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help: Original Owner won't remove it from iCloud

Hey! So i bought an iphone 5 from a lady (not the original owner) and it has an icloud lock on it as it has been reported lost. The message says that "This iPhone has been lost. Please call me. **********" I texted him and he says that the phone has neither been lost or stolen but still he's not willing to remove the iphone from his icloud account, what would you suggest me to do? I called apple and the customer assistance told me to talk to local law enforcement. I went to the police station and they told me that this is a civil matter and they can't do anything about it and told me that be careful about where you buy the phone from next time :\. The phone came with a box and everything so i really thought it couldn't be stolen and it isn't. It was at the insert sim card spot when i bought it and didn't show the icloud activation message. When i inserted the sim i found out that it was reported lost.


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iPhone 5, iOS 7.1

Posted on Mar 25, 2014 12:52 AM

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Posted on Mar 25, 2014 1:10 AM

This person does not understand what you want. Have him read this about Activation Lock. He did not do what was necessary before selling his device.


In fact, if he has privacy concerns, he should want to remove it as soon as possible because it is STILL tied to his account.


If that doesn;t work unfortunately, the advice you got seems correct, though not what you wanted to hear.

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Question marked as Best reply

Mar 25, 2014 1:10 AM in response to Shehryar23

This person does not understand what you want. Have him read this about Activation Lock. He did not do what was necessary before selling his device.


In fact, if he has privacy concerns, he should want to remove it as soon as possible because it is STILL tied to his account.


If that doesn;t work unfortunately, the advice you got seems correct, though not what you wanted to hear.

Mar 25, 2014 1:17 AM in response to Shehryar23

There is absolutely nothing that you can do in this situation and the activation lock is working just as it should.


If the person that you are texting to remove their account from iCloud will not do it, then there is nothing that you can do and Apple cannot and will not do anything to help you.


The best you can do is return the phone to the lady that you purchased it from and get a full refund for the phone and then start again by buying a phone from a legitimate source and not second hand.


You will never be able to use this phone and you will have paid a lot of money for an unusable brick - send the phone back and get a refund and then start again.


I also noticed that the phone was on Verizon - this is a CDMA phone and may cause you problems, so if you do decide to return it for a refund, make sure that when you start again you go for a phone that is a GSM phone that is unlocked instead.


Bottom Line: Return the phone and get a refund because you will never be able to use it and nobody can help you.

help: Original Owner won't remove it from iCloud

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