How to unlock a stolen iPhone linked to a scammer's iCloud account?

Nastya_Zudilova wrote:

Hello, I purchased 14 iPhones on December 27, 2024 in Russia, Yaroslavl region, Rybinsk, at the ProStor store located at 102 Krestovaya St., Central Microdistrict.

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as I understand, the device is listed as lost because the fraudster declared it missing, but this phone is mine, help me unlock the device by giving a written response to my request. I have all the evidence that I am the owner of this iphone (the purchase receipt, the box with the serial number, the data of the previous iCloud account).

This is a user-to-user forum. You are not speaking to Apple.

By your own account, you logged the phones out of your Apple ID, and logged them into someone else's Apple ID, thus essentially marking them as belonging to that person. The scammer wouldn't have been able to use the anti-theft feature Activation Lock against you if you had not given them your help.

What you did was like going down to Crime Alley, handing a seedy-looking stranger all of your copies of your keys to your car, and thinking that Good Things would happen.

Under ordinary circumstances, Apple might help if you were the original purchaser and had a receipt from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller clearly showing your name and the phones' serial numbers. (A box that had the serial number on it very likely would not be sufficient.). But it's not clear that this "ProStor" store was an Apple Authorized Reseller, and even if it was, at one time, I believe that Apple suspended most operations in Russia as a consequence of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.

I do not work for Apple or speak for Apple, but I suspect that they will not grant an Activation Lock Support request and that you can say "bye bye" to these phones.

You have several things going on here. But first and foremost, we cannot help you illegally download an app that is not allowed in your country for any reason. Personally, I do not see a way to get around what you willingly allowed a stranger to do to your phone. Perhaps someone else will have an idea.

You are right, if anyone falls for a scam they can wave bye bye to the activation locked phones.

Someone who posts their credentials online is either an utter fool or a crook, most likely a crook though.

Any attempt to use someone else's credentials to engineer access to a device would not be looked upon kindly by most law enforcement agencies, so unlikely to help.

I agree, that was dumb, never do that, if you ever want an app that is not in your country, it’s because it’s illegal, if you ever want to sign in with a different account then yours then use the account of someone you know.

I suspect in this case it is not the specific app that is the problem, but that all app sales within Russia are prohibited due to international sanctions related to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.