Suppose you woke up one day to discover you had your most loved celebrities on speed dial. Well, this lady probably got the best New Year’s gift. After purchasing new iPhone and punching in her family numbers, she found out that her phonebook is full to the brim with celebrities including Adele, David Walliams, Nick Grimshaw and Gok Wan.
Sophie Highfield, 31, strangely wound up with the contacts after a suspected ‘iCloud glitch’ obviously made her Apple iPhone 5S match up with many others.
“First time I noticed was when I tried to call mom. I wrote the letter “M” into the keypad and found there were many numbers for various moms. After scrolling through hundreds of numbers and searching various letters, I recognized many different names and celebrities – radio DJs, TV presenters, professional athletes.”
Some of the names mentioned were Greg Rutherford, comic David Williams, Gok Wan, Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Lynda Bellingham, Busted’s Matt Willis, Loose Women’s Denise Welch and Nick Lyndhurst – Rodney from Only Fools and Horses, Radio 1 DJs Greg James and Nick Grimshaw – recorded as Greg ‘The Legend’ James.
Following a month-long investigation by the police, Apple has neglected to clarify how the issue happened.
Sophie said: “If this was a secondhand or stolen phone, it would be easier to explain. But I bought it new, from licensed seller. It should be new and totally untouched. I have no idea how it has happened. ‘There are heaps of famous people – Emma Bunton, Denise Welch, Gok Wan. It is very irritating having them all there. I really have no clue what number of numbers there are. There must be hundreds of them! This must be some kind of error or glitch and I am not sure what to do”
Experts say that this is a once-in-a-lifetime iCloud glitch. Vladimir Katalov, CEO of software organization ElcomSoft, whose HQ is in Moscow, said: ‘This is the principal case I have caught the wind off.
‘The smartphone was new, not refurbished or secondhand and it was not connected to any accounts before. This must be an issue with Apple iCloud.’
Apple did a month-long examination concerning the issue yet declined to remark on what brought about it.
They prompted that the issue can happen with used telephones that haven’t been appropriately wiped.