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Users Report Some iPhone 7 and 6s Models Activation Locked With Wrong Apple IDs
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That's because there are 2 devices with the same serial number: Yours and the hacked one in China. When you turn off find my iPhone on your phone, the phone in China will still have it turned on and used with that person's Apple ID. So that's why you see that other person's Apple ID on your phone.
If Apple needed any other argument to bring its manufacturing back to the US ....
Apples and Oranges.
What you're talking about was a random prompt that pops up and asks you to sign in displaying a random email... yes this is another issue however, this does not lock you out of your phone. What we are discussing here is the activation lock which basically bricks your device. What you're talking about is normally caused by pirating music. itunes music is usually tied to an apple id, so if you were to download a song online which someone else bought, that apple id is still tied to that song and when you got your new iphone at the time being the iphone 4, it prompts you to sign in to confirm that you did in fact purchase that music in order to retrieve it ota. Problem is you didn't purchase it. This is entirely different than what's going on right now.
My money is on this as the most reasonable answer.
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Would still (prolly) be an issue here I'd bet.
Manufacturing is not the issue here. The Chinese have just found a way to change the serial number. See the video in jimtonic01's post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-wrong-apple-ids.2004550/page-2#post-23671743
This happened to my wife's old 6s that we sold to my cousin. We had to call AppleCare and provide proof of the original purchase to request the activation lock to be removed. Her old iPhone somehow was locked to a yahoo email address and it was previously only ever associated with an iCloud account. The call to AppleCare and the subsequent uploading of the original receipt to an Apple provided address wasn't too bad but the three days to provess the request likely was excruciating for my cousin. Since she lives outside of the U.S. in a country without an Apple retail store, taking the iPhone to an Apple store wasn't an option for her.
Seems though like it's a race... If you can get your new phone activated BEFORE your cloned IMEI/SN is activated by someone else, you're OK. Until you ever wipe the device and attempt to reactivate it. What I don't get is if your's is activated first, how can anyone else activate you're cloned info... anyone?
That makes a lot of sense. It explains why new phones, and phones who have had the Apple ID removed, show up as locked with a "random" Apple ID. It also explains why older phones, like my 5S, can suddenly show the Activation Lock again but with the same Apple ID as before - their serial numbers (or whatever is being used to identify them) were forged onto another phone which broke the activation lock, but the account was never removed from the association with that device so it was easy to just log back in. I imagine that the experience for the person with the phone with the forged identification saw the obfuscated ID then went on to try a different serial number and eventually used one not currently associated with an Apple ID, upon which time they could then associate that serial number with their own account.
What this accomplishes for the forger, however, I cannot understand. Maybe the plan is to eventually ransom people's phones? That is, send notes "I've locked your phone with my ID, send my a bitcoin and I'll unlock it for you."
Edit - are all the new unknown Apple IDs using a Yahoo address? I wonder if this is related to the Yahoo hack somehow.
I had this happen to my 6S Plus when I activated my 7 Plus. I was about to sell it to a co-worker. I turned of Find My Phone, did a complete reset, and it came up with an activation lock for "f••••••@icloud.com". I also verified the lock was real on the icloud activation check website.
Thankfully, I have a great business relationship with one of the local Apple Stores, and they were able to pull up my original 6S receipt, which was still tied to our business account, and remove the lock. But this was the first they had heard of such a thing.
Thankfully, I have a great business relationship with one of the local Apple Stores, and they were able to pull up my original 6S receipt, which was still tied to our business account, and remove the lock. But this was the first they had heard of such a thing.
Real easy to answer - If I have a stolen phone that's iCloud locked, I give it a new identity. I just unbricked a device! Suddenly, all those iCloud locked phones you see on Ebay look really appetizing! How bout' a 128GB 6s+ for $100?
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Got my phone back yesterday. My phone is locked to someone's I*****@yahoo.com Apple ID that isn't mine. I do not have a yahoo account. Waiting for Apple to call me to discuss next steps. Will make me less likely to upgrade every year if I can't get some value from my 1 year old phone.
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Except that Samsung issued an immediate recall and ceased selling the affected product.
Apple's response to date has been.....
Crickets chirping
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Yeah and the replacement phone nearly caused an explosion on a Southwest flight...now who is chirping?
This is a bit scary that this is affecting an array of user. I personally had this happen to me about a month ago (as I have posted in the iPhone sub forum). But considering that this is impacting multiple users, I would like to see Apple address this situation. Thankfully I'm on the IUP, so once I turn my 6s in, it will be in Apple's hands. But I'm curious if 6s will be locked yet again.
And again Samsung acknowledged the incident and said it is investigating.
And again the response from Apple for a problem that has been occurring for several weeks now if not longer is...
Has anyone that this has happened to had two-factor authentication enabled? (that would eliminate the potential of their passwords having been cracked and logged onto, in order to steal these devices before they receive them). Unless they've also found a way to eliminate the 2FA notification hitting the other supported devices that is.
Eg. Crack someone's Apple ID password (well, thousands of them) that don't have 2FA enabled, then automate checking their Support Profiles using these credentials, looking for upcoming device shipments. Then use a device emulator to fake the serial number and pre-activate with a different Apple ID.
Point? Solely to make Apple look bad.
Eg. Crack someone's Apple ID password (well, thousands of them) that don't have 2FA enabled, then automate checking their Support Profiles using these credentials, looking for upcoming device shipments. Then use a device emulator to fake the serial number and pre-activate with a different Apple ID.
Point? Solely to make Apple look bad.
I have 2 step enabled. Currently stuck with an activation locked iPad Mini 4 after restoring and upgrading to iOS 10.
Haha, you're right, that should have been obvious to me. It's a quick and easy way to remove an activation lock from a phone and put a different activation lock on it.
On the other hand, why do it for iPhones that are not in their possession? They do no have the phone in question, so gain no benefit. Unless they simply enjoy screwing with people.
The same exact thing happened to me except I'm waiting on apple to complete the unlock process for the purchaser.
I was wondering the same thing especially with all the recent "Chinese iMessage Help Me" threads going on here, and definitely on reddit.
It has nothing to do with the device people own, it’s the fact that allegedly forged or legit serials are being used via the method shown on Youtube to “fix” stolen locked devices for re-sale and when a device using that forged or leaked serial tries to activate it triggers this issue. At least that’s what I’m gathering from this thread is a possible scenario. Also, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks a back to the article on this site a week or so again about iPhone 7 orders being in the US then back to Korea or other countries and back again and ultimately late. Unlikely connected in any way, particularly with older affected devices, but any bizarre movement of devices during the shipping process possibly allowing inspection of contents by 3rd parties is yet another avenue for gaining legit device details prior to being in a customers’ hands.