Level 1 (4 points)

Fraudulent Apple ID account created with my email address

Out of the blue I got an email yesterday to an old email address I have not used for several years - thanking me for signing up for an app subscription through my apple account (that did not exist on that email address). I don't have an account for that email address but was able to reset the password by getting a reset email and can see that the account owner is an English name (I am English) but not mine, and registered to an address in China. The account is clearly fraudulent so I tried to delete it but because the security questions have been set by the fraudster (and in Chinese) I can't.

I've been all round the houses and eventually rang apple support and explained to them. Very oddly they said their hands are tied because it is someone else's account - despite being set up with my email address. They did however say they had disabled the account.

An hour later I got an email to my email address saying the account had now been re-enabled and the password changed. I have yet again changed the password but can do no more because I can't answer the security questions.

Any advice please? I have emailed the privacy team but their response says they wont deal with account enquiries.

Come on Apple, this is a Fraud and you are complicit because you are protecting the fraudsters account whilst using my email. I can prove the email is mine because you could...wait for it.... send me an email !!!! At the moment I'm getting an email every time the fraudster does something to the account or sigs up to something new. This is clearly fraud and Apple are doing absolutely zero to protect me and everything to protect the fraudster.

Posted on Nov 6, 2026 9:05 AM

2 replies

Limnos

Level 10 (462,771 points)

Nov 6, 2026 12:59 PM in response to BigBadApple

Apple doesn't provide support on this forum so you are not addressing Apple here just other people like yourself who have seen many posts like this.

The hackers must have gained access to your email account and created that Apple Account many years ago since Apple stopped using security questions in year 2015. Perhaps only now have they actually started using it.

Apple has no way of knowing that email account is yours and is in fact in the position of having to think you are a hacker trying to convince them to give them access to an Apple Account that is not yours, or at least to shut it down (possibly playing a prank on somebody). If you have managed to change the password on your email account that may deter the hackers from doing a lot more with the Apple Account but as far as demonstrating the Apple Account is yours I don't think you stand a chance. All Apple knows is that somebody who may not even have rightful access to that email account is asking them to close an Apple Account. You cannot prove the Apple Account is yours.

If you had created the Apple Account yourself you may have some way to prove to Apple it was your account (for example, the list here https://support.apple.com/en-us/102656#:~:text=Find%20your%20recovery%20factors) but since you didn't, and you cannot prove it, you will have to forget about the Apple Account.

Mac Jim ID

Level 10 (105,996 points)

Nov 6, 2026 9:25 AM in response to BigBadApple

Sorry having access to an email address certainly does not mean you own the Apple Account. If that was the case, a compromised email account would also lead to a compromised Apple Account.

The reason why that happened is because you never enabled Two Factor Authentication on that old account, which has been recommended by Apple for the last 11 years. Nowadays it is not even possible to create an Apple Account without 2FA. The only thing needed for them without 2FA is the answers to the easily guessed Security Questions, where you can find most of that information on the internet through Social Engineering, for example Mothers Maiden name, Place of Birth, etc.

Consider that old account now lost, gaining control is possible but not likely and requires persistence on your part. Here is a user tip to review that you can use to try and gain control. It is correct that Apple has no idea what the answers to the Security Question are either and would not be able to return the account to you.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250009414

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256389835