The whole thing started last week, when I started getting email verification messages from Apple, then notifications that my Apple ID was used to sign in to iCloud on an iPhone 12 Pro.
Getting notification of an act you've never had the pleasure to commit is never a good sign and in this day of age, it's cause to concern and it's better to investigate the cause, rather than just ignore it and that's exactly what I did.
After getting verification codes, the next day I got a welcome message from Apple, which made me take action.
Before I go on, I need to tell you that I'm not an Apple user, never have been and most likely will never be one for several reasons, so when I saw the welcome message I knew right away that it's not like someone hacked my account, but rather they registered using my email address, but this is just as bad as being hacked.
So I contacted Apple support and got a human agent right away, which was already a good sign, as my case was not an easy one. After detailing my problem, we went through the necessary standard questions, like is there a chance someone else had access to my PC or if someone asked for my login details and stuff like that. Obviously my answer was definitely not, so the rep suggested me to change my password, which I tried already (actually that was the first thing I did), but because the phone number the individual registered with wasn't mine, I could not go through with it.
Long story short, I was suggested to check if there are any suspicious activities on my computer, from unknown location, which I did and luckily there weren't any.
What I was told by the customer support agent was that they understand my problem, but they can't cancel the newly created account, because only the owner has the right to do so and they have to protect the account owner's rights. Fine by me, this is how it should be, but in this case, the email address used is not of the rightful owner. Then I asked what happens if they can't verify their email address, which was a legit question as they don't have access to it and can't ever verify it. I was told it remains as pending. And the final question that bothered me the most was, if they can buy from the Apple store, if they don't have their account verified. At this point I was told they don't can't disclose company policy.
Although I wasn't satisfied with the outcome, at least I got decent customer support, got some answers and checked my settings and was not hacked.
However, it made me think of how companies are handling privacy and data security. Big companies most likely have a complex system, but even so, there are situations where, although you're right, there's no solution for your problem. If I were to register to Apple with the email address in question, I can't because most likely it's going to say it is already in use. Which is accurate, but not by the rightful owner.
Imagine how smaller companies are handling such cases, where people like
Farah are handling customer support, while they don't even speak English.
Those of you who are reading my posts know I had to deal with customer support quite often lately (even today I had to plead for my auction account to be reinstated) and after all that I've been through I strongly believe you need to test them first, if want to avoid complications later.
Last week I was coming home and while checking my mailbox, I met one of my neighbors, a lady past 80. When she saw me opening my mailbox, told me I'm going to find an invoice from the internet provider. Funny statement for sure as I am not getting paper invoices sent out for years (hello, we're in 2025 and we have e-invoices for decades), but I could not be rude, so I told her I get them electronically, but I doubt she understood what I meant, because she told me she always pays her invoices very early, yet she always gets them in the mailbox.
Unfortunately there are so many digital illiterates (no offense), that I think we need decades to get moving digitally. Now imagine these people handling their business, finances included, digitally. Unfortunately this is what hackers and impostors are counting on and making their living, or better yet, are living like kings.
There's a lot to learn and do in this regard, on both ends, companies as well as customers have a lot of work to do to make this digital space safe for everyone.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
