HT4865 How to change an apple ID that doesn't belong to you???

Question

I bought a contract iphone 5c for my son at xmas, set it up using my apple ID. He does not know the password as I don't want him buying things without me knowing. Therefore he signed out of my apple id, borrowed a friends apple id and password and started to download free apps. He then changed his passcode and forgot it, trying too many times which disabled the phone. I have managed to enable the phone, got it working, however it is asking for the apple id and password that he currently had on the phone which must be his friends as it is refusing mine. My son does not have contact with this boy anymore and I think he has changed his password anyway. The phone is in my name, the mother, who is linked to apple, itunes etc. Please help, it is very confusing but ultimately I need to either reset the id which i can't due to not knowing the details, cancel it or maybe reset whole phone to factory settings. On my son's phone we can't get passed the activate iphone page. Please help!! I have all documents, receipts that this is my phone.

Answer 1

If you have encountered Activation lock, and are getting an image similar to the one below when you try to activate the phone, it will not activate without the correct Apple ID and password being entered.  There is no way around this as it is designed as a theft deterrent measure (if you could circumvent it, it wouldn't be effective).  Apple can't/won't help.  Your only option is to track down the person who originally acitvated the phone because their ID is now associated with the hardware ID on the phone and it will not activate without the proper credentials, or unless this person removes the phone from their account (as explained here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4515).