A woman who got locked out of her Apple account minutes after her iPhone was stolen and had $10,000 taken from her bank account says Apple was ‘not helpful at all’

• A lady had her iPhone stolen and minutes later was locked out of her Apple account.

• Reyhan Ayas mentioned Apple was ‘not useful in any respect’ after $10,000 was taken from her checking account.

• She advised Insider: “As soon as somebody will get into that safety atmosphere, it turns in opposition to you.”

Reyhan Ayas was leaving a Manhattan bar one evening in late November when a person snatched her telephone and ran off.  She says Apple was unhelpful when she tried to regain entry to her Apple account.

Ayas, who’s initially from Istanbul, Turkey, is a senior economist at Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm.

She initially spoke to The Wall Avenue Journal as a part of an investigation into how iPhone thieves lock individuals out of their Apple accounts by utilizing their passcodes to entry the telephone, change the password and steal funds from their financial institution accounts.

In an interview with Insider, Ayas mentioned she was standing exterior the bar when the person stole her iPhone 13 Professional Max. She believed he had seen her enter her passcode sooner or later and waited for the prospect to steal her machine.

The 31-year-old mentioned she borrowed one other iPhone to attempt to find it utilizing the “Discover My iPhone” operate.

Nevertheless, Ayas mentioned she’d already been locked out of her Apple account. “I did not know what was occurring,” she advised Insider.

She filed a police report the next day and confirmed notifications of a password reset request and login particulars timed after her machine was stolen. Insider reviewed each the police report and the notifications.

As a result of she had misplaced entry to her Apple account, she was unable to go browsing to her MacBook pc. She contacted Apple help, who suggested her to get a brand new SIM card and a brand new iPhone. She did so however was nonetheless unable to entry her account.

Over the subsequent 24 hours, $10,000 was taken from Ayas’ checking account, in keeping with a financial institution assertion seen by Insider. She was suggested to open a brand new account and switch all her funds to it.

Whereas visiting an Apple Retailer in the hunt for help, Ayas mentioned she acquired an e-mail from Credit score Karma exhibiting an utility for an Apple bank card. One other e-mail confirmed it had been permitted whereas she was on maintain to Apple card help.

Story continues

The help group “was not useful in any respect,” Ayas mentioned. She then known as Goldman Sachs, which points Apple’s bank cards, and was in a position to get some assist.

Ayas mentioned she was very pissed off at regularly being requested by Apple: “Have you ever tried ‘Discover My iPhone’?

“After all, I attempted it like minute three, I attempted it. Like, this can be a joke to you. My whole life is a shamble, but you are still asking if I attempted it,” she advised Insider.

Throughout her most up-to-date dialog with an Apple consultant, Ayas was advised there was no solution to regain entry to her iCloud account.

“Apple takes lots of satisfaction in being like a closed safety atmosphere. However they not often discuss if somebody will get into that closed safety atmosphere; it is usually closed to the individuals who personal the account,” Ayas mentioned. “It will probably completely flip in opposition to you.”

Alex Argiro, who was an NYPD detective earlier than retiring in 2022, advised The Journal there had been lots of of comparable crimes dedicated in New York up to now two years: “When you get into the telephone, it is like a treasure field.”

There have been experiences of comparable crimes in Austin, Denver, Boston and London, per the report.

An Apple consultant advised The Journal it believed these crimes had been uncommon as a result of each the machine and the passcode had been wanted, and that it had account-recovery insurance policies to forestall dangerous actors accessing customers’ accounts.

Apple did not reply to a request for remark from Insider.

Learn the unique article on Enterprise Insider