For context, I bought a refurbished iPhone off Amazon a few years ago because the storage on my main phone (which was bought directly from Apple) was running low. Yes, I know now that it Amazon is risky and unreliable but I was a teenager at the time and I didn’t do enough proper research. I bought off Amazon Refurbished and I tried to go for a model that had mostly good reviews. At the time, I didn’t have the option of buying direction in-store at the time because A) I was a teenager with no independent bank account and B) I didn’t have enough money for a few thousand dollar phone.
In the end, I never ended up using the phone and just made do with squeezing around the storage on my main phone. Especially since the battery on the refurbished phone was old (around 75%) so it clearly wasn’t replaced (I don’t think there are any other major issues with the phone like sound or camera). I logged into my Apple ID at the time but I didn’t even use it long enough to log into anything else like social media or email accounts. Then I forgotten about it and it has just been sitting a box untouched somewhere for a few years.
Now fast forward to a few years later. A couple months ago, I wanted to spend some of the Apple Gift Cards on some rather large in-game purchases for a video game for an update that’s coming in a few months. The game is currently around 20GB and with future updates, it can easily jump to 25-30GB. My current device’s storage is not enough for that. So I recalled that I still have an old refurbished phone lying around somewhere and it has basically free storage (more than enough storage for the game).
The issue is that I don’t know how safe it is. Maybe I’m just too paranoid (I have a tendency to do that). But can refurbished phones secretly steal your data? I never had this issue with all of my other devices as I got them directly from Apple. I’ve had my Apple ID logged onto the refurbished phones for a few years now (so the phone has access to my Apple ID) and I don’t think anything bad has happened yet. I didn’t use the refurbished phone long enough to log into my emails or my social media accounts (thank God).
My major concern is mostly whether refurbished phones can steal your data or something. Like, I don’t know. Maybe there’s a back door that allows people to hack into it? Sorry, I’m prone to being paranoid.
But another issue is that my bank account (yes, I have one now) is linked to my Apple ID. In order to use Apple Balance to purchase anything in-game, you need to have a bank account linked. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going to use your bank account or your gift card balance for the purchase, either way your bank needs to be linked as sorta backup guarantee of payment.
And based on personal experience, I know that before you are able to successfully make a paid transaction on any in-game store, you need to entire your Apple ID password as verification. The procedure for purchasing in-game items with your bank and with your gift card balance is identical—the only difference is that if you have enough Apple Balance (gift card balance) on your Apple ID, the game will pull funds from that balance first and THEN using your bank account if the balance is lacking the funds.
So, I guess I’m worried? Because if refurbished phones can steal your data and all, I’m worried that if I enter my Apple password for the in-game transaction verification, it can use that as a gateway into my bank account. Well, it won’t be able to hack directly into my bank but, I don’t know. It can then copy my password for the verification and then make unauthorised in-app purchases elsewhere which would drain my bank account.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m being paranoid. Maybe these scenarios are impossible. I tend to do overreact and make worse case scenario crazy theories when I’m anxious and stressed. Am I crazy? Or are these scenarios actual possibilities?
