G'day all, wanted to ask what you would do in my situation of apple account being hacked.
From the top, my apple ID account got hacked, it was around 10pm weekend when I saw an app purchase notifying me was being made in Taiwan. I quickly logged into my account to check what was going on. While I had my e-mail opened in another tab, each minute that came, an e-mail saying it has changed Password, Credit Card, back up email, security question/answers were all being changed in front of my eyes!
The next thing was to call Apple, being at night the support center in AU was closed, so I had to call the US number. Got through, explained everything and the support tech guy said he will look into it and get back to me tomorrow and told him at least have the account locked also he mentioned it won't take more than 2 weeks. After a few days without a response, I called back and got through only to say this is a 'unique' case and that it will need to be escalated and have been following up every week as now I am unable to access my few thousand photos (icloud), my $160 worth of apple credits, basically all my personal information, contents and apps that was linked to it now won't function without it being updated which requires itunes.
Fast forward 1 month, I followed up and he said its still being looked at, and is now being investigated by their 'engineers', they didn't give me any time because its 'unique'. So I waited, and waited, fast forward 2 months…
My patience has worn thin and I really needed to use my account linked to this.
So I called up apple again and got to a different technical advisor operator, and he mentioned this wasn't escalated and had no one looking at it. I was shocked and explained the 3 months wait and downtime of all my access. He then told me he will ge tback to me within 24 hours to get me an update.
So the next day he called back thankfully but only to find that it was actually assigned to an engineer who to me didn't sound like he had intention of resolving. The new advisor told me he has limited access to what he can do and engineers had power to give back my account and told me to wait again within 3 days he will get back.
After 3 days he did get back only to tell me the engineer apparently cannot help getting the account back, what the hell.
I begged them to get it back, I told them I can prove my identity, the email was linked to my apple ID, and I still have access to my email, it had my device linked to it.
Whilst this waiting happened, the 'hacker' supposedly changed it to a 2 step verfication blocking all of Apple's power to unlock it, which was much too late if they had investigated earlier.
So they gave no reasons to why I cannot get my account back AT ALL, I can prove all my identity, yet they cannot, and now I don't have access to my purchased credits, my photos, music, apps purchased and in-app purchases, my icloud.
So the tech advisor only can send me an apple accessory as an appeasement to this 'unique' case which I find insulting.
So, should this make for a legal case or is this a futile approach?
What would you do?
- Accept an accessory ($80 phone case?) and let it be a lesson learnt to change password once a week to something sophisticated.
- Sue Apple and try to get back compensation for the 3 months downtime and the missing apps and photos/contents from icloud.
- ???
Did you have two factor authentication setup on your account?
Edit - just read the entire story. Guess not. Lesson to anyone reading this - setup two factor authentication!