Later
silver
And thanks to everyone who had suggestions and advice. I haven't had much luck so far. The folks over at xbox live continue to insist that they don't even collect the ip when there is a connection, and there haven't been any hits from my computer.
So... This weekend, I'll be going around the crappy neighborhoods and asking around to see if anyone knows about someone having gotten a new 360 and or gateway. That'll be a good time, I'm sure.
Later
silver
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
So... I spent most of the day canvasing the neighborhood where I think the thieves might live. That experience was not only pretty disheartening (I did not find out crap, most people would not even answer their doors) but it also painted a pretty dismal picture of the area where I live (almost everyone who did answer their door also had a story about their place being broken into, or their neighbors place being broken into, or their car broken into or stolen).
On the plus side, I've found (I think) the MAC address of my 360 in the event log of my Vista machine (which was not stolen).
See, when I had both my Vista machine and my 360 on and connected to the LAN at the same time, the Vista machine automatically detected it and asked me if I wanted to set up the 360 as a Media Extender to Windows Media Center. Since it was the middle of the night, and I had nothing better to do, I thought, "Why not?" And continued through the setup on both the computer and the 360. This, apparently, allows me to download movies, pictures, whatever, onto my computer, and then view them on my TV, via the 360 and network connection. That's not terribly useful to me, but, like I said, I had nothing better to do.
As it turns out, this was a good thing, because I believe that the police, in cooperation with the local ISP companies, can find out from where my XBox has been logging on to XBox live. That is, they can tell if a computer (or other device) with a specific MAC address (which I have, and should be unique to that device) is connected to the internet through their system, and then locate the actual, physical location (house) of the computer (or, in this case, XBox 360). At least, that's the theory...
Later
silver
On the plus side, I've found (I think) the MAC address of my 360 in the event log of my Vista machine (which was not stolen).
See, when I had both my Vista machine and my 360 on and connected to the LAN at the same time, the Vista machine automatically detected it and asked me if I wanted to set up the 360 as a Media Extender to Windows Media Center. Since it was the middle of the night, and I had nothing better to do, I thought, "Why not?" And continued through the setup on both the computer and the 360. This, apparently, allows me to download movies, pictures, whatever, onto my computer, and then view them on my TV, via the 360 and network connection. That's not terribly useful to me, but, like I said, I had nothing better to do.
As it turns out, this was a good thing, because I believe that the police, in cooperation with the local ISP companies, can find out from where my XBox has been logging on to XBox live. That is, they can tell if a computer (or other device) with a specific MAC address (which I have, and should be unique to that device) is connected to the internet through their system, and then locate the actual, physical location (house) of the computer (or, in this case, XBox 360). At least, that's the theory...
Later
silver
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