I bought a iphone 5s from gumtree. While trying to activate it i realised there was an account linked to it through an apple id. it doesnt say the phone is in lost mode and it still has warranty. am i able to get a fix from apple?

Question

i bought a iphone 5s from gumtree. While trying to activate it i realised there was an account linked to it through an apple id. it doesnt say the phone is in lost mode and it still has warranty. am i able to get a fix from apple?

Answer 1

unfortunately - no
if the device is on ios 7.1 or above there's two things.
1) the device may be restored to factory settings - but the phone can't be activated. imei unlock is different to Iphone activatio. - your friend unlocked it to use any sim in any country. iOS 7 forces you to restore the phone and reimpit the original icloud login. This can only be solved if you a)forgot the login/changed  it, and can prove to apple youre the owner; b) to get the original owner to deauthorize his account associated with the phone, on his/her computer.
2)if there's also a Passcode lock on the phone, and the last registered sim doesn't work (in the case of a stolen phone) - then it's impossible for you to do anything, full security = restore will lead to activation lock immediately. There's no bypass to it, the fake videos online only allow a bypass if the device was a 'jailbrokem' one - which would invalidate apple trying/ever wanting to help you.
if you know who the phone belonged to previously (usually comes up with the icloud username on it) then you can ask them to deactivate it.
otherwise, you have what we call - a brickb- won't even work as a super iPod touch
my iphone was stolen on sat in prague - white, 32 gb iphone 5 - if it's mine, I'll have it back please   just incase