How to remove Activation Lock on iPhone purchased from an Apple authorized store in Vietnam?

Re: “What should I do now?”

Learn from this and don’t fall for the same scam after you get your next phone. Whether the scammer claims that they just need to use your phone for a short time, or they tell you that you can get stuff that normally would not be available to you by logging into their account, these blackmail scams all end the same way.

DuyTheVietnameseGuy wrote:

No i'm sure it is not in lost mode, it only show "iphone locked to owner "

Yeah, that is not now and will never be your iPhone as you ceded ownership, and that lock is why your request for access was and will be denied.

It is forever a brick.

Recycle it, or pay the ransom.

Re: “I thought that, if my phone is in Lost mode, the screen should showing something like a messages, or phone number?”

The Lost Mode screen doesn’t need to show anything other than “Locked to Owner” and a deliberately obscured Apple ID. Anything else is at the discretion of the person who put it into that mode.

You’ve already lost the phone, whether the scammers ever contact you with information on how to pay blackmail, or not.

It no longer matters why you did what you did. The lesson to take away from this is "don't ever do that again".

You fell for a scam. Apple can't help you.

Buy a new phone.

Once it's been erased, that's all it will show. It is undoubtedly in lost mode.

Move on.

Re: “And i haven't received any blackmail or something similar.”

It would be highly unusual, but maybe these scammers were “just” electronic vandals whose goal was to brick your phone, not to extort money from you. Or maybe they will make blackmail demands in the future. Only time will tell.

Notice the part of that screenshot where it says Your device must not be in Lost Mode.

The scammers no doubt put your phone into that mode specifically so that the phone would be lost to you.