It's pretty common that the front line don't and can't know the underlying details, especially in situations that might have overlaps with law enforcement / cri

It's pretty common that the front line don't and can't know the underlying details, especially in situations that might have overlaps with law enforcement / crime. Apple gift cards are a massive vehicle for fraud, both in extracting value from stolen credit cards, and in scams ("the IRS has frozen your SS number...send iTunes cards or get arrested!"). There are places that sell Apple cards 80%+ off face value, the use of which is a very good way to get your account locked. Stolen/scammed Apple cards should have a market value of nothing. I know nothing about this particular case or whether such gift cards played a part. And ultimately getting completely locked out of a digital identity without recourse is ridiculous and demands legislative remedy. However I'm pretty cynical about these sorts of stories at this point. Perhaps it's years of playing in first person shooter games where it's normal to see cheaters/hackers wail about their innocence when banned, to eventually changing their story and just going radio silent when they're proven cheats. Apple has absolutely no benefit to arbitrarily banning random people for fun. Not that it couldn't happen, and errors absolutely happen, however it usually isn't random.