Phone is locked, what can I do?

[lgny]

Hello,

Unfortunately I'm an idiot and I bought an iPhone 4 off Craiglist, turns out the phone has not been reported stolen to sprint, or to the police but instead it has been locked with the "find my iPhone" email & password lock. I contacted sprint, and they couldn't do anything to help me besides advising me to go file a police report. I went to the police and they told me that this occurs very often. A lot of the time people sell their phone to make a few hundred bucks and then report it stolen to get a new one.

I have tried recover the phone to its original factory version but nothing seems to work for me. Unless the previous owner unlocks the phone from the "find my iPhone" app the phone is rendered completely useless. This appears to be a new feature in iOS 7.

Has anybody here encountered this problem and is there any way around it?

I have also attempted to contact the number that is shown under the owner message, and he cursed me out and hung up on me.

I basically spent $150 on a iPhone that is now completely useless and I just wish I could somehow at least use the wifi on it....

Does anyone have any advice for me? I've look all over the web and I cannot find one person who has this problem.

 

[lgny]

Tinyumbrella to downgrade to an earlier firmware also won't work. This is crazy, I have no Idea what to do from here.

 

[Pinkpoison]

I'm sorry you are having this problem, it will take time for your post to be seen around the world, hopefully someone can help.

 

[willerz2]

There's no way to bypass this, which in part is what makes iOS 7 one of the best iOS upgrades. As Find My iPhone is closed circuit, it's impossible to bypass this

 

[lgny]

There's no way to bypass this, which in part is what makes iOS 7 one of the best iOS upgrades. As Find My iPhone is closed circuit, it's impossible to bypass this

Ok, what do you suggest me to do? Sell it? Trade it for parts? What?

 

[willerz2]

You can try to sell it for parts or as is, see if anyone would buy it. Or take it to a local phone repair shop and see how much they'll give you for it. Because the device was reported stolen, the baseband chipset will probably be blocked and the IMEI/ESN associated will also be blacklisted. But for however much you can get back for it, the better the situation.