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TheAppleFanKid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2015
15
5
Hi. I bought a white iPhone 5 on ebay for 100 bucks. Turns out that its activation locked. It says "This iPhone has been lost and erased. Please sign in with the Apple ID that was used to erase this iPhone". Anyway to bypass this or am I stuck with a shiny brick?
 
Hi. I bought a white iPhone 5 on ebay for 100 bucks. Turns out that its activation locked. It says "This iPhone has been lost and erased. Please sign in with the Apple ID that was used to erase this iPhone". Anyway to bypass this or am I stuck with a shiny brick?
Your stuck with a shiny brick.....
 
Just report a claim on eBay for "not as described" unless indeed the listing says it's locked.
 
Yep, file a claim with eBay and get your money back. Seller tried to sell a blacklisted phone. You will win if the seller didn't say the phone was locked or for parts only. If they did, there is nothing you can really do.
 
Last edited:
I have no idea whether the OP was aware he was purchasing a locked phone or not. There is no indication of this in the original post and there is no subsequent post to confirm or deny assumptions.

The phone was bought for $100, which is rather low. My guess is this was a "for parts" phone.
 
Actually, if you can provide proof of purchase to Apple, you can get this resolved.

Exactly right.

I went through some headache mid 2014 when my younger brother decided he was just going to forget his apple id/icloud password. His ipad was acting up and i reset it to factory, and then the activation lock was on.

Long story short, i called apple and they had me take a picture of the receipt and upload it through their site via an email they sent me. They approved it and unlocked it the next day.
 
Except the OP doesn't have the original store receipt for the phone. They're not going to unlock it without that, because if they did stolen phones (like this one probably is) would be unlocked all the time and activation lock would be effectively useless.
 
Hi. I bought a white iPhone 5 on ebay for 100 bucks. Turns out that its activation locked. It says "This iPhone has been lost and erased. Please sign in with the Apple ID that was used to erase this iPhone". Anyway to bypass this or am I stuck with a shiny brick?


Why not just return it?

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Actually, if you can provide proof of purchase to Apple, you can get this resolved.


And how can one do that from a phone bought on eBay?
 
Send it back if it was listed as working.

I bought a BlackBerry Q10 last month saying it had a clean ESN and was refurbished and ready to go. Took it to VZW and the ESN was flagged for fraud. They had to take it back. Shipping paid for and all. Pretty easy return process. Refund went right back to PayPal.

Also, go ahead and save the web page of the listing if you can. Helps to have a copy just in case. Or maybe I'm just a bit over cautious. ;)
 
Send it back if it was listed as working.

I bought a BlackBerry Q10 last month saying it had a clean ESN and was refurbished and ready to go. Took it to VZW and the ESN was flagged for fraud. They had to take it back. Shipping paid for and all. Pretty easy return process. Refund went right back to PayPal.

Also, go ahead and save the web page of the listing if you can. Helps to have a copy just in case. Or maybe I'm just a bit over cautious. ;)

Doubtful that's the case with the OP. Nobody sells a working iPhone 5 for only $100.
 
Doubtful that's the case with the OP. Nobody sells a working iPhone 5 for only $100.

Indeed, but you never know. More than likely it was listed locked or for parts. I see a LOT of those on eBay.

Swappa is so much more reliable. I've bought and sold on there for the last 3 years.

On a totally unrelated side-note, your username is hilarious! I remeber when people were calling them that :D

Anyway, best of luck to the OP...
 
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