Did my girlfriend buy a stolen Mac?

[David Murphy]

My girlfriend was looking around ebay for a macbook pro to use for college to do her photography work.
She came across one that caught her eye and asked me to have a look for her. It was £800 and has an i5 processor with 8GB of ram and 1tb HDD but what stood out to me (and was what made it appeal to her) is the fact that it came with Adobe Photoshop CS6, final cut pro, and Adobe Illustrator pre-loaded as well as a lot of other software easily worth over £1000 between them.
I said to her that it seemed a bit dodgy so I wouldn't risk it but she decided to risk it anyway.

She got it and it seemed fine for a couple of weeks so figured it was all good but then one day when she switched it on it suddenly asked her for a pin number then started started making some sort of alarm noise (big enough give away) so she emailed the seller about it and he just told her it was a virus. I don't believe that for one minute.

I am hoping that it could be a mix up, but does it sound like the Mac is stolen and, if so, what can we do about it? Will she have to surrender the Mac?

 

[getochkn]

The software was probably pirated/downloaded software, that doesn't mean it's stolen.

No idea on the pin/alarm thing and if it is a virus or some sort of security software.

 

[USAFRet]

Probably.

1. A macbook, with all that software, for £800, from ebay.....yup. Assumed to be illegal/stolen unless proven otherwise.

2. I would never, ever use software preinstalled on a used PC. No telling where the previous owner got it, or what else is on there. And I'm not just speaking of pirated software.

3. That pin number alarm thing could be, might be, a scam. Or or a tracking application from the original owner. Or a scam tracking device from who you bought it from....

What can you do?
If you contact the police (and you should), they may well confiscate it

If you don't:
1. you're probably using someone elses' stolen hardware.
2. you're possibly using compromised software. All your passwords belong to someone else
3. How pissed off would you be if it was your Macbook on someone elses desk?

 

[David Murphy]

Probably.

3. How pissed off would you be if it was your Macbook on someone elses desk?

I wouldn't own a mac book and, if I did, I would rather it was sat on somebody else's desk to make room for my PC lol

 

[USAFRet]

Probably.

3. How pissed off would you be if it was your Macbook on someone elses desk?

I wouldn't own a mac book and, if I did, I would rather it was sat on somebody else's desk to make room for my PC lol

True. However....I still think the macbook in question is suspect.

 

[David Murphy]

Probably.

3. How pissed off would you be if it was your Macbook on someone elses desk?

I wouldn't own a mac book and, if I did, I would rather it was sat on somebody else's desk to make room for my PC lol

True. However....I still think the macbook in question is suspect.

Me too. She is trying to contact ebay about it and she is going to report it to the police. Apparently the seller keeps telling her not to report it but instead send it back.

Her main concern is that she paid £850 for it and she can't afford to lose the money

 

[virpio]

basically it is still registered to someone else on icloud, if the seller has the pin then great get it from him and have him remove it from his icloud account, if he is doddgy about it contact a apple service center. the police will tell you the same.

eiter way it will get fixed or you will get compensated by the company

 

[kamilstoch]

The price said it all. Agree with comments about used software, might have all sorts of stuff on it. Better to buy a new one with a warranty and all, but nothing you can do about it now. Report to eBay, if that doesn't work, then I guess as a last resort contact the police. That's just my two pennies.