How to recover iPhone if it was blocked by scammers using iCloud?

Hey, guys! I was looking for used iPhones just for fun (I didn't even need a phone, cuz my is still OK (after 5 years in my hands)) and... discovered some strange stuff... To make it easy to understand some numbers, I was searching only Belarusian offers. So, if I say something like "500 BYN" it is approximately 170 USD. 1USD is somewhere between 2.9 and 3 BYN.

Well, as y'all know, any iPhone may be blocked using iCloud. And I was just looking for iPhone 13, cuz I found it interesting to understand how much does it cost now (I mean used iPhone 13). Discovered one interesting thing: there is approximately 5-10 blocked iPhone 13 (why only 5-10: I was looking for Minsk offers only, so, I guess, there is way more phones, which are blocked), which are being sold at the moment. In 2 or 3 offers there were this text: "The phone was blocked by scammers" (I will attach some screenshots with Russian text where people are tryna sell these phones). I tried to find some other models and also found blocked iPhone 14 (450BYN), blocked iPhone 12 (250BYN) and so on... I don't use Apple products (only one exception: my iPhone 7. I use it as a camera), but I am really interested if it is possible to recover iPhone after this situation. If it was possible to write straightly to Apple support, it would be easy, but anyway, when I was tryna recover my old MacBook Pro 13 E2011 after I caught something and tried to reinstall macOS, but couldn't find an official High Sierra image (Apple Support web page leads to AppStore... interesting: how should I download it if my only Mac is dead? Recovery mode didn't work, so I... installed Fedora. And Fedora died on the very next day. Cool, very nice! Well, the thing is I couldn't find how to ask Apple about something). But it is impossible, as I see. I heard from my friend that some people used tried to unlock iPhone using S/N from the box (a proof that the phone is not stolen and the person who currently hold the phone is not a thief), but... I don't know way how it can be done. Do you have any idea?

Screenshots (attached only 2, but there are more than 2 offers with this stuff in description) below are in Russian, so, I tried to translate some stuff. Also you can use Google Translate in order to translate full description.


iPhone 13

Posted on Nov 29, 2025 9:06 AM

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Posted on Nov 29, 2025 9:24 AM

"The phone was blocked by scammers" ... , but I am really interested if it is possible to recover iPhone after this situation"


No, not unless the scammer is really stupid and didn't set Lost Mode, and you have the original receipt from Apple or an Apple authorized dealer to prove you are now the owner of the device. Read https://al-support.apple.com/#/additional-support People have posted here about trying to use boxes, serial numbers, etc. to prove ownership but Apple has refused. Many people have posted here about having fallen for this scam and they basically have worthless devices that are only suitable for recycling.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 29, 2025 9:24 AM in response to hoxxy-agary

"The phone was blocked by scammers" ... , but I am really interested if it is possible to recover iPhone after this situation"


No, not unless the scammer is really stupid and didn't set Lost Mode, and you have the original receipt from Apple or an Apple authorized dealer to prove you are now the owner of the device. Read https://al-support.apple.com/#/additional-support People have posted here about trying to use boxes, serial numbers, etc. to prove ownership but Apple has refused. Many people have posted here about having fallen for this scam and they basically have worthless devices that are only suitable for recycling.

How to recover iPhone if it was blocked by scammers using iCloud?

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