Am I allowed to contact Apple to recover my stolen iMac?

Apologise for the lengthy post...

Just over a month ago, my iMac was "stolen", here's the background info...

I listed my iMac on eBay. People bid on the item as normal, and it got to the heady heights of £800. Great. The leading buyer contacted me a couple hours before the end of the auction to ask if they could collect it. I told him that as long as he paid for it before hand, then I had no problems with that.

Anyway, the auction ended at £811, the buyer pays via paypal so I go to meet the buyer and hand over the goods. When I return, I've received an email from Paypal telling me that they believe the transaction was made "without the authorisation of the account holder." Oh crap.

So basically, at this point, I was an iMac down and wasn't sure if I would get my money. Turns out, the payment was made fraudulently and refunded the account holder their money. So I'm without my iMac, nor my money. Paypal have "investigated" and because I don't have proof of purchase, it's all my fault, which I'm reluctant to accept but that's by the by...

Anyways, on to my question... Along with all the other stupid things I did in this issue, I deregistered the iMac before I sold it. However, on my FindmyiPhone App, the iMac is still listed there, but it's now listed as "Sharo's iMac" opposed to "Steve's iMac". This leads me to think that the new "owner" has registered it.

I reported the matter to the Police, the day after it happened and they have been investigating ever since. I received a phone call from them yesterday informing me that the ebay account holder lived in America... So there was nothing they could do with regards to that. Ugh. I informed the Police that I believed that the account that was used was hacked as well as the PayPal account, and asked them to investigate the phone number of the person who arranged collection... Unbelievably the officer I spoke to admitted that he had omitted that phone number from his enquiries... Great competency there. Finally, I asked the policeman if he could contact Apple and ask for the registration information, because I gave them the serial number. He said that they couldn't do that, but there's nothing stopping me contacting Apple and asking them... They may or may not give it to me.

So, is it worth me contacting Apple, telling them the whole story and asking if they can tell me anything about the new registered owner?!

I've given up hope of getting my money back, PayPal aren't budging, but if I could get my iMac back I'd be ecstatic.

Thanks for any input, but please, save the "You're an idiot for not sending it" posts, I've had enough of that already.

Get the crime number off the police, and any correspondence from ebay, that way you are definitely legit when you visit Apple and not someone stalking your ex.

I am sure they can help locate the mac

Sorry to hear about your loss, Chuck, and hope everything works out.

I know little about legal practice and law enforcement outside the US (where I live) but suspect it is similar in the UK.

Nonviolent minor theft seems to not be much of a priority with the police. A better bet if you had more info would be to sue in small claims court (at least here).

Interested to see how it works out with Apple.

Chuckoir said:

Anyway, the auction ended at £811, the buyer pays via paypal so I go to meet the buyer and hand over the goods.

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Chuck,

First let me say I know how terrible you feel at this point. I had a very similar thing happen to me...except it was the reverse. I was buying a computer over the internet, I paid via Paypal, but never received a computer. In my case Paypal did refund me my money (since it was sent from my Paypal account). But it was stressful...since the Paypal process can take like 4 weeks...and the whole time you (me) worries that Paypal for some strange reason will refuse to refund.

As far as contacting Apple about possibly having info on the new user/owner of the computer. Apple is notorious for NOT giving out this info. I recently read an internet article here in the U.S....where airports have hundreds & hundreds of lost iPhones & iPads. Since these devices are password protected...the airports have no way of determining whom they belong to. In the article the airports mentioned contacting Apple about owner info...and Apple refuses to release the info.

One last question. If you and the person that purchased your computer were meeting in person...why the heck did you not insist on being paid in cash rather than Paypal?

I realize that £811 may not be an amount that most folks like carrying around in cash...but convenient or not...it sure beats a Paypal ripoff.

I recently sold a used car to someone (sold it for $6000+)...and I insisted on being paid in cash (we met the next day at the person's bank)...and I walked out with $6000 cash in my pocket...which I then immediately deposited in my bank account at a different bank.

Again...very sorry to hear about this!

- Nick

This is why I will never again do business with a stranger via Paypal. Way too much stress involved via the mysterious variables!

Apple by law, can not give out information about any of their customers to ANYONE, over the phone. Why? Because you can't see I.D. over the phone, which makes them lible. It's quite simple and logical.

The only thing one can do these days is to install third party software such as Prey and hope that they can nail down the location of their stolen goods in order to assist the police once a report has been filed. In truth though, the police won't really do a thing on their own, they've got more important things to do than look for a single stolen computer/iPhone/iPad/iWhatever.

Really sorry to hear of your unfortunate incident. Hope you catch the db

Doug

Doug b said:

This is why I will never again do business with a stranger via Paypal. Way too much stress involved via the mysterious variables!

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I used to feel that Paypal was a pretty safe way of making & receiving payments...and maybe it still is.

Scammers out there are pretty darn "sneaky/savvy" (we've probably all seen the "fake" websites that people put together to mimic the real thing)...such as Paypal, e-Bay, or any other websites that requires a login & password.

How many times have any of us gotten a "phishing" e-mail (with a link) from "AOL", "e-Bay", "Paypal", a "credit card company", etc.???...that says that we must log into our accounts to "update security", "confirm" account information, etc.??

The site looks EXACTLY like the "real" website...but when you look up into the internet browsers address bar...it's NOT the REAL website...it's an exact duplicate "SCAM" website!!!

I'm wondering if this might have been the case that happened to Chuck above. Was sent a "fake" payment from a fake Paypal website & a fake Paypal account. Everything looks legit...but everything was an exact duplicate FAKE!

I'm pretty sure that Paypal would have refunded Chuck's money if the payment was made from the valid Paypal website & from a valid Paypal account.

- Nick

p.s. I almost got scammed yesterday. I sent someone selling something on e-Bay a question a couple days ago...I received a "reply" yesterday" (with a link to sign into my e-Bay account)...that was NOT from the seller I sent the question to.

The e-mail was requiring me to sign into my e-Bay account to view the e-mail (not a normal procedure)...then I looked up at the browser address bar...and realized that it WASN'T from e-Bay! I was literally just seconds away from automatically entering my e-Bay userid & password!!!...what a nightmare that could have been!

I used to think the same way as Nick about PayPal, however, with so many scams abound, PayPal has become just another way for the scammers and low life thieves to steal your money or goods.

I just recently sold my 2008 MacBook which was in pristine condition. I advertised it on Craig's list for $499.00. Within a day of the listing I received offers "too good to be true" from scammers all over the world. The amazing thing about it was that each one was willing to pay me my asking price via PayPal and even include extra $$ for shipping.

Long story short... I sold it to a guy local to me who I met and he paid me cash. I will absolutely never do business using PayPal unless the person I'm doing business with is a close relative - and even at that I would have to think long and hard about it. ;D

So sorry to hear what happened Chuck. I hope somehow you can find the machine.

Thanks Nick for all your advice as it might help others in the future also.

Keep us posted Chuck.

Can't help with Apple UK, but here Down Under I had a Dual Core G5 PowerMac vanish from a courier's store room. Fortunately the seller had the serial number etc. Rang Apple Australia and they entered the details on a register that circulates Apple dealers in the event it is taken in for repair.

Courier advised it had been reported stolen to both Police and Apple and it 'mysteriously' re-appeared!

Any chance you had the computer covered under home owner or other insurance? I was surprised once to find an item I was relieved of was covered under insurance, but I had to read through several pages of legalese to find out about it. Another option might be to find the person who you physically met with to complete the transaction (video cameras everywhere in England) and crank on them or a friend of theirs until they pay (plus a little extra for your trouble).

In defense of PayPal:

I have used PayPal for years to pay people and get paid, on both merchandise sales and services, and have never had an issue. YES, people are taking advantage of hacking accounts to create the situation seen above, but I would argue that bank debit card/credit card abuse is WAY higher and more likely to happen to you (it's happened to me three times, all but once was a waiter at a restaurant stealing the card number).

I'm sure it has flaws, but for me it's an absolutely vital way for me to (among other things) but stuff online in the US from Canada. Just bought a t-shirt online the other day, couldn't have been easier, but if I had not had Paypal that same merchant wouldn't have taken my Canadian credit card (go figure that out -- hello, money's money!).

It's a little late, but we don't send anything or expect to receive anything until the transaction clears. It doesn't matter if it is Paypal, Debit/credit card, check, purchase order, or money order. We don't accept cash for any transaction, it's hard for us or our customer to "lose" the proof of the transaction that way. That would be to much cash on hand at one time on the premises as well.
I hope you can get it back, I'm from the US so don't know how the laws covering this where you live work.

Just bought a t-shirt online the other day, couldn't have been easier, but if I had not had Paypal that same merchant wouldn't have taken my Canadian credit card (go figure that out -- hello, money's money!).

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Depends on where the merchant was located. If they were located in the US I can't blame them for not wanting to accept a credit card issued by a bank in Canada (assuming of course that's what happened). It's hard enough dealing with US banks or credit card issuers to try to recover funds, but dealing across international borders is an entirely different matter.

Using PayPal to pay established on line merchants is still safe, however, there are just too many schemers and scammers on eBay and Craig's list to trust PayPal any longer. It's too bad, but that's a fact.

I too have been zapped with false use of my credit card but in each and every case I was able to recoup my funds from my bank. And yes, waiters in restaurants are not to be trusted handling your credit card when out of direct vision.

FWIW
I had a good experience selling through Amazon. Of course they take a healthy chunk (15% I believe) but worked out well for me.

one drawback is a local pick up, if you have sent it thru mail. that way there is enough time for paypal to realize this is a scam. As I understand the victim whose account was hacked, should realized in time to let paypal get hold of the culprit.
In US I understand there is mailer that is involved, you the sender could stop the delivery if you scent a rat.
Paypal should have stand by you all the way.

You can't stop something once it's been mailed in the US and I highly doubt you could stop it with UPS or FedEx either. Simply put, whenever you sell an item to a person face to face, the old adage applies: "Show me the money!"

chscag said:

Simply put, whenever you sell an item to a person face to face, the old adage applies: "Show me the money!"

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- Nick

pigoo3 said:

- Nick

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Good one Nick.