I see simple questions like "What city where you born in" etc. all the time.
And even the question "What was your first car?" can be responded to in many ways:
Chevy
Chevy Malibu
Chevrolet
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevy 1958 Malibu
Chevrolet 1958 Malibu
green Malibu Chevy
dark green Malibu Chevy
green 1958 Malibu Chevrolet
Chevrolet 1958 green Malibu
etc. ... you get my point.
It's easy to screw these up.
I'm sorry you're so suspicious, but I would estimate 50% of those who cannot recall their secret question answers, and/or no longer use a certain email account (most people have several email accounts these days, or have moved on from one to another), and/or have forgotten their passwords as so many now have special parameters that must be utilized (i.e., !@#$), are NOT thieves.
Sure, the other 50% of them could very well be, but what about the other 50%?!
I happen to be someone who DID forget my password for my ipad icloud account.
I had not used it for a couple of years because, quite frankly, I prefer a notebook or desktop computer.
But one day I got it out and could not remember the password for my icloud account.
I also could not recall what email address I had used (I think I set up a special one just for my shiny new ipad, but then not using it, it was long gone from my memory.)
I called the security team for help, but I could only remember one of my secret questions, and there were two on account.
I can still use my ipad because I know my apple id and password ... just not the icloud part.
So I just use it for Internet access via my mobile hotspot.
But it would be nice to be able to clean up the old icloud account that keeps popping up while I work.
Anyway, just don't use it much and I've lost interest in other Apple products because of that.
I own an Android phone and a Windows computer, so will just stick with those instead.
Thanks!