Apple Account Hacked - Locked Both Macs

[propaintballa]

Hey guys,

A quick bit of background. Woke up one morning to an email from Apple saying my account was accessed. Because of this I quickly changed my password and security questions to re secure my account. All seemed well until I turned on my Macbook Air to find the hacker had applied an iCloud password complete with ransom email address. The same thing then happened to my old Mac which my Mother now uses.

Spoke to Apple support where I was notified in usual circumstances they require proof of purchase (PoP) to unlock them in the store. Now, this is an issue because I used to buy, repair and sell Macs on ebay which is how I procured both mine and my now Mother's Mac. They proceeded to suggest it should be okay as the account had been hacked etc. Went to my nearest store to be told they couldn't do anything because I don't have PoP. Obviously, infuriated with this I requested that they escalate the case, which is what has since been happening.

During my last correspondence with them they asked me a few other questions such as who my ISP is, which makes me think they are considering proceeding without PoP...

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced a similar thing and managed to get Apple to rectify the issue? My thinking is that they can see when each device was registered to my Apple account, backed up by the fact that I happily took what they are treating as a stolen device to a store and gave them my details which all correspond to my Apple ID. Would be great to hear about anyone who had a similar thing happen to them.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Hey guys,

A quick bit of background. Woke up one morning to an email from Apple saying my account was accessed. Because of this I quickly changed my password and security questions to re secure my account.

Are you sure this email was from Apple...there are a LOT of phishing emails around claiming to be from Apple.

How did you access your account to change the password?

Sorry I can't help with your immediate problem, but when you get back up and running, two factor authentication will prevent someone accessing your Apple ID, even if they have your login info, unless they have also stolen your computer, or other trusted device.

 

[triptolemus]

To be clear, your Apple account wasn't hacked.

You are a victim of a phishing scam.

 

[JackieInCo]

Never ever fall for these types of emails. I get them all the time, especially claiming to be from Apple.

 

[propaintballa]

To be clear, these weren't phishing emails, they are from the same domain as the one I received after booking my genius bar reservation (@email.apple.com). I also received the notification of one of my Macs being locked before I even received the email suggesting my Apple account was logged into.

As for the question of why I still had access to my account. Simply, I don't know. However I can speculate that it wasn't really in their interest to lock me out of it as the damage was done. It also makes it less likely for Apple to help me and more likely for me to contact them via the ransom email that was left on the iCloud lock screen.

 

[jonnyb098]

Sorry pal, you've been duped.

 

[en6593]

PLEASE HELP!!!

I received a pop up that looked like it was from Apple (very convincing) telling me that my computer was infected with malicious spyware and had a number to call. I tried to close the pop up and navigate away from it and it literally wouldn't let me click on anything else. I called the number and it was OZM "Internet security". They fooled me into buying lifetime protection with anti virus programs and firewall installation and the spyware went away. This was one year ago. Yesterday, they called me and told me that my MacBook Pro had been hacked and that "hackers were trying to steal my personal information" and they even showed me via remote access that these hackers had made a lot of my certificates expired and even showed me their IP addresses. It had then hit me that they were most likely scamming me because they were trying to get me to spend more money on "anti hacker software". I hung up on them and called Apple, and they told me that I had been scammed and to install High Sierra iOS and to download all the updates. I started the install and at about 25% I called OZM back and told them I believed that they were scamming me and I told them to cancel my account with them and they kept threatening me that if I did not pay that these hackers could steal my personal info. Less than 5 minutes after canceling my account, the update install stopped, so I powered my MacBook down and restarted it. Now when I go to log into my user profile, what looks like computer coding in black font rapidly types across the upper left screen and then the screen goes black, then comes back on with a message saying: There has been a problem, please contact Apple.

I have never backed up my computer and there is over 6 years worth of my life and valuable documents and information on this computer. Is it too late? Or is it possible to regain access and salvage all of my stuff?

 

[jonnyb098]

PLEASE HELP!!!

I received a pop up that looked like it was from Apple (very convincing) telling me that my computer was infected with malicious spyware and had a number to call. I tried to close the pop up and navigate away from it and it literally wouldn't let me click on anything else. I called the number and it was OZM "Internet security". They fooled me into buying lifetime protection with anti virus programs and firewall installation and the spyware went away. This was one year ago. Yesterday, they called me and told me that my MacBook Pro had been hacked and that "hackers were trying to steal my personal information" and they even showed me via remote access that these hackers had made a lot of my certificates expired and even showed me their IP addresses. It had then hit me that they were most likely scamming me because they were trying to get me to spend more money on "anti hacker software". I hung up on them and called Apple, and they told me that I had been scammed and to install High Sierra iOS and to download all the updates. I started the install and at about 25% I called OZM back and told them I believed that they were scamming me and I told them to cancel my account with them and they kept threatening me that if I did not pay that these hackers could steal my personal info. Less than 5 minutes after canceling my account, the update install stopped, so I powered my MacBook down and restarted it. Now when I go to log into my user profile, what looks like computer coding in black font rapidly types across the upper left screen and then the screen goes black, then comes back on with a message saying: There has been a problem, please contact Apple.

I have never backed up my computer and there is over 6 years worth of my life and valuable documents and information on this computer. Is it too late? Or is it possible to regain access and salvage all of my stuff?

Sounds like they have full control over your computer. Maybe try going into an Apple store to have them assist. But it honestly sounds like you may be out of luck unfortunately. Be more diligent in the future and don’t believe every email and pop up you get. 99 percent of the time it’s all scams.