I think this PC is stolen...

[Fat Tone]

Last week a friend of a friend asked me contact a friend of hers because of a PC problem. I dutifully went around and fixed the PC (put the CRT back on as the TFT wouldn't do 87Hz and do a repair-install), and brought away another PC belonging to her new partner, described as 'a mate gave it to me, it worked for a week and now it doesnt'. This guy knows zero about computers, but does work for a famous high-street electronics retailer

So this other PC is a Dell Dimension 3000, 2.66GHz, 512MB, 80GB (and came with the aforementioned TFT), and the COA has been ripped off the side of the case. I can still read the serial and service tags though. It just has some virus damage, easy enough to repair.

Now the thing is this machine is only a few months old, was just given to him, and the COA has been ripped off. I think there is a strong chance it was stolen.

I could just say it's buggered and 'throw it away for him' but I won't do that. I could try and find out if it is stolen perhaps? Or I could just give it back and have him owe me a big favour.

What to do?

[Tjalfe]

would your job not be on the line if it was found out you knew about it being stolen and did nothing?

[Fat Tone]

This has nothing to do with my work place, and it is only a suspicion! I guess if I find out it is stolen that could change. I'm not making any profit from this (I guess I should refuse payment).

[Gurm]

*sigh*

Tough call, man. He told you it was "given". You don't know it's stolen.

Strictly speaking, I'd keep EVERYTHING on the up-and-up. If you see CLEAR evidence of theft, report it. If not, document everything, make sure your work is above board, and get it out of there ASAP.

I suppose you COULD call Dell, give them the numbers, tell them you think that the machine has changed hands and aren't sure under what circumstances it did so, and see if they'll give you the owner's name/address.

If it's not that old, it's still under Dell warranty.

[ZokesPro]

I suppose you COULD call Dell, give them the numbers, tell them you think that the machine has changed hands and aren't sure under what circumstances it did so, and see if they'll give you the owner's name/address.

If it's not that old, it's still under Dell warranty.

I doubt that Dell tech support will divulge any info about the current owner's name and address unless he can confirm that info before hand. Then again, you could fall on someone who is more forthcoming. But they do listen in on almost all the calls seing as Dell uses outsorcing for it's tech support so I doubt you'll get very far with them.

[KvHagedorn]

Innocent until proven guilty.

[Paddy]

i take it the machine has been formatted recently? Otherwise it should be easy enough to pull up the registration information.

[Fat Tone]

Still getting Windows to play ball fully, and was out last night. Browseui.dll was missing so I had to expand that from a CD, but mcaffee is hosed and I need to do a manual uninstall. Using the drive as a slave on my machine, Sophos and Adaware found a couple of dialers and something called hotporn.exe! It's treacle for now.

Anyways, it looks like it hasn't been reformatted (Dell background picture, afaik standard apps etc).

[Jon P. Inghram]

If it's a Dell they could just wipe everything and reinstall from the hidden partition on the HD.

[Fat Tone]

I tried that initially (Ctrl+F11 when the blue-bar shows) and it says it can't restore...I suppose that could be a symptom of a reinstall from a std XP disc? The hidden partition is there.

[Fat Tone]

They were supposed to ring me last night and let me know if they had the installation discs, but didn't.

[VJ]

Tough call...

The ripped of COA, the lacking of the disks seem to hint at it being stolen... It is unlikely one would omit these when giving away the PC.

I doubt Dell would give you any information about an owner, but they might confirm. They do have a service where one can report a PC a stolen (just do a search on the Dell site for "stolen"), so my guess is they can only do something if the PC happens to be reported to Dell as stolen...


Jörg

[Sasq]

ethics aside.
for your own personal criminal record, I would suggest offloading it back to the 'owner' asap

[TransformX]

It does smell like something that 'fell off a truck' to me. It's a hot potatoe and I wouldn't be keeping it in my hands for too long.

[Fat Tone]

I've told them it can't be fixed without a re-install. They don't have installation disks. So they either buy a legit OS or they get it back as is.

The story has changed a bit. The GF says he bought it off a mate, but he quite clearly said his mate 'gave' it to him. She didn't realise how new it is either. I also hinted that the lack of COA was suspicious, so they are 'thinking' about if they want to pay for an OS. Wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear from them again, or if an OS does turn up it'll be on a CDR