[AppleAddict87]

Good morning,

I bought recently a used iPad mini 4, I've already known about iCloud security before buy it, he didn't erase his tablet but reinitialized settings in front of me, acclaimed that he forgot the restore password.
Of suspicious nature, I choose to trust him (he had the touch ID and helped me to configure mine) and told him that I can do it at home with my own Mac.
After restore the devise, I was surprised that an other Apple ID was already configured by an other person (the first owner I guess), even if I putted my own iCloud in settings before erase it (no iCloud address was configured in it, so I told that everything was ok), the seller was suddenly unreachable (I guess he knew it) and it's impossible to contact the first owner (only one letter appears in iCloud lock menu)

I know that this is the Apple politic to preserve consumers and ensure their privacy, but for a person who completely erase the device and buy it after all, you cannot even use it nor contact his first owner.

What I am supposed to do?

Have a good day

[jimkraz]

You have a nice paper weight.

[TwitchyPuppy]

Use it as a fancy paperweight or sell it as-is for parts.

[Ledsteplin]

There's nothing you can do without the Apple ID. You're out of luck. If you can't locate the previous owner, all you can do is sell it for parts.