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Original poster

two iCloud accounts?

13 replies

notgoodwithapple · 14/12/2021 13:05

Just wondering if anyone has any knowledge on this.

I saw recently on DH's email that he has another iCloud account. He got a notification that someone had logged in. I am fairly certain that it wasn't him who logged in due to the time zone and device and it appears to be hacked.

DH doesn't remember making this iCloud but he must have as it links to his email which is secure. He rarely accesses this email as it is old. However, he does accept he must have made it years ago when iPhones became a thing - he started using Apple in 2007 and iCloud came about in 2011. All before I knew him.

I want to let this go but DH has form in the past for being slightly dishonest with online behaviour. However, I thought we'd worked past this and were on good terms after counselling etc.

So is there anything that could actually be achieved having two iClouds? We use Find Friends and always have, it's always provided a sense of certainty. It is connected via his icloud account email, I've never noticed any discrepancies in that though when it's mattered.

OP posts:

Themummilly · 14/12/2021 13:22

You can keep message threads separate.

Original poster

notgoodwithapple · 14/12/2021 13:35

@Themummilly

You can keep message threads separate.

my thought with this though is that his email would then be the contact, as I am fairly certain he doesn't have another SIM card/phone. If he was doing something dodgy, it wouldn't be in his MO to use his full name which is what this email would show as. You'd also need the recipient to have imessage too? and he'd have to be careful when talking to me?

Is that all that can be thought of? am I wrong in my understanding?

OP posts:

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 13:37

DH doesn't remember making this iCloud but he must have as it links to his email which is secure.

How secure is it? Is it like ProtonMail or just any old email account? Because most email accounts are actually not secure. Don’t be so sure he created it. My DD had her live.com email hacked and the hackers second step was to create a new iCloud and hack her phone. We spent ages with Apple service, had to send in ID and proof of purchase to get them to wipe her phone back to factory settings so she could create new iCloud and add a new email as the old ones had to be deleted due to being hacked.

I suspect that whoever has hacked the email account has either created an iCloud account in your DHs name to further future hacking of his identity and potentially other data Apple has, like his iPay wallet. Hackers love to go after iCloud these days because that is a stepping stone to hacking your iPay wallet data and draining your bank account. So, I’d be taking steps to shut down the old email/iCloud and delink them from your other Apple devices and accounts as soon as possible.

Horst · 14/12/2021 13:42

What’s the email end in? Apple used to automatically create two accounts.

Personally I have a horst@iCloud and a horst@me they are the same account all emails go to the exact same inbox but I can email you from either of those emails and as such websites recognise it as two separate email accounts even though it isn’t.

Themummilly · 14/12/2021 13:43

Yes, the email would be the contact. E.g. a friend once sent me a photo from their other icloud account and it came through iMessage as joebloggs (at icloud) whereas normally their messages come through as simply from 'joe' or whatever I've saved them as.
Regarding the 'dodgy', I'm not sure what you're getting at?
I suppose a person could set up an icloud email which is used solely for communicating with one particular person? Seems a bit of a faff though?

Original poster

notgoodwithapple · 14/12/2021 14:04

@EmpressCixi

DH doesn't remember making this iCloud but he must have as it links to his email which is secure.

My understanding was that when you create an icloud, you have to confirm the email. If this is correct, I am certain no one has been on the email due to the 'recent activity', 'logged in devices' and two factor auth. It's a super old email he didn't even realise he could access until we needed to the other day when I saw this.

The slightly odd thing is that the email is @hotmail.com and the icloud is @yahoo.com and links only to hotmail (i.e. all log in notifications go to hotmail, not to the relevant yahoo email)

OP posts:

Original poster

notgoodwithapple · 14/12/2021 14:06

@Themummilly

Yes, the email would be the contact. E.g. a friend once sent me a photo from their other icloud account and it came through iMessage as joebloggs (at icloud) whereas normally their messages come through as simply from 'joe' or whatever I've saved them as. Regarding the 'dodgy', I'm not sure what you're getting at? I suppose a person could set up an icloud email which is used solely for communicating with one particular person? Seems a bit of a faff though?

my thoughts too, which I suppose is what I am hoping for.

I don't think using it to speak to another person through iMessage makes sense, so I am ruling it out from my brain. The only other thing I can think of is Find Friends, as I have his normal icloud as the contact in find friends not his mobile number, so if he were to change icloud, I am assuming find friends would stop working? I've just never noticed it if this is the case.

OP posts:

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 14:18

@notgoodwithapple
Neither hotmail nor yahoo are considered to be secure emails.

The slightly odd thing is that the email is @hotmail.com and the icloud is @yahoo.com and links only to hotmail (i.e. all log in notifications go to hotmail, not to the relevant yahoo email)

Can you be a bit more specific? Which email is @hotmail? The “old email” or the “secure email”?

How can the iCloud be @yahoo.com? Are you saying one of the iclouds is linked to an @yahoo email? If so which one, the “suspected old forgotten iCloud” or the “known iCloud”? And is the @yahoo email the really old email or his current email?

And the log in notifications for what go to hotmail?

EmpressCixi · 14/12/2021 14:20

My understanding was that when you create an icloud, you have to confirm the email.

Yes, when you create an iCloud, you have to confirm any additional emails you want it linked to. If you’ve hacked person As email, you can easily create a new iCloud linked to that hacked email account.

Themummilly · 14/12/2021 14:36

The Find Friends hypothesis seems plausible.

Also, when using a VPN, the log-in time zone might well be different from what you are expecting.

Original poster

notgoodwithapple · 14/12/2021 14:38

[quote EmpressCixi]@notgoodwithapple
Neither hotmail nor yahoo are considered to be secure emails.

The slightly odd thing is that the email is @hotmail.com and the icloud is @yahoo.com and links only to hotmail (i.e. all log in notifications go to hotmail, not to the relevant yahoo email)

Can you be a bit more specific? Which email is @hotmail? The “old email” or the “secure email”?

How can the iCloud be @yahoo.com? Are you saying one of the iclouds is linked to an @yahoo email? If so which one, the “suspected old forgotten iCloud” or the “known iCloud”? And is the @yahoo email the really old email or his current email?

And the log in notifications for what go to hotmail?[/quote]
Sorry I'll try to be clear. Also, my iCloud is just my hotmail account, I don't have any form of iCloud account / email address.

OK, so DH currently has an iCloud that he uses every day and that is a gmail.com account.

The email he forgot he had is hotmail.com, this email received a legitimate (confirmed by Apple) email from apple to say a device had logged into his iCloud account, the icloud account is hisname****@yahoo.com.

He then checked the yahoo.com email address, he logged in and nothing has been changed or altered, his last log on to this email account was 2013. It receives no emails even the apple related ones.

So it seems when someone has logged into his icloud account (yahoo email) it links ONLY to his hotmail account.

All are over 10+ years old but suggest no infiltration based on the activity and device logins.

I think it's more likely than not that DH did create this account but it seems like it was a while ago, before I knew him.

OP posts:

EmpressCixi · 15/12/2021 17:35

Ok,
I think as a long time Apple user, that your DH actually only has one iCloud account, but he that has all three other emails linked to that one iCloud account: gmail, hotmail, and yahoo.

Whoever has logged their device on to his iCloud has done it using his @yahoo email credentials and had the verification notification selected to be sent to the old hotmail account banking on fact it hadn’t been used in donkeys years. The hackers aim is his iCloud.

I think I would

call Apple and inform them an unauthorised device has logged into his iCloud account. Assuming you can see his other devices listed with this one? How is it listed? “Unknown Host” is commonly used by hackers. If his other devices are not listed when he looks at this iCloud account, then it might be a new iCloud created by the hacker using his yahoo and hotmail emails. Do the same, call Apple and identify the unauthorised device that is logged in to be removed from the iCloud and then have them merge to two iCloud accounts into one account.

shut down and delete both the yahoo and hotmail email accounts as they are backdoors to his iCloud account. I am suggesting deletion of the accounts as he doesn’t seem to be using them at all. Of he wants to keep them for remembrance/sentimental reasons, he should change his passwords immediately and have these email accounts unlinked from his iCloud for better security.

mindutopia · 15/12/2021 17:44

I have two iCloud accounts. One was linked to an old computer and I forgot the login details and couldn't transfer it to my new laptop when I got one. So I created a new iCloud account, which now links to all my devices. This also would have been from before I met dh and I honestly couldn't even tell you want email it was set up to link to! If it's old and not regularly been used, sounds really plausible and also has potentially been hacked if someone has accessed it more recently, which would be super easy to do via hotmail or yahoo.

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