Computer stolen. Now what?
16/07/14 Filed in: general troubleshooting
My daughter's laptop was lost/stolen this past weekend and Apple suggested we contact "click4support" and have them trace it and delete private information, etc. We paid them a substantial fee to do this, but are having a difficult time figuring out exactly what they are doing, what the status of the tracking is, etc. It apparently is still being used and they told us the address (may have been a general address) of the last time the computer was used (after stolen), but not exactly sure what to do with the information now. We really don't know what to do from here. Can you help us out with this? Honestly, it has also been difficult to understand what the people are telling us because of language issues as well. Thanks.
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I’m sorry to hear of the theft. I find it very hard to believe that Apple would have suggested “click4support”. I’d never heard of the company at all and all the reviews online have been very poor. After just a few minutes searching around on their own site, Better Business Bureau, and other forums, my impression would be to avoid using this company.
With that said, if a person looses their laptop there would be a couple of things to consider immediately.
1. Change all your passwords to as many accounts as you can think of. Email, banking, iTunes, etc… These passwords live on your computer and can easily be revealed if a person knows what they’re doing.
2. Go so far as to put a security code on certain accounts. For instance a 4 digit pin that would be required by any phone support agent with a company before changes could be made to the account.
3. On a mac, if within System preferences, iCloud was enabled and “find my mac” was turned on, then when the thief went online with the computer you could locate its general location by the method iCloud uses on non GPS devices to locate: WiFi triangulation. This would not be exact but you’d have a general idea of where the computer was. If this was not enabled ahead of time however, it wouldn’t do any good now.
4. If you have a gmail account, you may be able to log in to your gmail from another computer and show the last few locations your gmail has been accessed.
My advice would be pursue getting a refund from “click4support”, have a strongly worded conversation with whomever at Apple recommended this service.
___________
I’m sorry to hear of the theft. I find it very hard to believe that Apple would have suggested “click4support”. I’d never heard of the company at all and all the reviews online have been very poor. After just a few minutes searching around on their own site, Better Business Bureau, and other forums, my impression would be to avoid using this company.
With that said, if a person looses their laptop there would be a couple of things to consider immediately.
1. Change all your passwords to as many accounts as you can think of. Email, banking, iTunes, etc… These passwords live on your computer and can easily be revealed if a person knows what they’re doing.
2. Go so far as to put a security code on certain accounts. For instance a 4 digit pin that would be required by any phone support agent with a company before changes could be made to the account.
3. On a mac, if within System preferences, iCloud was enabled and “find my mac” was turned on, then when the thief went online with the computer you could locate its general location by the method iCloud uses on non GPS devices to locate: WiFi triangulation. This would not be exact but you’d have a general idea of where the computer was. If this was not enabled ahead of time however, it wouldn’t do any good now.
4. If you have a gmail account, you may be able to log in to your gmail from another computer and show the last few locations your gmail has been accessed.
My advice would be pursue getting a refund from “click4support”, have a strongly worded conversation with whomever at Apple recommended this service.
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