In iOS 7, Apple added a anti-theft feature called Activation Lock to the Find My iPhone service, which ties your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with your Apple ID so that your lost or stolen iOS device, cannot be used or restored without the login credentials.

The anti-lock feature has been quite effective, as law enforcement officials in the U.S. reported that the feature has helped in significantly reducing iPhone theft in major cities.

We have come across several cases where users who have purchased used iPhones, and have been stuck with an usable iPhone because the previous owner has forgotten to turn off the Find my iPhone feature before shipping the device.

ChronicUnlocks, the company that unlocks iPhones has announced a new iCloud Removal tool which will allow users to remove Apple’s Activation Lock security feature. The service costs $149.99.

This will remove iCloud Lock for anyone who has a device stuck on it, whether you are locked out of your own unit (and are in a place like Saudi Arabia which has no Apple Store to present invoice), or you bought a unit second hand from a seller who didn’t remove their iCloud login from.

The company says that the service will be helpful to users that have purchased an used iPhone that’s tied to an iCloud account, and are not able to contact the seller of the phone to disable the feature remotely. The company claims that they won’t remove the Activation feature for devices in “Lost Mode” to ensure they don’t allow users to activate lost or stolen devices.

We will NOT remove iCloud from a unit in “Lost Mode”, meaning that the login area of the “Activate iPhone” screen has a Message From The Owner place, usually asking to call the number. This is serious, we can not see this on our end (without incurring cost) but our supplier will see this and refuse to refund if you ignore this rule. We will also make sure to attempt to retrieve the number from the database and will call it with your information if you do this. Again, very serious. Email [email protected] if you have questions about this.

Back in May couple of hackers had claimed that they had managed to bypass Activation Lock, Apple’s anti-theft protection measure. It looks like Apple hasn’t patched the exploit in the latest iOS 7.1.2 update that was used by the hackers to bypass it.