Is it legal?
Is it legal to remove a previous owner's account from a device?
Short answer: yes, when you are the lawful owner and it is done through the manufacturer's own process. Here is where the line is, and how we stay on the right side of it.
4 min readUpdated
It is a fair question, and the right one to ask before paying anyone to unlock anything. The short answer is that removing a previous owner's account from a device you lawfully own is legitimate — when it is done the right way. The detail is in what "the right way" means.
Restoring ownership vs. working around it
There is a clear line between two things. One is restoring your ownership of a device you lawfully own, by going through the manufacturer's own official process to release it from an old account. The other is bypassing, cracking or defeating a lock — or impersonating someone, or altering documents — to force access. The first is legitimate. The second is not, and it is not what we do.
What makes an unbinding legitimate
Three things: you are the lawful owner of the device, the request goes through the manufacturer's own process, and nobody's account is accessed or deceived along the way. That is the whole basis a manufacturer releases a device on, and it is the basis we accept a case on.
Where we draw the line
We act only for the lawful owner of a device — bought, gifted or inherited. We never bypass locks, defeat security, impersonate anyone or alter documents, and we do not access anyone's account. If anything about a device suggests it was not lawfully acquired, we decline it. That is not a formality; it is the reason the service can exist at all.
Start a request and we review it first — you get a yes or no, with the price, before any work begins.
This describes how we operate; it is not legal advice for your situation. If you are unsure whether a device is lawfully yours, that is worth settling first.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is it legal to unbind a device from a previous owner's account?
Removing a previous owner's account from a device you lawfully own, through the manufacturer's own process, is legitimate. Bypassing or cracking a lock, or impersonating someone, is not — and is not what we do.
Do you bypass the lock or access the account?
No. We go through the manufacturer's own official process as the lawful owner. Nothing is bypassed and no account is accessed.
What if I'm not the original owner?
That is the normal case — bought, gifted or inherited is fine. What matters is that the device is lawfully yours.
What if a device might be stolen?
We decline it. We act only for the lawful owner, and anything that suggests a device was not lawfully acquired is where the service stops.