My iCloud was hacked..devices locked..ransom wanted for unlock PIN

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PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

My iCloud was hacked..devices locked..ransom wanted for unlock PIN

I was watching a great show on my iPad when it suddenly went into lock mode with message:

***

Lost iPad

Your device is locked. For unlock email

*********

***

My iPhone also presented the same message at the same moment.

But seconds later I received a phone call from a friend and was able to answer it. When the call was over, I was able to swipe/unlock the phone and get to the home screen where I immediately went to the Find my iPhone app and saw that my iPad was flagged as a lost device. I changed my iCloud password to something stronger (caps, lowercase, symbols and numbers).

It's clear that, due to my weak password (which was a combo of 4 lowercase letters and 4 numbers), my iCloud account was hacked and someone wanted me to email that address where I would surely be quoted a price to unlock my own device.

My iPad remains locked and I think I will need to do a full reset so that it will prompt me for a wifi network and iCloud ID to unlock it again.

Anyone else get a similar alert? I googled that nefarious email address and only one hit came up from a german site a few days ago with someone complaining about the same problem.

Posted on Dec 7, 2015 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 7, 2015 7:15 AM in response to PHL07

Something doesn't add up. If someone has control of your account I assume they would have changed the password, if you've changed the password they no longer have control.

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Answer 2

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 7, 2015 7:15 AM in response to PHL07

I emailed that address, btw, and received a nice email in Russian that's basically detailing their scam... pay up to unlock.

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Answer 3

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 7, 2015 7:49 AM in response to Winston Churchill

It appears the hack only put my devices in lost mode with the message to contact them for an unlock code (after paying them ransom). I was still able to log into my iCloud account and change the password.

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Answer 4

Dec 7, 2015 7:59 AM in response to PHL07

Sorry, I'm confused then, if you can log into your account you can turn lost mode off.

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Answer 5

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 7, 2015 8:06 AM in response to Winston Churchill

That's exactly right. I'm not sure why my account was accessed and my devices put into lost mode, but then they didn't change my iCloud password. I was able to re-unlock the iPad, though it will be some time before it's back on a known wifi. Until then, the message remains unless I do a full reset from recovery mode.

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Answer 6

Dec 7, 2015 8:08 AM in response to PHL07

Did you see this message while using Safari? If so, it would appear it is nothing more than a scam message.

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Answer 7

Dec 7, 2015 8:26 AM in response to PHL07

If you already had a passcode to lock the screen on the iPad, then that's all you will need to unlock it.

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Answer 8

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 7, 2015 8:42 AM in response to stedman1

I was watching a tv show via an app. The message was a lock screen message that was generated from iCloud.com. When I went into find my iPhone, i saw that the device was in lost mode and the message I put at the beginning of this thread was placed there.

I emailed said address and got back an email in Russian that basically asked for money to provide an unlock code. This is a 100% scam because my iCloud password was used.

My iPad also had no passcode lock set. The lock screen I encountered was because the device was in lost mode.

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Answer 9

Dec 7, 2015 11:35 AM in response to PHL07

May I be the first to tell you NOT to use a 4 chars password on the f***g iCloud to avoid losing some big cash spent on your device?

You might also want to activate security questions and two factor log in.

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Answer 10

indytone

Level 1

4 points

Dec 8, 2015 1:28 PM in response to PHL07

Happened to me as well yesterday morning -- across all my apple devices that I was signed into iCloud on: My iphone, both iPads, and my Mac Mini.

On my iphone and ipads I was able to change my iCloud password and was okay after that. As for the mac mini, I'm stuck at a "logon" screen where it's asking me to enter my system lock PIN. Under that, it states (verbatim): Your Mac locked. For unlock write supappleid11@yahoo.com

Ugh.

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Answer 11

cdnancy

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2015 3:56 AM in response to PHL07

Exactly same problem here ! Did you found a way to unlock your iPad?

I restored it several times but I still have the "your devide is locked, for unlock email ******* after restore 😠

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Answer 12

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 8, 2015 3:08 PM in response to cdnancy

You need to log into icloud.com on a Mac or use the find my iPhone app on another device. Go to your IPad and take it out of lost mode. if your iPad is on wifi or a data connection, the lost message should go away. Change your iCloud password too.

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Answer 13

PHL07 Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 8, 2015 3:10 PM in response to GeorgeLeonte

I Used 4 letters that didn't spell a word and 4 numbers

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Answer 14

Dec 17, 2015 7:13 AM in response to PHL07

Hi,

I've had the same issue.

I was checking time on my iPhone when I realized that both my iPad and iPhone where locked. Same email address.

So I went to my iCloud account to check but wasn't able to connect anymore, my AppleID had just disappeared.

I checked my mails to find out that my Name, Forename, Email address had been changed on my Apple account.

I didn't write to **************.com because I was sure that someone will ask for money at some point.

Finally 2 days later and thank's to Apple Support AND my security questions I was able to reset my account password and change everything back to normal but with a WAY MORE COMPLEX password. Activating the 2 steps logging is also strongly advised.

The real email address (one of many I guess) of this hacker is : ************.com

I think that everyone should contact the Russian Embassy (as I did) in our respective countries and give them this email, we never know, they are maybe using those scams to finance terrorists activities (stress that point when contacting them). Anyway, IP addresses of this email should be logged somewhere.

I hope that my testimony helped somehow.

<E-mails Edited by Host>

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Answer 15

giacool

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2015 1:31 PM in response to PHL07

My iCloud was also hacked and all my devices went into locked mode. For some reason the hacker didn't change my iCloud password.. Maybe they are using some kind of Find my phone exploit..?

I was able to unlock my iPhones. But my unlock code was changed on the iPad so I had to do a full reset.. And my Mac Mini is locked with a 6 digit firmware PIN. It's impossible to recover from this.. According to Apple support the only solution is to bring it to a Authorised Apple Service Provider. Only they can unlock the firmware PIN.. 😠

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