Someone emailed me asking if my computer was stolen.

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A year or so ago I put two iMACs at the local dumping place (?). Apparently someone took'em and now a guy mailed me saying he found pics on it and googled our names or something... This is extremely freaky and disturbing. I had trashed most things on my comp but apparently forgot about the pics. I also thought he'd never be able to get into the account. But he did. I feel extremely dumb and don't know what to email this guy.

― nathalie, Thursday, 1 March 2007 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

Oh his name is Jan Smit. I doubt that's his real name.

― nathalie, Thursday, 1 March 2007 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

I don't understand why anyone would dump a computer at the local recycling place without first removing and smashing up the hard drive. But that's just me - I'm paranoid about security.

I'd just ignore his email, nath. You don't want to ber entering into correspondence with someone who is potentially a nutter.

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 09:54 (nineteen years ago)

removing and smashing up a hard drive doesn't do much for security. you can set a HDD on fire, run over it with a truck, drop it from a building, piss all over it and dunk it in acid, but most of the data could still be recovered.

― g-kit, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

eek! really?

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

Though I doubt anyone would bother trying if you put a few nails through it, right? Surely that requires more work than your average creepy nutter is capable of.

Nathalie, that is absolutely mental. Don't reply to him, and hopefully he'll assume you don't use that address anymore. If he managed to google you, no doubt he'll have no trouble looking up J4n Sm1t too, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to de-index this thread.

― melton mowbray, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

just wiping the hard drive completely would've been fine, i would've thought

― blueski, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

OK, he found the pics and he emailed you, but what did he say or ask? Did he just want to let you know your pictures aren't lost and you can get them back? Or did he ask for money or else he'll publish them or something?

― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

Well, hang on. If he picked up the computer at the local recycling place and had a poke around on it and was able to access the accounts and find you, that might seem creepy and disturbing, but perhaps his mail to you asking if your computer had been stolen was genuine concern that someone other than you might have dumped it. Maybe he just wants to let you know where he found it. I still agree with the others that you shouldn't contact him, because you don't need that hassle, but he's not necessarily some lunatic.

― accentmonkey, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

asking if my computer was stolen

Oh.

"No, it wasn't, I threw it on the dump and I thought I'd deleted everything. Thanks for letting me know though, and good luck with the computer!"

― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:21 (nineteen years ago)

"You didn't find dsc00069.jpg where I show my boobs, did you? Please delete that one and don't look at it!"

― StanM, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

Have you tried googling his email address?

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

> removing and smashing up a hard drive doesn't do much for security. you can set a HDD on fire,
> run over it with a truck, drop it from a building, piss all over it and dunk it in acid, but most of the
> data could still be recovered.

surely the easier thing to do is to remove the hard disk and just keep it. re-use it in the new machine or something. (this does, of course, mean the old computer has no disk, no operating system etc.) military-grade disk wipers are also available (multiple overwrites of the entire raw disk).

don't know what to do now that the horse has bolted though. the guy obviously has enough information about you to get in touch so is replying giving him anything new?

― koogs, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:28 (nineteen years ago)

I did and of course it showed up nothing. It was a gmail address. I'm not too worried about it really. He founds the pics, so what? I think, but am not sure, we deleted everything. My husband said he did so I'm pretty sure he doesn't have anything on us. He just asked about the fact it was stolen and said he was honest and genuinely concerned. Actually he received it from someone who said he found it on a dumpster (with another iMAC, also ours).

― nathalie, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

he googled after he found a name. Probably our account name? Not too sure. I could say it's stolen so he gives it back? It was buggy, that comp anyway.

― nathalie, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

It's funny, you're not allowed to dump electronics in your trash but then someone steals it from the dumpster. I don't even know how to smash a hard drive properly. Should have mailed it to Jon. ;-)

― nathalie, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:33 (nineteen years ago)

lol yeah, format HDD, that'll do it!231 no way can data be recovered then!!!!111

― g-kit, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:34 (nineteen years ago)

Steve how do you wipe the hard drive if it's inside the computer??? Derr.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

Ignore him and if you get any greif from him send him a virus with the attachment entitled "here's some XXX photos of you might also enjoy".

I might just add I do not know how you would actually do this.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

I meant format the hard drive before getting rid of the computer obv! too late now of course

recovering any data on it is then beyond most people.

― blueski, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

I still like the idea of a hammer and nails. Therapeutic.

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

That of course makes the assumption that I am a nice guy.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

That's a fair assumption :)

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

Thinking about this for a moment I think that if I was given a computer my natural curiosity would probably get the better of me and I would look to see if there anything on the hard drive. Maybe if it looked like a workable comp I would then email that person to see if it was stolen. So maybe he's a nice guy after all. Although why would he mention the photos?

Because maybe they were Nath's only copies of those photos and maybe she would want them back? I don't know, maybe the guy is creepy, after all, I didn't see the mail, but on the face of it here it seems no more creepy than trying to track down someone whose wallet you found in a bin.

― accentmonkey, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

Also, thinking about it again, perhaps the photos had her name on it and he was just saying that's how I got your name?

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

Email him the link to this thread, and have him come here and justify himself!

― C J, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

If I were to buy a used computer, only to find images & contact details of its previous owner on it, I'd probably do the same thing as this person has done, email them to see if it's been stolen. It never occurred to me that such an action could be seen as crepey, tbh.

― Pashmina, Thursday, 1 March 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

― ken c, Thursday, 1 March 2007 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

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