So I bought a second-hand mobile from a shop, and .....

[M4cruiser]

So I bought a second hand mobile phone from a well-known second hand electronics shop, and did the usual initial checks ... battery ok, charges ok, makes calls ok, takes pictures ok ...... no data or existing stuff on it already .....
Then .....
I connected it to my home Wi-Fi, and it immediately asked me for an email password for someone else's account!
Presumably the previous owner.
The shop claims they data wipe every device, but this one clearly hasn't been correctly "reset".
What should I do?
Could there be any malware still on it?
Maybe I should email the previous owner?
Don't really want to "reset" it myself because it may go back to an older OS.

?

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Which brand is it? (i.e. is it an Android or an iPhone?). Resetting it will not roll back the OS.

[TooLateForAName]

Sounds like it is still locked to someone elses account. reset isn't likely to help.

What is it?

look at icloud lock and FRP

If it shows the email address try emailing it explaining that you've bought their old phone and ask them to release it.

otherwise take it back to the shop for a refund

[Brother D]

Any modern phones are a nightmare to factory default if the previous owner hasn't removed the phone from their account. Both android and iPhone. Lots more phones now ending up in landfil as a result

[jamoor]

Brother D said:

Any modern phones are a nightmare to factory default if the previous owner hasn't removed the phone from their account. Both android and iPhone. Lots more phones now ending up in landfil as a result

Can't you do some sort of bootup reset thing on an android?

I think I did it on a pixel once when I had to press a combination of keys on boot and then select wipe partition or somthing like that.

[acd80]

jamoor said:

Can't you do some sort of bootup reset thing on an android?

I think I did it on a pixel once when I had to press a combination of keys on boot and then select wipe partition or somthing like that.

You can but if you've logged in before the wipe with a google address, it will require those details before proceeding after the wipe...

[AJB88]

Take it back

[b2hbm]

I'd take it back if it's an android one. I've just spent a couple of weeks trying to get mum's android phone working (Motorola, 2018) because she's forgot the password. Basically it's a waste of time, a factory reset wipes data back as new, but you can't restart as new without the previous password or google account.

There are software packages claiming to remove screen locks, pins, etc, but having paid up and tried, nope, they can't do a modern phone. I did get a refund though, so at least they acknowledged the problem.

As she's never linked it to a gmail account and still can't remember the password, it's landfill. So I'd take yours back and get the shop to open it up for you. (and then tell me how they did it ! )

[cs174]

Email the previous owner to check it wasn't stolen.

[M4cruiser]

Thank you for the replies all. I thought this through a bit more and decided to "reset" it.
It seemed perfectly possible that the previous owner could be stealing my info already, and this would only get worse the more I did with the phone.
It may already have done a "backup" to his account, which means he has my stuff but I can't get his (it asks me for his password).

So I looked for the reset option in the menus ... .and it wasn't there! I guess it was a corporate phone that'd been doctored somehow.

So I did a hard reset, after googling how to do it. Normally the emergency procedure is only necessary if the device won't run, but in this case I had to use the emergency procedure as the only available option!

Seems ok now. I'm still wondering if this is some kind of scam by another party, maybe the previous owner or the retailer.....