Track PC Thiefs Using IP Adress?
OK so on September 4th my house was broken into, and thousands of dollars worth of electronics were stolen including my PC. My PC was on auto login for my Google account, so if the robbers use it, they'll use my account. Thing is that they are using my PC and I can tell because I've been checking my account's Google History, and I can see what the thiefs are Google searching on my PC that was stolen from me.
My question is how can I use Google History to find the IP address of the computer that they're using, and maybe use it to find their address and take my stuff back. Can anyone tell me how to find their IP address through Google History?
More Questions From This User See All
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
You should contact google and they can help you with it. Did you visit a web site often? Usually web sites have that kind of info too.
This depends on various factors.... If the proxy is totally anonymous, then your IP will be hidden from everyone. And if that proxy keeps no logs (most don't) then there is no way to retrieve your real IP address from the proxy operator. TOR uses a system of "nodes" (proxies) which exit in random locations. One time u may get a proxy in Russia, the next time Argentina, etc. There is another possibility of being tracked by using a proxy. This is if u have a paid proxy and use a credit card (or other financial instrument attached to your real name). If u do get a paid proxy, use a prepaid credit card which can't reveal your personal info. Another safety factor is to use a proxy in a different country from where u are located. Many countries do not allow foreign governments to access their information.
First of all, contact law enforcement and tell them you have the IP of the thieves and make sure you keep that IP address and the time the IP address was used at..
Secondly, all computers are assigned a unique, dynamic IP address from their ISP, what most people overlook is the unique, static Hash address each computer has from their ISP. Though the logs that your ISP keeps, you can compare IP address at the time to the Hash address and eventually find out which Hash was using that IP at the time. the Hash address can then be compared to a customer account and you can manage to track the user down to their house, even the room the computer was used in.
Amazing that I just answered something close to this 40 seconds ago...
Google has strict user confidentiality terms.
They won't even disclose information to the US government unless a court order from the SUPREME COURT is issued.
Change your Google password. If you bought the computer from a major computer company like Dell the MAC address of your computers eithernet could be tracked in theory but since this is such a small thing to be stolen the ISP's of whoever stole it will not take the time to scan for that. All they need to do is hook up a hub to the router istead of direct connecting and that won't work anyways.
The answer is you don't.
You provide all the information you can to your local law enforcement agency(s) so they can. They can then get the subpoena for the records from the ISP and from Google and so on.
Chances are, your stuff is gone for good.
This is a key example of why it's so important to have a good insurance policy with the appropriate conditional statements to cover replacement costs of your Computer equipment and so on.
It also indicates why great backups are essential. DVDs are typically a great alternative since few thieves would bother taking your Data DVDs.
obviously you don't know much about computers, IP addresses for most consumers are assigned via DHCP, means they change based on who's providing the internet service and where they are.
now if you had a mac address, that would work unless they swapped network cards. that's why my pc uses a biometric login and an audible password to even boot up, 3 failed attempts and it wipes the hard-drive.
as far as getting your stuff back, it won't happen. you could invest in a webcam for your next computer that takes pictures every 10 seconds and feeds them onto the net, and the site i saw a while back doing that basically let you upload like up to 2gb of pics from the web cam, but the old pictures would erase after 48 hours. unfortunately i don't remember the site's name
with the help of the police they can get the company (google) to release the ip information from where your account has been logged.. then take that to the ISP and they will release the physical adress of the IP... however a lot of times that can be a very long process and most police stations wont mess with it.. but its worth a try!!
ASAP! = Change your passwords.
* Call Google and ask them to connect to the Theft Department. Find out what they can do for you. The thieves can use proxies to spoof their location, but it can be traced back to the starting point. By having that IP (starting point), secret service can find out who that IP Address belongs too, find the location, and bust the thiefs.
Contact google. Their servers will be able to get the IP even if they changed it. Because every time it logs in it sends its IP to their servers. They should be able to track it easy.
Crack-heads stole your stuff to sell for cash. They might have got $50 for it. Who wants to buy a used PC from a pawn shop anyway. Move on.