my iphone was hacked and put into lost mode. this person told me to pay them $50 to their paypal account. or my phone would be locked for good

Please note that if someone actually did put your phone into lost mode, they actually have no access at all to your physical device, the iPhone. What they do have is your AppleID password and thus the ability, in any web browser, to log into your iCloud account as you and do anything you could do.

So it is your AppleID that is compromised, not the device itself. See - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204145

An AppleID is your key to all your Apple accounts and services. It is imperative to keep your AppleID private, use a strong password, and never give out that password, to anyone (Apple will never ask you for it). It's also wise to use one of either 2-factor authentication or the older 2-step verification to further safe guard your AppleID.

No, letting the battery drain won't change anything.

Step ONE: Change your iCloud password, and make it a good one this time.

Then follow the instructions here, very carefully: If you forgot the passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled - Apple Support

So this just happened to me too. It is my old 4s that my daughter uses to play games and read - pretty low to hack a lil kids phone but the world is full of S#!+ people i guess. Anyways - the restart phone did NOT work. trust me - Ctrl+Alt+Delete is my go to fix for anything tech so i tried that first. My personal phone (same apple ID used) was locked when i woke up in the AM due to too many tries with my password and i was able to get that one going just fine.

After searching google for help i finally hooked the 4s up to iTunes and tried a factory restore which may have worked - however the phone does not have a sim card so i cant complete the activation process and i no longer have AT&T so my sim card doesn't help. Im awaiting a AT&T Go sim card to see if that will work - does anyone have any other suggestions?

@APPLE - y'all may want to look into this - seems like a a gaping hole in your security that people can hack into phones and lock them up . . .

Hello,

I have the same problem but with my Mac. I login Apple Icloud and everything is ok but coul I off the Lost mode they have activated in order to get access to my device? I do not have the password firmware because it is a second hand device.

Thank you

I login Apple Icloud and everything is ok but coul I off the Lost mode they have activated in order to get access to my device?

Not sure what your question is but start a new thread and describe the problem and the device it's happening to.

@CMay80

Apple does not read posts here. Getting a text message from a scammer is about as flawed as someone knocking on your door, or walking down the street towards you and asking for a handout.

If you loose you phone Apple will under no circumstances give out the passcode to anyone who cant prove without a doubt they are the owner, and it requires proof of ownership for an Apple Authorized Retailer, meaning even if you buy a new "brand new" Apple manufactured device off of Amazon or eBay and it's locked, too bad, you didn't buy it from an Apple authorized retailer, someone else did and only that someone else with the original receipt from an Apple Retailer can unlock that phone. Apple will not help anyone who can not prove this level of ownership and there is no workaround to bypass or reset that code if you don't know it.

Hello

Yesterday I had same situacion like you guys. I`ve restored iPhone via iTunes but my iMac is blocked. I connect it to internet (wifi doesnt work cause iCloud didn`t see it) via LAN cable and iCloud saw it but I could not do anything to unlock so I`ve tried to lock by myself set password: 1111. next I rebooted iMac and now on screen was mine blockade, I put 1111 and it says that my iMac is deactivated and password was wrong... When I`m trying to backup (cmd+R) there is password which I don`t have (I bought second handed iMac) Whould you have any ideas ? Maybe someone tried: http://www.davidjmoore.com/blog/2008/4/13/bypassing-the-efi-firmware-password-on -a-mac

sorry for english

Hi,

I am having the EXACT same problem as you right now,. Can i ask if you managed to resolve this? I have no proof of purchase because I bought second hand therefore apple wont touch me.

Please any help you have is apprecaited

Hi all!

Today when I woke up I've had the same issue. All my Apple devices were in lost mode. My iPhone was under my control again after changing my iCloud password, my iPad needed to be factory restored and my Macbook Pro was aking for a 6-digit code. I've tried all my known combinations, but nothing worked.

After that I've rang Apple support and was transeferred to a senior consultant, he could only tell me that I should bring my Mac to a premium reseller. They were not able to solve this issue by phone. I was told that I should bring a proof of purchase, a valid ID and some money, because the fix is not for free.

Because it's sunday, the best option was visiting one of the Apple Stores in the Netherlands. Unfortunately I live in the south and driving to Amsterdam back and forth takes around 400 km. A better option was reading all relevant posts on the internet and try to find a solution myself. That turned out to be very hard. Almost every single topic tells that you have to visit an APR. I've also found some very obscure Youtube clips that are made by hackers to make some extra money out of this. Don't spend a single penny on those fraudsters!

In one of those topics I've found a post from some guy who claimed that he totally drained the battery, made a restart and his problem was solved. Since I had the whole day of trying things I thougt it doesn't hurt to try. I pulled the power cable out of my Macbook and started waiting. Because it's a 2016 touch bar model the battery lasts very long but by the end of the day my macbook shutted itself down. Before that happends a battery indicator pops up. Then I didn't touch my macbook for another hour. After that I've plugged in the power cable and powered up my mac. And what happend after that? My normal login screen showed up and was able to gain access again. None of my files was lost.

To be sure I've logged into iCloud and went to Find my iPhone. My Macbook showed up unlocked and wasn't reported as lost anymore. I would strongly recommand everybody to try this first, before going to an Apple store.

I literally just had the same thing happen to me (sans the email)...and i got a quick glance that my appleID was logged into from a place but i killed that screen in a rush to get to settings (my fault there) and i reset my password with the extra security i luckily had set up not long after i bought the phone

In short, they cannot lock your device up...if they do, just bring your iphone and all your paperwork (box, invoice, etc) to an Apple service center...free of charge (or so i was told)

I tried logging in to different passwords to after I noticed that Ihad a 6-digit passcode when I normally had a 4- digit passcode. Right now my phone says, "iPhone is disabled connect to iTunes" will it still look normal after my battery drains?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860

regardless of what you read elsewhere the Firmware password can only be removed by Apple.

1-800-MY-APPLE

Delete the email then restart your iPhone.

It's a scam.

Call the police, it's an offense.

Nobody hacked the phone. The iCloud account that was configured on it was compromised.