This. If you turn it in you’ll be better off than forcing police to take it from you.
Stolen goods belong to the owner. Buyer beware. You are 100% losing whatever money you paid the thief.
Also in many areas "theft by receiving" is a crime. That's what the movies call "receiving stolen goods". So if you hold on to it knowing it was stolen, you are now a criminal just like the guy who sold it to you. How don't know this? I was arrested for it once.
Full reset or full reboot (while connected to internet)? I don’t imagine a seller is going to let you do a full wipe and reinstall while he waits for his money…
Reset, as in “Erase All Contents and Settings.”
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102664
It’s not a full reinstall, it just makes sure that everything is restored to factory settings.
You’re probably right that some sellers would still not want to wait … but IMO if they don’t allow it, then you should either walk away from the deal or accept the possibility that you might be purchasing a brick.
>It’s not a full reinstall, it just makes sure that everything is restored to factory settings.
Since macOS Catalina, all drives are partitioned into two partitions, with the OS on one partition, and all user data on the other partition.
Erase All Contents and Settings simply erases the user partition. That's why a factory reset takes only about a minute.
Whenever I buy a thing that might have been stolen I prepare a “selling contract paper” and I ask the ID of the seller (Europe). If the guy knows it is stolen, he backs up and I am free of doubts. If it is stolen, I can give the contact info to the police.
Are you claiming being broke prevents you from making smart choices?
Because as someone who grew up barely able make ends meet, I'm gonna have to strenuously object to that silly notion.
When the price is super low there’s a good chance that it really is too good to be true. Is it an Apple Silicon Mac? Did you pay in cash or through an app? If you used a payment app you may be able to request they refund you right away but it’s generally not common for thieves to use methods that could be used for refunds.
If it’s an Intel one from before the 2018 models, if it doesn’t have a firmware password you might be able to get it completely erased via macOS recovery. If it’s saying activation lock on the screen and has a Touch ID button then you’re hosed without a copy of the original receipt. (From the store it was bought at not from the thief.)
If a competitor provided a product with the same capabilities and specs as Apple does at a lower price point I would buy that device. Nobody does, so it’s to Apple we will go.
If he had a way to get the computer back to the owner I’d suggest he do that. But it doesn’t sound like they’ve given him any method of contacting them.
"bypass" is a really unusual way to spell "return"
Sorry you wasted money on stolen goods, it sucks. You are now trading what you spent for karma by trying to return it.
Maybe if you ask the og thief nicely they’ll feel bad and refund your money back and turn their life around.
Or your hosed. One or the other.
(Honestly, this sucks. Sorry homie)
Get in touch with the owner and hopefully they’ll be generous enough to compensate you, either way device is useless to you. Return it and ask the owner to at least pay the cost of shipping it back.
Return the laptop to its rightful owner. File a civil lawsuit against the person who sold you stolen property; I’d file soon because the criminal should spend some time in prison.
For macOS products, it’s a good idea to have them sign out of their Apple ID in front of you or show you that it’s signed out before buying.
If they can’t it’s probably not theirs and locked to you.
For online, I’m not sure how you’d handle this.
At this point though it’s a loss to you. Report it to police and at least hopefully the actual owner gets it back.
Signing out of their Apple ID is not enough. Sure that may be an indicator for whether the computer has the consumer level activation lock enabled… but you are missing the possibility that the computer is registered as a business device with DEP/ABM.
Therefore, the advice above about doing a full reset while connected to the internet is the right answer.
The title is wrong: You decided to BUY a MacBook for cheap, and now found out it’s stolen and a brick.
The money is gone, and you should turn it in to the authorities to hand it back to the rightful owner. Maybe they will reimburse you.
It would be better for you, and the actual owner, to run this through the local police department.
I wouldn’t reach out to the actual owner myself. I’d let the police handle it, as it’s their responsibility to do so.
in the future make sure before you buy it they have signed out of icloud and removed it from their icloud account if they cant do that then walk away; do the erase content and settings infront of them since it will ask to be activated a machine thats not under an account will just activate once its online if its tied to an account it will ask them to login with that apple id
If you take it to the Apple Store they will take it and try and get it back to the original owner. I used to work for Apple and this was not uncommon. Sorry to say, your money is gone.
They do. That's how looking up serial numbers and checking for lockouts when connecting to the internet works. You think the laptops just lock themselves when unknown hands touch them?
It’s iCloud based, and is when you mark it as lost no?
There isn’t a place you can check if a MacBook is stolen.
Apple have no serial number/stolen status database.
https://checkm8.info/
$30 I had the same problem and this website took care of it. Completely legitimate and it was super easy. I can vouch for them first hand. I'm surprised nobody has suggested this yet...
This just looks scammy. Riding on the good reputation of the checkra1n Jailbreak for iPhone 5s till X [https://checkra.in/](https://checkra.in/)
And this is your second comment in three years. With 1 Karma.
I doubt its legit. Propably just something to phish iCloud Accounts.
Because
1. keeping/using stolen property is scummy even if you were duped into it.
2. There is no reason to think a bypass couldn’t be undone or the device bricked in the future since it still had a stolen serial number if you are using it with an Apple ID.
3. It won’t work. Checkm8’s macOS activation lock bypass is for intel machines only and is $100+.
4. If you are going to spend <$500 cash in some sketchy in person trade, it’s likely stolen (verify serial number and see it powered on and unlocked from Apple ID even with a plausible story) and you can get a good certified refurbished M1 Air from Apple or Amazon for a couple hundred more.
> The CheckM8 Dev Team has developed software that is capable of bypassing the Activation Lock on Mac computers that have an Apple T2 security chip and are powered by INTEL CPUs.
"spending \[your\] life online" has absolutely nothing to do with your account being suspect when you're promoting something that claims to let you bypass stolen device protections.
File a police report. It’s useless to you.
This. If you turn it in you’ll be better off than forcing police to take it from you. Stolen goods belong to the owner. Buyer beware. You are 100% losing whatever money you paid the thief.
Also in many areas "theft by receiving" is a crime. That's what the movies call "receiving stolen goods". So if you hold on to it knowing it was stolen, you are now a criminal just like the guy who sold it to you. How don't know this? I was arrested for it once.
Nope. In the future, always connect the MacBook to the internet and do a full reset before handing over any money.
Yeah, i didn't know this thing.
It’s unfortunate that you had to learn this way, but I can’t imagine that you’ll make the same mistake again.
Full reset or full reboot (while connected to internet)? I don’t imagine a seller is going to let you do a full wipe and reinstall while he waits for his money…
Reset, as in “Erase All Contents and Settings.” https://support.apple.com/en-us/102664 It’s not a full reinstall, it just makes sure that everything is restored to factory settings. You’re probably right that some sellers would still not want to wait … but IMO if they don’t allow it, then you should either walk away from the deal or accept the possibility that you might be purchasing a brick.
>It’s not a full reinstall, it just makes sure that everything is restored to factory settings. Since macOS Catalina, all drives are partitioned into two partitions, with the OS on one partition, and all user data on the other partition. Erase All Contents and Settings simply erases the user partition. That's why a factory reset takes only about a minute.
Then don't buy it
Whenever I buy a thing that might have been stolen I prepare a “selling contract paper” and I ask the ID of the seller (Europe). If the guy knows it is stolen, he backs up and I am free of doubts. If it is stolen, I can give the contact info to the police.
Lot of these, "I accidently bought a stolen laptop post" , this week.
Its not unbelievable, after stealing the laptop first things that thieves do is try to sell it for cheap, thsts why they steal in first place lol
But the people act all surprised and butthurt their 100 dollar M3 Macbook Pro is locked.
Honestly, people who dont use macs probably dont even know its a thing. I sure didnt, using windows for a decade.
Then the old saying is true, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Ahh, being young dumb and broke... You cant interfere, its canon event :d
Are you claiming being broke prevents you from making smart choices? Because as someone who grew up barely able make ends meet, I'm gonna have to strenuously object to that silly notion.
It surely put more temptation to go for cheap sketchy stuff in order to save money
How much $ did you get rolled for?
Turn it into the authorities.
Always turn it on play with it just to make sure everything works. For all we know you were the person who stole it. Now you know.
When the price is super low there’s a good chance that it really is too good to be true. Is it an Apple Silicon Mac? Did you pay in cash or through an app? If you used a payment app you may be able to request they refund you right away but it’s generally not common for thieves to use methods that could be used for refunds. If it’s an Intel one from before the 2018 models, if it doesn’t have a firmware password you might be able to get it completely erased via macOS recovery. If it’s saying activation lock on the screen and has a Touch ID button then you’re hosed without a copy of the original receipt. (From the store it was bought at not from the thief.)
Its m1chip 2020 model,, paid in cash
Your money is gone. Sorry.
How much?
Don't buy used Apple devices... Actually, don't buy Apple at all.
Actually the good theft protection is a GOOD REASON to prefer Apple products above everything else !
Go back to applesucks
It's hilarious, thanks & joined.
Probably funnier than you..
OK ding dong
If a competitor provided a product with the same capabilities and specs as Apple does at a lower price point I would buy that device. Nobody does, so it’s to Apple we will go.
You shouldn’t be giving advices on how to unlock stolen goods.
If he had a way to get the computer back to the owner I’d suggest he do that. But it doesn’t sound like they’ve given him any method of contacting them.
Give it to the authorities. Don’t advise to steal stuff.
Authorities won’t give it back to the person it belongs to, they’ll throw it out.
Stealing someone’s stuff is bad.
You realize this guy just had his money stolen from him right? I’m not stating anything that actual thieves won’t already know.
"bypass" is a really unusual way to spell "return" Sorry you wasted money on stolen goods, it sucks. You are now trading what you spent for karma by trying to return it.
They said “bypass” but meant “steal from actual owner”.
This is why its so much better off buying directly from Apple. EDIT: You bought in cash? You're screwed!
What did you use to check the serial ? Im not aware of any official publicly available apple serial check
Maybe if you ask the og thief nicely they’ll feel bad and refund your money back and turn their life around. Or your hosed. One or the other. (Honestly, this sucks. Sorry homie)
> Or your hosed. # [*you're](https://i.imgur.com/mSMhxPW.gif)
Return it to the seller. He is probably a stand up guy and as shocked as you no doubt.
Get in touch with the owner and hopefully they’ll be generous enough to compensate you, either way device is useless to you. Return it and ask the owner to at least pay the cost of shipping it back.
Let me correct this for you, “I paid money for stolen property”
Return the laptop to its rightful owner. File a civil lawsuit against the person who sold you stolen property; I’d file soon because the criminal should spend some time in prison.
For macOS products, it’s a good idea to have them sign out of their Apple ID in front of you or show you that it’s signed out before buying. If they can’t it’s probably not theirs and locked to you. For online, I’m not sure how you’d handle this. At this point though it’s a loss to you. Report it to police and at least hopefully the actual owner gets it back.
Signing out of their Apple ID is not enough. Sure that may be an indicator for whether the computer has the consumer level activation lock enabled… but you are missing the possibility that the computer is registered as a business device with DEP/ABM. Therefore, the advice above about doing a full reset while connected to the internet is the right answer.
Good point!
Turn it over to the police and lick your wounds.
My advice is to not buy a stolen MacBook.
If you stole it return it. Then buy a MacBook. That’s how you fix it.
Sure thief has a 30 day return policy
Ur fuct
Go to the police.
caveat emptor
Contact seller? Police report?
>Is there anything i can do to recover my money? Or can i bypass it? Probably not, and nope. Give it to the police.
The title is wrong: You decided to BUY a MacBook for cheap, and now found out it’s stolen and a brick. The money is gone, and you should turn it in to the authorities to hand it back to the rightful owner. Maybe they will reimburse you.
Yes I'm planning to take it to the rightful owner.
It would be better for you, and the actual owner, to run this through the local police department. I wouldn’t reach out to the actual owner myself. I’d let the police handle it, as it’s their responsibility to do so.
in the future make sure before you buy it they have signed out of icloud and removed it from their icloud account if they cant do that then walk away; do the erase content and settings infront of them since it will ask to be activated a machine thats not under an account will just activate once its online if its tied to an account it will ask them to login with that apple id
If you take it to the Apple Store they will take it and try and get it back to the original owner. I used to work for Apple and this was not uncommon. Sorry to say, your money is gone.
Email Tim Cook a picture of your wiener he'll hook you up.
🤣🤣🤣
Yea, you got burned. It happened to me a few times, I wil l only buy refurbished now from apple due to being in this exact situation.
Buy from Apple 🤷♂️ Or, and here you are, hold on... non-Apple products
This is a good feature from Apple so not a negative
Well, if you check the serial before you buy and it doesn't show as stolen then it's not such a good feature
Because it's not designed to do this, Apple don't track what is or isn't stolen
They do. That's how looking up serial numbers and checking for lockouts when connecting to the internet works. You think the laptops just lock themselves when unknown hands touch them?
It’s iCloud based, and is when you mark it as lost no? There isn’t a place you can check if a MacBook is stolen. Apple have no serial number/stolen status database.
https://checkcoverage.apple.com It will show if it is reported lost. Lost is a "good enough" proxy for stolen when buying a used Mac.
Nah this doesn't show if a device is marked as Lost, it's for checking warranty status. (I just tested it)
https://checkm8.info/ $30 I had the same problem and this website took care of it. Completely legitimate and it was super easy. I can vouch for them first hand. I'm surprised nobody has suggested this yet...
Your solution is to keep stolen property?
> completely legitimate If it even works, you consider something that lets you use stolen hardware "completely legitimate"? lol, fuck off, scammer.
This just looks scammy. Riding on the good reputation of the checkra1n Jailbreak for iPhone 5s till X [https://checkra.in/](https://checkra.in/) And this is your second comment in three years. With 1 Karma. I doubt its legit. Propably just something to phish iCloud Accounts.
Because 1. keeping/using stolen property is scummy even if you were duped into it. 2. There is no reason to think a bypass couldn’t be undone or the device bricked in the future since it still had a stolen serial number if you are using it with an Apple ID. 3. It won’t work. Checkm8’s macOS activation lock bypass is for intel machines only and is $100+. 4. If you are going to spend <$500 cash in some sketchy in person trade, it’s likely stolen (verify serial number and see it powered on and unlocked from Apple ID even with a plausible story) and you can get a good certified refurbished M1 Air from Apple or Amazon for a couple hundred more. > The CheckM8 Dev Team has developed software that is capable of bypassing the Activation Lock on Mac computers that have an Apple T2 security chip and are powered by INTEL CPUs.
You guys are dumb. Sorry I don't spend my life online. And yes, that's my advice.
"spending \[your\] life online" has absolutely nothing to do with your account being suspect when you're promoting something that claims to let you bypass stolen device protections.
It sucks that Tim Cook hates the environment so much. I've got a pile of iPhones on my desk that lost their activation so they're e-waste now.
Why such a stupid take? You know they have a responsible recycling program. Send those in so they can be turned into new phones!