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Help! MacBook locked and requiring PIN to do anything!

trikky said:
If the item is purchased in good faith and there is no idea the item is stolen, then you're right. However, once the buyer becomes aware the item is stolen, or is likely stolen, then there is a legal liability. In some jurisdictions, it is an offence to do nothing if you become aware a crime is taking place - doing something could be as simple as phoning the police and informing them.

If the recipient becomes aware the item is been stolen and they attempt to discard the item - either by giving it away or unselling it, they are can be found guilty of a criminal offence.

If the OP is a third party who has a friend who 'bought' a computer and the OP is aware that computer is stolen but proceeds to assist his friend to bypass security features (such as those outlined in this thread), the OP can be found guilty of a criminal offence.

As it sits now, OP has received quite a lot of input that the computer very likely could be stolen property, and therefore OP has a responsibility to either report to the police with the potentially stolen item (and in most jurisdictions, if it's not claimed a few months after being handed in, the item becomes the property of the person who handed it in), or strongly encourage his friend to do that.

There's certainly no way the OP can say "oh...I had no idea it may have been stolen..." because there are many people in this thread advising him of just that fact.
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The opinions of random posters on this forum would not give him any legal liability, but just keep posting misinformation as truth.
 
davariable said:
Despite what the guy above me just said, you are not guilty of any criminal offense. You're an innocent, good faith buyer. If the original owner finds it, you'd probably have to give it back, but if you actually bought the laptop in good faith, you certainly would not be charged with any crime.

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You have no idea what you're talking about. Learn some actual property law if you're going to be giving legal advice. Even if the seller knew it was a stolen good, this poster, if he purchased the laptop in good faith definitely would not have any legal liability.
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not really an argueement because I have no law training or background but wouldnt everyone who purchased a stolen good say they "bought it in good faith" what kind of tool says yup "i knew it was stolen so what wanna fight about it??"
 
Can't you just replace the harddrive with a new one, and then re-install the OS?
 
davariable said:
The opinions of random posters on this forum would not give him any legal liability, but just keep posting misinformation as truth.
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Where's the misinformation coming from? I don't recall saying it would give legal vulnerability - I said it may give legal vulnerability.

Just because you disagree with what I'm saying doesn't mean it's wrong. It means that in your opinion I am wrong...but since you could very well be the one who is wrong, that would make me right, thereby making you the one spouting misinformation. Funny how it goes. :D

As for "opinions of random posters", since the person posted their question here, it's safe to assume they placed some value in the opinions of those very "random posters". If they didn't, then they wouldn't have asked now, would they? :confused:

The opinions of those random posters won't give someone legal vulnerability, but the legal concepts of omission and possession very well may. In many jurisdictions, they may be seen as actus reus which, in combination with mens rea or by itself (also depending on the jurisdiction) could possibly be sufficient for a conviction.

Basically, as I've said already, if you know something is stolen and you have it, regardless of if you bought it "in good faith", the act of keeping the item in your possession or disposing it is no longer "in good faith" and is a criminal act in some jurisdictions. If you know something is stolen and someone else has it and you help them to keep it or make use of it (i.e. helping someone get around the password lock on a stolen laptop), this too is a criminal act in some jurisdictions.

As far as OP is concerned, the first post was long ago so I presume the issue was resolved in some way or another.
 
Lets look at this from another perspective. Lets say you bought your girlfriend a MacBook Pro for your 1 year dating anniversary. 6 months later you break up, and she keeps the laptop, but you know her iCloud info. So, to be vendictive, you go in and remote wipe and lock her laptop. Same thing if you bought a used one from someone, and they decide later on that they just want to be an ass and do a remote lock and wipe. In these cases they were not stolen, just people being jerks. I know that in my iCloud my old iPhone 3GS is still there. I could be an ass and lock the current user out if I wanted. Just saying.....

I know for a fact if you buy a used one and format it and reload, the original person can still go in and remote lock and wipe you. So, how do you go in and clear out the old iCloud info to protect your legitimate used purchase?? With most PC laptops, especially Dell, before you purchase you can see if Lo-Jack has been enabled or not in the BIOS, and you have the option to permenatly disable it, but since Macs don't have a true "BIOS", then how you can you clear out the old info??

As far as to the OP problem, in theory you should be able to either reflash the EFI chip, or replace it (board level) but does not look like their is much info out there about that, so the only other thing to do would be to replace the whole motherboard. Not cheap, but cheaper than a new Mac tho.
Just my .02
 
CorvairShaggy said:
I know for a fact if you buy a used one and format it and reload, the original person can still go in and remote lock and wipe you. So, how do you go in and clear out the old iCloud info to protect your legitimate used purchase?? With most PC laptops, especially Dell, before you purchase you can see if Lo-Jack has been enabled or not in the BIOS, and you have the option to permenatly disable it, but since Macs don't have a true "BIOS", then how you can you clear out the old info??
Click to expand...

You know this for a fact, do you? Prove it.

jW
 
Mal said:
You know this for a fact, do you? Prove it.

jW
Click to expand...

Sure. Next time I'm in Orlando, I'll stop by and show you. Or, you can try it yourself with a spare hard drive. After searching around after posting eariler, I found an answer to my question. You can replace the hard drive, but until you SETUP iCloud, it will still have the old info saved in the EFI.

Put in a spare hard drive in your mac, reload Lion and use a different user name than what it originally was setup with, get all updates, then setup iCloud. It will pop-up " iCloud is currently set to "OLD_USER_NAME". You can only have findmymac setup on one mac. Would you like to replace with the current Apple ID?" YES/NO. (not an exact quote, but something like that.)

So, if anyone buys a used Mac Pro needs to RESETUP iCloud FIRST or the old user could lock you out of your Mac. (Even if the drive has been formatted and reloaded.)
 
Help! MacBook locked and requiring PIN to do anything!

Hi all...
I bought my macbook form Ebay, and few weeks later it started with this problem. I do know what to do, the seller is not replaying my emails, I am in Mozambique and here is no Apple shop.

Please help:mad:
 
vzango said:
Hi all...
I bought my macbook form Ebay, and few weeks later it started with this problem. I do know what to do, the seller is not replaying my emails, I am in Mozambique and here is no Apple shop.

Please help:mad:
Click to expand...

Only an Apple Authorized Service Provider can unlock it. Or an Apple Retail Store themselves.
 
CorvairShaggy said:
With most PC laptops, especially Dell, before you purchase you can see if Lo-Jack has been enabled or not in the BIOS, and you have the option to permenatly disable it,
Click to expand...

Incorrect. Dell's have a one way toggle. You can turn the tracking ON in Bios, you can't turn it off.
 
So I had my Mac stolen, I sent it messages via iCloud telling the person to return it where they could return it , how they could contact me and even that I would pay for its return. I know the person got the messages because I would get an email when a message was delivered. No one contacted me so I locked the computer. After it was locked I could see the person was still trying to use it because he/ she kept turning it on. Whoever has since stopped using it because iCloud no longer locates it or delivers any of the messages I send it. I assume it's useless to whoever has it. Is there someway around the remote lock? I don't want to know what it is just if there are ways. It's irritating to th
 
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