Can't activate iPhone 4S I recently purchased an iPhone 4S from Craigslist that had been reset when I bought it.  When I try to activate the phone with the Apple ID that the previous owner gave me I receive an error saying that the account provided couldn't be used to unlock the device.

I know that it needs to be associated with the correct account but how do I even tell what account the phone was activated with originally?

The only thing I can see on the activate phone screen is the following:


  This iPhoneis currently linked to an Apple ID (xxxxx@gmail.com).  Sign in with the Apple ID that was used to set up this iPhone.


Is there a way to show or reveal the Apple ID that is associated with the account?  At the very least I want to contact the original owner to see if it was stolen from them but I can't even do that.  Very frustrating.
As a rule of thumb, you should always prevent buying iDevices(iPod, iPhone, and iPad) from Craigslist and eBay, no matter how attractive they look. Even if you had went through eBay, you couldn't raise a dispute since the device isn't physically defective.

Your best bet now is contacting Apple, and I do not think they would give you the Apple ID. Have you tried contacting the person you purchased it from?