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I bought an iCloud locked iPhone. Trying to find the owner.

bonifan88
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

To whom it may concern,

 

I recently bought a couple of broken iPhones off of Ebay. I like to fix and sell them in my free time.

Among them, there were a few iPhones that were described as having an iCloud lock.

Seen as the description of those iphones was really vague, their country origin (the UK) and the high rate of mobile phone theft in London, I'm under the suspicion that they might have been stolen.

I'm able to get to the setup screen that requires an icloud username and password to unlock the phone, but no message of the owner to prompt the founder to return the phone was displayed.

 

I'm writing you in the hope that, with the following information about the phones, this mail might aid in the search for the rightful owner of these iphones:

  • iPhone 7 Rose Gold; IMEI: 3*****9 (Privacy)
  • iPhone 6 Gold; IMEI: 3*****9 (Privacy)

 

To help even more with finding the owner I've added some CC's to this e-mail that might have other resources to find the owner or I have contacted them directly:

  • Apple Belgium (my country)
  • All major UK cellphone network operators:

 

I've tried contacting my local police, but since this matter is out of their power, they refused to help me.

 

Yours sincerely,

Elisee K.

 
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @bonifan88 

 

Your post certainly is not inappropriate, and it's very thoughtful of you to try and locate the owner.  The problem you are going to have is due to General Data Protection Regualtion (GDPR) you won't find any of the networks will give you any information.  If they did they would be in serious breach data protection laws.

 

Also, if there was an insurance claim this may well have been settled.

 

With the icloud lock and data protection regulations really don't see how you will have any success in finding the person who had their property stolen in the UK.

 

 

View solution in original position

5 REPLIES 5

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @bonifan88 

 

Don't quite understand the reason for this being a Vodafone UK issue.  

 

The first thing to do is ask Siri for help but you are trying to crack an icloud identity on what is possibly stolen property you will never succeed, the lock is there to protect the phone contents, security and identity of the rightful owner.

 

The phones may also be the subject of an insurance claim and this will mean they would be the property of the insurance company.  Also, you would have no idea of any of the circumstances of how these phones you purchased in Belgium were stolen or lost in the UK.

 

This is going to be between you and the seller.

Hi @AnnS,

I'm not trying to crack the passcode or username. I'm trying to find the owner.

I found the suggestion on a reddit post to contact local mobile providers who might have a database where the IMEI and accountnumber are linked.

Since Vodafone UK does not seem to have an option to send an e-mail or start a chat, I thought I could reach a representative on this community forum and handle the situation in private.

 

I'm sorry for the inconvenience if you think this post isn't appropriate for the forum and I'll immediately remove the thread if others share your opinion. I thought I'd try to find the owner before I dissasemble it for parts.

 

Yours sincerely,

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @bonifan88 

 

Your post certainly is not inappropriate, and it's very thoughtful of you to try and locate the owner.  The problem you are going to have is due to General Data Protection Regualtion (GDPR) you won't find any of the networks will give you any information.  If they did they would be in serious breach data protection laws.

 

Also, if there was an insurance claim this may well have been settled.

 

With the icloud lock and data protection regulations really don't see how you will have any success in finding the person who had their property stolen in the UK.

 

 

That's very clear, thank you!

That's a real bummer.

I won't give up yet, but your answer has put things in perspective, Thanks!

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @bonifan88 

 

A person can check a phones status by using options like Checkmend which should help to show what's going on with the phone.

As we all know security features on a phone are there for a reason and as such can only be accessed by the original owner.

Neither Apple nor the networks will want to get involved as I'm assuming this will be in the realms of insurance or the owner has either given up on recovering it or have simply sold it as a non working model for parts etc.

The Police would probably just put the phone in lost property where it would gather dust.

It's fantastic to see someone come to this forum to try and reunite the phone with the owner using their own time and effort to do so.

Great integrity @bonifan88 

I applaud you.  :Smiling:

Take care.

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.