Update apple ID. Someone is using my email address as their ID

I wanted to share that I encountered this issue too when trying to change the e-mail address of my Apple ID to another e-mail address. Even though I was using this address as an alternate contact address in FaceTime and iMessage, the system told me that it was used by another account. I found the activation e-mails from 3 years ago that I ignored at the time.

Obviously I wasn't able to access the account as I did not have the answers to the security questions. I was able to change the password and gather some information about it though.

In the end, I spoke with a very nice AppleCare senior advisor who wasn't able to gain access to the rogue account, but escalated the matter to engineering. In the end, they sent me a "Email Ownership Verification Code" to the e-mail address I wanted to use with a PIN. Gave the PIN to the senior advisor who sent it back to engineering. On the next day, my e-mail address was removed from the rogue account and became available again for me to use with my Apple ID.

Oubviously, the Apple system has some flaws:

- It likely shouldn't ask for security questions before you click on the e-mail validation link. That way, an e-mail address wouldn't be locked to a rogue account like that.

- It also shouldn't let you create an Apple ID with an e-mail address that is already in use with FaceTime and iMessage.

I hope this answer can help other people in the future.

Cheers!

I am the same except I do get the reset passwword emails. Problem is that it is in Thai and I can't read it. When I did manage to use the browser translator to get through it asked me to verify security questions which of course I can't because someone set them to their personal security questions. Then I click to reset and then back to square 1.

What can I do? I emailed apple support and still no answer after months. I even added the other email to my current appleId and it won't let me switch to that one as the primary.

Thoughts?

This is great information and you described my problem perfectly, but I've tried calling their support twice and they refuse to escalate to Engineering. I guess I'll keep trying since it does appear to be possible.

And yet you said it and with such confidence!

asfasdfadsfadsfadsfdsa said;

You are incorrect and its a bummer that you're speaking with confidence about something you are wrong about.

I just tried to transfer my dad's apple id to his gmail rather than his ISP email address and it wouldn't allow it because the email was in use. I then tried logging in to the gmail apple id, reset the password as I obviously had access to the email, and I was surprised to see someone else's name associated with the account.

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, will allow someone to create an apple id without verifying the email. It never lets them in, but it does establish the account. Now my dad can seemingly never use his primary email address for his ID in the apple ecosystem. What a joke of a company.

2017! Same problem! I created a gmail account in January. Not my primary, secondary or even tertiary email. Toward the end of February someone used it as their new Apple ID. I never 'verified'. Have since received Apple receipts for apps purchased. I also received an email with their updated billing info! I know his name, his address and the last 4 digits of his MasterCard. Now he has a Pandora account.

Yet Apple Support was more concerned with HIS privacy this morning when I escalated the issue. They can't pick up the phone to call this guy yet they were actually trying to figure out a way for me to contact him. ***?! How about you suspend the Apple ID that was never verified in the first place and protect MY privacy?

I have encountered the same problem today trying to set up my Apple ID someone is using my primary email address for their Apple ID - so strange to still be an issue - looking back over this thread from 2011. Talked to Apple support, they tried to be helpful but were

not able to do anything to resolve the issue and ended by suggesting that I set up and use a new email account for my Apple ID - oh well 😟

I had a similar issue— tried on the iPad to enter my email address (which was, in fact, the address associated with my old Apple ID) and was told that it was already being used as an Apple ID. In fact, I wasn't even sure whether maybe I *had* actually created such an ID once, since recently in the Apple Store, the concierge seems to have required an email address as the log-in, and my regular Apple ID didn't work. But in any event, I went to my laptop and logged on to account management on appleid.apple.com, and there it allowed me to change my login to the email address—in fact, it encouraged me to do so, though for some reason it took a bit of clicking to persuade it to go through. After updating it on the website, I was able to just hit "back" on the iPad and start again, entering my (new) email-formatted login instead of my old one.

No one else is using your email address as their Apple ID. You are who the server has encountered. An email address can only be associated with one Apple ID. If it is the email address for your current Apple ID, the Apple server is not going to let you use it in another, in this case as the ID itself.

No, I'm having this issue as well. I can't change my account to use my email address as my ID, and when I try to sign on with my email rather than my ID the password is rejected. If I try to reset the password I don't receive an email.

It is as if someone has set their apple ID to be my email address and then updated their account to use a different email address for default contact.

In any case - this is a real issue and it *****.

I am also running into this problem. So I decided to reset my password using my email address as my Apple ID (just to check if I had created this in the past). I get the password reset email and the salutation is to someone else (not my name). This other person has apparently created the user name using my email address. It is my only email address. It is clearly associated with my original Apple ID (not an email address). Apple should not have let someone else pick my email address as their Apple ID.

I'm now trying to talk to someone at Apple and I seem to be stuck on hold.

---- made it through to someone. He is at a loss. Suggested I create a new email address and use it for iTunes. I've asked to escalate it. I'd like this other person to get removed from being associated with my email and be able to use my email address correctly. ...... waiting ............

Dahveed may have been right - dispute it generally not working well and the errors implying that the ID is in use, if you go to your account on apple's site and use the option to "make primary email address your apple ID", it does seem to fix the issue.

It only seems to work from the site though - doing it from the iPad setup is broken from what I can tell.

Jason - where did you do this on the apple site? I can't seem to find the option you mentioned on itunes. Per my note above, I'm not hopeful since there is clearly another person being associated with my email but I'd like to give it a try.

Help on phone has not found a good solution yet.

Yes, logging onto the website using my old Apple ID and using the manage feature to change my login ID to make the primary email address and login ID the same worked for me, too. (Though, as I say, it didn't seem to work the first time— it brought up a pull-down menu letting my choose my email address, but clicking "OK" just reloaded the page and gave me the same option. It took a few tries before it "stuck")

You can try it on: appleid.apple.com

I spoke with an Apple support supervisor. He is putting word into Engineering about this problem. I mentioned that I see this string and that others may have this problem.

Here is what I did .... he was able to look at the account that has my email address as the person's Apple ID and see that the account was not verified.

So, since I had the email that allowed me to change the password on that Apple ID, I went ahead and did that and changed the account features to point to me. I logged in with the apple ID (my email address) and I haven't seen that the other person ever did anything with the account. Thus, I'm going to see if I can simply take it back and us it.

Have you used an Apple Store (concierge to schedule an appt, or maybe even just gotten an email receipt) at that address? I had wondered whether those create some sort of minimal apple ID, which didn't get unified with the old userID style ID's.

The reason I wonder that is that a few months ago, I tried to use the web concierge to schedule an appt in an apple store, and it didn't accept my old style ID, so I just typed in my email address. It seems that the web interface allowed me to 'take over' that login ID when I was signed in with my old one, but maybe the iPad interface isn't designed for this situation?