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trying to recover my stolen laptop.. by tracking AIM login???

F

f-matic

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2003
83
0
brooklyn
hi all,

so my powerbook was stolen about a month ago ago after my apartment was broken into, and i've had no leads from the police or anything. but a couple of days ago, i was signed into IM at work and got a message about how my screen name is signed in at two locations. seeing as i don't have my screen name saved on any other machine, it seems either someone broke into my account (sort of unlikely) or someone was trying to use ichat on my powerbook....

...so i'm wondering, is there any way to find out from AOL what IP addresses were used to sign onto your screenname? i know an IP address won't tell me much... but who knows? i want my powerbook back!

thanks for any help,

nick
 
f-matic said:
hi all,


...so i'm wondering, is there any way to find out from AOL what IP addresses were used to sign onto your screenname? i know an IP address won't tell me much... but who knows? i want my powerbook back!

thanks for any help,

nick
Click to expand...

Most likely, AOL would only release that information to the police under a court order.
 
f-matic said:
hi all,

so my powerbook was stolen about a month ago ago after my apartment was broken into, and i've had no leads from the police or anything. but a couple of days ago, i was signed into IM at work and got a message about how my screen name is signed in at two locations. seeing as i don't have my screen name saved on any other machine, it seems either someone broke into my account (sort of unlikely) or someone was trying to use ichat on my powerbook....

...so i'm wondering, is there any way to find out from AOL what IP addresses were used to sign onto your screenname? i know an IP address won't tell me much... but who knows? i want my powerbook back!

thanks for any help,

nick
Click to expand...


yes their is, go to undergroundmac.com and talk to the expert whitehat hackers there ;) no but seriously, I bet you they have a few tricks they would gladly share with you.
 
JACKPOT

download AIM sniff of the undergoundmac.com downloads section. It tells you the IP address of who ever is on your AIM, then take that IP and give it to the police or find a way to figure out the general area it is coming from. If it is very similiar to your IP then that means it could be a neighbor or someone within (say) 30 miles from your apartment. I would like to know how this turns out, please PM me about how aimsniff works and if you get any leads.

it appears that you need to make a direct connection before it will give you the IP, so make a new sn and pretend to be someone else. Tell them you have a funny ace pic. to show them and then make them accept it. Then you click sniff, and bang you got her.

I tried it, actually all you need to do is create a new sn then when your old one is online, be in ichat and select direct connect, then send a regular text message "hey". they don't even have to respond, just click sniff and it works perfectly, just tried it!
 
corywoolf said:
download AIM sniff of the undergoundmac.com downloads section. It tells you the IP address of who ever is on your AIM, then take that IP and give it to the police or find a way to figure out the general area it is coming from. If it is very similiar to your IP then that means it could be a neighbor or someone within (say) 30 miles from your apartment. I would like to know how this turns out, please PM me about how aimsniff works and if you get any leads.
Click to expand...

wow, awesome -- thanks very much for the info!! i don't suppose if you know if there's a windows equivalent, do you? now that i'm powerbook-less, i only have access to my windows xp machine at work so i'd have to be doing the tracing from an xp machine....

SouthB=bridge said:
out of curiosity... how did your lapbook get stolen?
Click to expand...

I live in Brooklyn.. while I was at work, someone got into the front door, then unscrewed the locks of my apartment door and took my laptop, as well as some other junk. Which, I have to admit, is pretty insane! They must have come in with power drills to get the locks off, and I live above a 24 hour deli. Plus it was done in the middle of the day. If nothing else, you have to admire the chutzpah!
 
actually, sorry i didn't RTFA long enough -- aim sniff has a linux version! i have an old pII 450 running as a file server at home... i'll install this on there and see if i can get this tracking idea up and running! thanks again for all the help!
 
f-matic said:
I live in Brooklyn.. while I was at work, someone got into the front door, then unscrewed the locks of my apartment door and took my laptop, as well as some other junk. Which, I have to admit, is pretty insane! They must have come in with power drills to get the locks off, and I live above a 24 hour deli. Plus it was done in the middle of the day. If nothing else, you have to admire the chutzpah!
Click to expand...

Your locks had screws on the OUTSIDE? :eek:

BTW, instead of sending an IM just saying "hey", I'd pretend to be some spammer with a "get rich quick" scheme so they can just ignore you. That would be a lot less suspicious IMO.
 
f-matic said:
I live in Brooklyn.. while I was at work, someone got into the front door, then unscrewed the locks of my apartment door and took my laptop, as well as some other junk. Which, I have to admit, is pretty insane! They must have come in with power drills to get the locks off, and I live above a 24 hour deli. Plus it was done in the middle of the day. If nothing else, you have to admire the chutzpah!
Click to expand...

wow... that sucks... where in brooklyn do you live? you still got any stuff left worth taking say if one of us broke in again? :p J/K.

do u have renters insurance? Yeah... I live in Astoria, and I just went and got some insurance for my PB like two days ago... It was like $2.50 a month on top of the renters insurance me and my girl already had which brings it up to $18 or so...
 
if you CAN, direct connect to your user name if it shows up again, and run this code in the terminal: netstat -n -f inet. this will give you a listing of addresses you are currently connected with. look for the one with port 4443 after it, i think thats the one for direct connection on AIM. after this, run the IP in network utility under the traceroute to find out where they are getting their service from. call up their provider, and let them know what happened, include the IP you got from the terminal. inform the police as well. your next step is to try to ssh or afp to your computer assuming you had filesharing on, and drop in a quick applescript to startup items that will display a message, or change your desktop to something that reads "I know where you are, and that you stole my Mac".. BE AGGRESSIVE!!! do not let punks like this get away. i know a lot of my advice requires chance, but it can be done. i hope you get your mac back, and if not, you can use mine if you're ever in the area! :p
 
I think the best way to do it would be go on a friends aim account. And say to your account "hey -insert your real name here- check out what I just downloaded, you have to see this etc."

good luck
 
Give everyone your old AIM name, and let loose the hoard of MacRumors hackers, bet you will have the IP address within a few hours if this person is actually online w/ your old screen name. :)

Could be fun like P-P-P-Powerbook
 
Chat with the thief

Why don't you pretend you're a girl looking for a date. Chat with the crook , get real friendly and try to get info about them. maybe they will be stupid enough to give you their phone number.
 
that is just sad. the break in I mean. renter's insurance is for sure the way to go. While it certainly sucks to have all that stolen, at least you can get the material items back. I agree with the aim sniffer and the police should be able to track it. This isn't just a break in with stolen goods, it is a possible ID theft case.
 
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