A1207 - reinstall issues, new Apple ID; HELP!

[Romaniac]

Ugh, this sht is making me appreciate M$ more... or whatever.

A1207, came in with Lion. Lady let the fraudsters remote in, paid them money. They set a password on her local account, etc. They may have even changed her Apple ID and password - but she has no clue.

She has no clue WHAT her ID and password were. This was given to her by her mom.

So here I am, partition wiped, trying to install Lion over net. Made a new ID, and it's saying "This item is temporarily unavailable. Try again later".
Apparently, this is due to the ID not being associated with an OS (grrrr).


As MACs are a bit more rare, especially ancient ones like this, I'm not sure what to do next. I'd really appreciate any help.

Would the easiest thing to do be to just buy the dang thing at $20?
If I buy it in iTunes, but on a PC, will it detect in recovery mode on the Mac?


Thanks!

 

[Markverhyden]

LOL!!! Sorry, nothing personal, but I just have to laugh. Made my morning. You just vastly over complicated things by nuking the drive. All you had to do was login into single user mode and reset the password.

Apple ID's are always an email address. ALWAYS.

Yes, an Apple ID is required to do an Internet recovery. So if you created a new Apple ID you may need to put in CC information to get this to work. Not sure since I have never had to create a new Apple ID.

Another thing you can do is use another Mac to download 10.7, or a more recent flavor, from the App Store. Charges may apply. Then create a bootable ISO/USB stick installer. That does not require an Apple ID to install.

http://www.cultofmac.com/180925/how-to-make-a-bootable-disk-or-usb-drive-of-os-x-mountain-lion/

 

[Romaniac]

Thanks for reply.

They compromised the system enough - so we decided to do an install. Wasn't worth for me to try and check what the heck they did to it. All I know is she gave them full access and they installed a few things, including Carbon Copy. Luckily, she says she doesn't have any personal or financial data on there; and it didn't look like it from backup.

I couldn't ask her anything, as she just doesn't know. I thought maybe her mom or someone did an upgrade via purchase, and it looked as if that was the case, I needed to have associated ID, so I wiped it hoping it would go to whatever the original OS was.

Also, I didn't know it was gonna ask for ID during the dang install.

I reinstalled before, but had access to a Mac - now I have to borrow one. Argh.

How can I check if this thing will even accept a more recent flavor of OS?

 

[altrenda]

It's hard to work on something without the proper equipment. What do you have available to work on Macs? When you get this running, at least make a bootable clone on an external drive for next time..

And Carbon Copy is a clone creation program, I don't know how a remote bad guy can make use of this, but who knows?

 

[Markverhyden]

I just looked at the specs. It's possible it might take 10.8 but more likely 10.7 was the end of the line.

If you cannot boot into recovery mode you have no choice but to build an bootable ISO or thumb drive. And the only way you can a legit copy of 10.7 or .8 is via a Mac and and app store account. If you still have the recovery partition and were trying a internet install the reason it may have choked is because it's trying to install 10.11 on unsupported hardware.

And why did this happen to begin with? Was the EU having problems and googled for Apple help and got iYucky or someone of their ilk? Or did she get some scamware popup and called in? There might be other underlying issues like a bad HD.

As @altrenda said you need to have a bootable drive. And we are talking about a live file system, not a bootable installer. You can then store your various installers, etc. Now, if a Mac comes in you have something clean to work with. Personally I'd build it using something older, like 10.8, to have backwards compatibility.

At this point it looks like you need to get your hands on another Mac to continue.

 

[Romaniac]

And Carbon Copy is a clone creation program, I don't know how a remote bad guy can make use of this, but who knows?

I fired it up real quick - and it had some 'backup to remote computer' option, or maybe it was even clone ability. Either way, she didn't have financial info, etc. luckily, but I wouldn't put it past these creeps to copy some of her files; I don't know.

In any case, a re-install is best piece of mind with crap like this.


The main beef I had/have is that I am on a dang MAC! Why did it have to be associated with an ID to do an online restore? At least M$ let you bypass linking.

Then I would have to buy Lion again? FU.

Found a partner that had it, made USB stick (which had a speed-bump, since .dmg had to be mounted first), and finally went.

Ugh.

 

[Markverhyden]

Yes, nuke and pave is the nickel solution to the dime problem.

Requiring the App Store account to do an Internet restore is something relatively new. Maybe in the last year or two. I know previously it would just connect to the server and download the latest compatible version.

I ended up having to nuke my Retina last night and noticed another change. It did not install 10.11 which was what I was expecting. Rather it installed what I actually had on there before, 10.9. Which is actually preferable in my book.

 

[altrenda]

I fired it up real quick - and it had some 'backup to remote computer' option, or maybe it was even clone ability. Either way, she didn't have financial info, etc. luckily, but I wouldn't put it past these creeps to copy some of her files; I don't know.
.

I have used CCC for years and wasn't aware of this function. I can see where it's perfect for bad guys to use it like this. Something to watch out for. Thanks for the heads up.

But to use it, your user must have given them the keys to the kingdom, User names, password, the works.

Apple, like Microsoft with it's ID, is pushing as much as it can for everyone to have and use an Apple ID for everything. Even upgrades to their 'free" programs like iMovie and Photos require it now.

If you think you are doing more work on Macs, Mark's advice is good. It doesn't take a lot of tools to do most things on a Mac, but without them, you are fighting yourself. A Nuke and Pave on a Mac is even less necessary than on Windows if you have what you need to fix it.

 

[Romaniac]

These scammers got in good. Also, slowness was also a complaint. A NP was the way to do, especially since she mostly does web surfing, and data backup was minimal.

But get this - not 30 minutes after drop off she calls me and says the same pop-up is back; the one that's keeping her from doing anything, and has a similar message and number as before.
I asked what page she went to. She's on some page that 'let's me watch TV'. Oh, gawwd.
I had just told her to be careful, and she said 'No limewire for me again' and I told her it was actually a webpage more than a torrent in this case.

She's kind broke or w/e, so I helped her out over phone to reset Safari.


Glad it's over.