Receiving Threatening Text Messages After Trading In an iPhone 14 Pro Max to AT&T

Goldfish81 wrote:

Recently, my daughter started receiving threatening text messages from someone claiming to have purchased her old iPhone. The person says the phone still contains her personal information and threatens to sell it on the black market unless we remove it from our Apple Account. They also claim to be receiving her phone calls.

This is a common scam.

If the criminal who sent this message really had access to your daughter's personal information, giving them the phone (by removing it from your daughter's Apple Account) would be no guarantee of protection. The "honest" (LOL!!!) criminal could simply "make your daughter's phone their own" and sell her information to other criminals.

The reason that they are sending the message is precisely because they do not know how to get into her Apple Account. If they had the credentials needed to get into her account, they could (and would) remove the phone, themselves, instead of going to the trouble to contact her and try to threaten and trick her into cooperating.

Could someone access my daughter’s personal data if the phone has not yet completed the remote erase?

If the phone was passcode-locked with a passcode that the criminal does not know, and could not easily guess, they have almost no chance of getting in. There are 1 million possible six-digit passcodes - and an iPhone will permit only 10 incorrect guesses before going into an Unavailable state where you must erase it to get back in. Their chances of guessing the right passcode would be at most 1 in 100,000 (like winning the lottery).

And it doesn't sound like they know her Apple Account credentials (which might let them get at data in iCloud).

They have nothing and are hoping that their threats and their lies of wanting to help her "protect" her data will cause her to give them "something for nothing".

Is it safe to remove the old iPhone from Find My, or should we keep Activation Lock enabled until the erase is complete?

Keep Activation Lock enabled indefinitely.

How could someone have obtained her phone number in this situation?

If her old phone had a physical SIM card, the thieves could have removed the physical SIM card and put the card into some other phone to obtain the number. (The card wouldn't contain her data, but would contain information that identifies her account on the cellular network.)

Has anyone experienced similar threatening messages after trading in an iPhone through a carrier?

This is the first time I've heard of it happening with a phone traded in to a carrier, but several people on the forums have reported the same thing happening with iPhones that were stolen and shipped to an infamous "reprocessing" plant overseas. Sometimes the messages were like the ones your daughter received - release the Activation Lock and the "honest criminal" (LOL!) will "protect" your data.

Goldfish81 wrote:

My daughter traded in her broken iPhone 14 Pro Max to AT&T in exchange for credit toward a new iPhone in May 2026. The phone would not turn on, so we were unable to erase it before sending it back. We used AT&T’s prepaid shipping label and packaging, and AT&T confirmed receipt and acceptance of the trade-in.

I initiated a remote erase through Find My, but the device still shows “Erase Pending” because it has not connected to the internet.

Recently, my daughter started receiving threatening text messages from someone claiming to have purchased her old iPhone. The person says the phone still contains her personal information and threatens to sell it on the black market unless we remove it from our Apple Account. They also claim to be receiving her phone calls.

My daughter kept the same phone number when she upgraded to her new iPhone. The sender has never addressed her by name, and I cannot verify whether they actually have the old phone or whether their claims are true.

Since we returned the device directly to AT&T using its prepaid trade-in label, and AT&T confirmed that the trade-in was accepted, I am concerned about these messages and the possibility that someone has obtained information associated with the device.

My questions are:1.

Could someone access my daughter’s personal data if the phone has not yet completed the remote erase?

2. Is it safe to remove the old iPhone from Find My, or should we keep Activation Lock enabled until the erase is complete?

3. How could someone have obtained her phone number in this situation?

4. Has anyone experienced similar threatening messages after trading in an iPhone through a carrier?

I would appreciate advice from anyone familiar with Find My, remote erasing, and iPhone trade-ins. I want to protect my daughter’s information and understand how to handle these messages safely.

1. No, as long as the phone was protected with a Passcode and signed into Find My, which it appears it was.
2. Don't remove the phone, as that will let someone erase it and use it for themself.
3. If the phone had a physical SIM Card, they got the number from the SIM Card.
4. Turn the number over to the police with copies of the threatening messages, then block the scammer.

Goldfish81 wrote:

Thank you for your reply! Regarding #4, I told my daughter to block the numbers. It seems that the texts are coming from various numbers so I guess they are probably using robocalls. I will stop at police station today and see what they say.

I'm sure they are. Your daughter should not respond to them in any way. They'll eventually give up.

Thank you for your reply! Regarding #4, I told my daughter to block the numbers. It seems that the texts are coming from various numbers so I guess they are probably using robocalls. I will stop at police station today and see what they say.

Hello Apple Support,

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max. After updating to iOS 27.0.1, my phone started shutting down unexpectedly. Sometimes the screen suddenly goes black, and I have to turn the phone back on using the side button.

The phone does not always feel hot when this happens, and it shuts down at different battery percentages. This problem started after the software update.

Could you please help me identify the cause and fix this issue? I would also like to know if a future iOS update could resolve the problem.

Thank you.

This is not Apple Support and hijacking someone else's post is extremely rude, especially when your issue has nothing to do with the OP's problem.

You have a failing battery, get it replaced.