Yesterday, I posted about my account being stolen and Apple's AI failing. Today, I called in this because, once again, the person in China who had hacked my account was able to change the password without access to my emails. Apparently, once they change your Security Questions it's game over unless you have MFA (which I did not because I never used the account and do not own any Apple devices).

Finally reached a person after yelling at the AI (thanks Lemmy), who was only able to disable the account from buying stuff on the Apple store. They were unable to do anything beyond that and had to transfer me to another person. This senior advisor confirmed the initial guidance on the security questions (old way) and MFA (new way). The only way to bypass that is for me to sign into an Apple device (which I do not own) or to sign up for AppleTV and enter a payment method, which would lock out the security questions going forward.

Being without an Apple device, I tried to access AppleTV but could not sign in because my region is now locked to China (thanks hackers). Now I am busy trying to get my mother to use her iPhone and/or iPad to log in with my account over the phone so it will add MFA, but I have no idea what to do because I do not own any Apple products and she's not very tech-savvy. Even then, the only way to get my account on her iPad is to wipe the thing entirely or create some kind of Frankenstein merging of our accounts.

Finally got someone from advanced support again to walk her through everything. Trying to sign into the account to set up the MFA still has it region locked to China so you cannot add a phone number from outside China. So that doesn't do anything at all either. At this point my account is completely stolen and Apple, the people with all the access, cannot do anything about it. All I can do is keep resetting the password (using my email) every time they change it using the security questions.

For a company as big as Apple, they are insanely shitty about account security. The fact that someone could bypass my entire account's security without ever needing access to my email is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that they (Apple) can do nothing because of it and my account will be forever bricked. I cannot delete the account. I cannot sign into the account. And I cannot use my email address ever again to sign up for an account.

So I guess will I never use an Apple product ever again.

Fuck you, Apple.

all 11 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sorry mate, that's what I kinda figured was going to occur when I responded to your other post a little bit ago.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    It's ridiculous. If they (Apple) can give the government access to all your shit but are defeated by some kid in China, they shouldn't be allowed to conduct business here.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • I used to know someone who worked there, I'll have to see if they still work there or ask if there is a way to dispute the email. Forcing the account to resend a verification code to the email on file shouldn't really break any security measures, so maybe an email where you don't respond could get the email disassociated with the Apple account so you could reuse it later, but honestly if you don't use their products, I guess it isn't to big of a loss. I don't own any, but used to have to help people with them all the time as companies make deals with AT&T/Verizon to get iPhones for employees and shit. Companies that don't have their own management software and allow users to sign into their personal Apple accounts result in phones becoming paperweights unless you submit proof of purchase to Apple to have the activation locks removed from their personal accounts... Which takes several business days and many companies don't want to deal with it.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Did/can you go to an apple store to use a Mac for a few minutes? Or hell, if the staff get bitchy, buy an iPad, unbox it, try to save the account, and then return it, all in-store.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    The account is hardlocked to China. Can't do anything without a Chinese phone number

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    I'm sorry this has happened to you. I read your other post too. Any idea how the hackers got into your account?

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Likely a hack that got the security questions. It seems that if you didn't have MFA, then having access to those gives you full control of the account except for changing the email. I can change the password whenever I want through email, but cannot login without the security questions. They can change the password using the security questions, but not the email. So much bullcrap

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    Likely a hack that got the security questions.

    Do you mean the security questions that Apple asked when you set up the account initially, you answered honestly, and the hackers were able to gather those correct answers from other sources they obtained from other data breeches?

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago*

    Sorry that happened. Apple is really garbage in so many ways. I know once I had to go through a lot to be able to use my account because I had once signed into it on an old work laptop which had unknowingly locked it to that device. It was quite the stupid ordeal.

  • source