Apple pretty much screws you over with a glitched Activation Lock, if you have no proof of purchase

[humanresources]

Lucky for me that I actually bought it myself at an Apple Store, and not bought it second hand, or else I wouldn't have been able to disable Activation Lock. Even though I didn't have proof of purchase, an Apple rep told me over the phone that the Apple Store I bought it from had the receipt. So after waiting a couple hours in the store, they were able to remove it.

But here's the thing...

Even though I knew they had a record of my purchase, I pretended to have bought my phone off somebody else, I told them the original owners removed the lock and that it was successfully transferred to me, and that this glitch caused by Apple itself locked me out of my own device. The "Geniuses" were like "Nope, we can't unlock it for you if you have no proof." I got pretty heated myself, because I was thinking, what **IF** I did buy my phone off somebody else? I would have totally been cheated by Apple. This was their fault that caused this bug. It takes on "planned obsolescence" to a whole other level. I would've sued Apple for screwing me like this! What if I was travelling? What if I had sold my iPhone and get charged for "scamming" someone? I would be smashing phones with a steel ball, I swear.

 

[Shirasaki]

Apple is always arrogant, back to Steve jobs antenna gate era. They tend to remove any responsibility they can to do less work. Hey, they can save cost! God damn know what their company core value is.

Because of this matter, I now feel extremely worried to restore my device, if I have the same issue over again, cause there are data cannot be restored through any means of backup.

 

[44267547]

Lucky for me that I actually bought it myself at an Apple Store, and not bought it second hand, or else I wouldn't have been able to disable Activation Lock. Even though I didn't have proof of purchase, an Apple rep told me over the phone that the Apple Store I bought it from had the receipt. So after waiting a couple hours in the store, they were able to remove it.

But here's the thing...

Even though I knew they had a record of my purchase, I pretended to have bought my phone off somebody else, I told them the original owners removed the lock and that it was successfully transferred to me, and that this glitch caused by Apple itself locked me out of my own device. The "Geniuses" were like "Nope, we can't unlock it for you if you have no proof." I got pretty heated myself, because I was thinking, what **IF** I did buy my phone off somebody else? I would have totally been cheated by Apple. This was their fault that caused this bug. It takes on "planned obsolescence" to a whole other level. I would've sued Apple for screwing me like this! What if I was travelling? What if I had sold my iPhone and get charged for "scamming" someone? I would be smashing phones with a steel ball, I swear.

Not good. This seems to be becoming more and more apparent in the community forum.

 

[Feenician]

Wait. So if your phone gets lost or stolen and someone takes it to Apple you're happy for them to remove activation lock? Of course they won't do that. They need to fix the activation lock issue that's being reported of course but unlocking any phone that turns up is not the answer.

 

[vertsix]

Yeah, Activation Lock is one of those things that Apple simply cannot screw up because it's such a powerful feature.

It's ridiculous that issues like these arose in the first place.

I would get a heart attack if I restored my phone and it suddenly had Activation Lock with someone's Apple ID.

 

[simonsi]

...The "Geniuses" were like "Nope, we can't unlock it for you if you have no proof." ...

Thats still a good thing everywhere you post it.

 

[humanresources]

Wait. So if your phone gets lost or stolen and someone takes it to Apple you're happy for them to remove activation lock? Of course they won't do that. They need to fix the activation lock issue that's being reported of course but unlocking any phone that turns up is not the answer.

Yep, quite the predicament Apple put themselves in. Oh well

 

[simonsi]

Yep, quite the predicament Apple put themselves in. Oh well

Blame where its due, the cloners/thieves caused this.

The "predicament" as you call it is actually desired behaviour. Any consumer who doesn't want validation of stolen high-value devices in this kind of scenario is an idiot.

One thing you can do is have your mobile number used as a trusted "device" on your AppleID, that will be a) unknown to anyone who cloned the handset by stealing the factory information and b) links to the physical SIM card which you can have in your possession in the genuine device...

 

[humanresources]

Blame where its due, the cloners/thieves caused this.

The "predicament" as you call it is actually desired behaviour. Any consumer who doesn't want validation of stolen high-value devices in this kind of scenario is an idiot.

One thing you can do is have your mobile number used as a trusted "device" on your AppleID, that will be a) unknown to anyone who cloned the handset by stealing the factory information and b) links to the physical SIM card which you can have in your possession in the genuine device...

What you just said doesn't work. And I have already tried it.... why are you talking like you know your ****... when clearly you dont...

 

[Feenician]

What you just said doesn't work. And I have already tried it.... why are you talking like you know your ****... when clearly you dont...

You did? How did you try that?

 

[simonsi]

What you just said doesn't work. And I have already tried it.... why are you talking like you know your ****... when clearly you dont...

Which bit? That is exactly how I have my two-factor setup, two Apple Trusted devices and a mobile number - which IS tied to the SIM card I physically have.

 

[humanresources]

Which bit? That is exactly how I have my two-factor setup, two Apple Trusted devices and a mobile number - which IS tied to the SIM card I physically have.

Yes... I've had those enabled for a while now. Everything you have said I have already done. I have also changed my password 3 times this year while having 2 factor on. I have one special number, that I don't share frequently. And I'm not lying, I think I mentioned it on here on MacRumors or Reddit.

 

[simonsi]

Yes... I've had those enabled for a while now. Everything you have said I have already done. I have also changed my password 3 times this year while having 2 factor on. I have one special number, that I don't share frequently. And I'm not lying, I think I mentioned it on here on MacRumors or Reddit.

I'm not suggesting those measures would prevent this happening, they are simply additional ways that can be used to verify the genuine device. I haven't seen anyone suggest AppleID accounts are being hacked to carry this out. In fact if they were you would get notifications as soon as any details were changed, way before hitting an activation lock.
[doublepost=1475802240][/doublepost]

... why are you talking like you know your ****... when clearly you dont...

No-one is suggesting you are lying, but you are just being unnecessarily rude.

 

[humanresources]

I'm not suggesting those measures would prevent this happening, they are simply additional ways that can be used to verify the genuine device. I haven't seen anyone suggest AppleID accounts are being hacked to carry this out. In fact if they were you would get notifications as soon as any details were changed, way before hitting an activation lock.

It has to be something on Apple's end. Once a device is restored, you've logged it out of your iCloud account, so now the device has become vulnerable. Their system is compromised, because even brand new iPhone 7's have encountered this issue. So clearly this has nothing to do with Apple ID's.

I take it back for being rude btw. I am just furious. at apple

 

[simonsi]

It has to be something on Apple's end. Once a device is restored, you've logged it out of your iCloud account, so now the device has become vulnerable. Their system is compromised, because even brand new iPhone 7's have encountered this issue. So clearly this has nothing to do with Apple ID's.

Brand-new devices sounds like a factory leak of course but when they hit activation lock it means that *new* device is actually attached to an AppleID, so a spoof device has been activated against an AppleID that is in the fraudster's control. That is a different scenerio to an existing device already activated on one AppleID (the genuine device), and a second spoofed device being activated against a second AppleID, only coming to light when the genuine device is reset off its genuine AppleID - then the Apple servers Activation lock it to the spoof AppleID.

Just because Activation Lock occurs in both cases doesn't mean the attack vector is the same.
[doublepost=1475803533][/doublepost]

It has to be something on Apple's end. Once a device is restored, you've logged it out of your iCloud account, so now the device has become vulnerable.

The cloning can't happen when the device is logged out, the time window is too short, people report doing a restore and hitting it so that would give a very few minutes for the attack and clone to take place. Much more likely is the cloners have found a way to activate a second device on a new AppleID so nothing suspicious happens until either device is reset/restored or logged out - at that point I suspect either device could hit activation lock but only the cloner's device knows the AppleID to use, as you say the genuine device is unattached so hits lock without the genuine user having the cloners AppleID.

I seem to recall there were complete fake Apple Stores in China at one stage with even the staff believing they actually worked for Apple so this is likely to be a highly sophisticated operation. Google "fake chinese apple stores"...

 

[humanresources]

Brand-new devices sounds like a factory leak of course but when they hit activation lock it means that *new* device is actually attached to an AppleID, so a spoof device has been activated against an AppleID that is in the fraudster's control. That is a different scenerio to an existing device already activated on one AppleID (the genuine device), and a second spoofed device being activated against a second AppleID, only coming to light when the genuine device is reset off its genuine AppleID - then the Apple servers Activation lock it to the spoof AppleID.

Just because Activation Lock occurs in both cases doesn't mean the attack vector is the same.
[doublepost=1475803533][/doublepost]

The cloning can't happen when the device is logged out, the time window is too short, people report doing a restore and hitting it so that would give a very few minutes for the attack and clone to take place. Much more likely is the cloners have found a way to activate a second device on a new AppleID so nothing suspicious happens until either device is reset/restored or logged out - at that point I suspect either device could hit activation lock but only the cloner's device knows the AppleID to use, as you say the genuine device is unattached so hits lock without the genuine user having the cloners AppleID.

I seem to recall there were complete fake Apple Stores in China at one stage with even the staff believing they actually worked for Apple so this is likely to be a highly sophisticated operation. Google "fake chinese apple stores"...

uh huh

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
Please use the existing thread. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tivation-locked-with-wrong-apple-ids.2004550/