Stolen iPhone erased: Activation Lock, contact, location

Your stolen iPhone is securely locked via Activation Lock , meaning the thief cannot use or sell it. The notification indicates the thief turned it on and is likely trying to trick you into removing it from your account. Because you have already changed your Apple ID password, you are safe, but do not remove the device from your Find My account. 

Key Answers:

• Contact Number: Yes, if you set up a message for a lost device, it will display on the screen, allowing anyone holding it to contact you directly.
• Location Updates: Yes, you can still track the phone on Find My/iCloud even after it has been erased, provided it is online.
• Greyed-out Map: The greyed-out map with only a distance estimation often means the phone is in an area with poor GPS, is inside a building, or the Find My app is struggling to update the map view, but the location coordinates are often still accurate. 

What to do now:

• Ignore the email: It is likely a phishing attempt by the thief to make you remove the device.
• Do not remove from Account: If you remove it, the Activation Lock is removed, and the thief can use it.
• Monitor Find My: You can still track its location. 
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• Disclaimer: On Reddit/r/scams some users suggest that scammers may try to call or text you, but you should not engage with them. 

The thief likely kept the phone turned off, or in a Faraday cage of some sort, to try to block tracking.

But they eventually had to turn it on and let it connect to the Internet to try to reset it … at which time the Erase took place, and the thief once again encountered Activation Lock.

Do NOT supply your Apple Account information in response to this message!