[dudul]

"I remarked that I would theoretically be able to choose any email I come across and create an Apple ID if one did not already exist for that address, crippling the address’ owner in the same way I have been. The support employee simply said, “Yep, that’s correct.”"

Is that true? Doesn't Apple send a confirmation email to the address to make sure the user is in control of this address?

[KiDD]

While technically true, anyone creating an ID using someone else's email would be unable to verify the account making it unusable. All someone would have to do is go through http://iforgot.apple.com to reset the password for the ID setup under their email. From there the account would be under control of the email owner.

[daneah]

I did change the password, but it had reached the point where the impostor had security questions in place so that I could not take certain actions against the account without answering them. Namely, I wanted to delete the account or change the email address so that I could change MY email address to the desired one. There appears to have been a large delay in the system, as I was finally able to change it just now. The support employee was less than helpful in stating this as a possibility, however.

[daneah]

I never received such an email, to my knowledge. I agree that this is normally what takes place.