Suspicious email address in Find My dialog during fresh install

Question

I have just received a 2019 MacBook Pro, sealed in the box. During the installation, I chose to "Setup Later" my Apple ID. When it came to the Find My screen, it said:

Find My will use the Apple ID "e***********a@gmail.com"

That looked suspicious, so I took a picture and finished installation. Post installation, no apple ID was seen in System Preferences > Internet Accounts and consequently Find My was not active.

The installed OS version was 10.15.4.

I figured this was another Catalina bug, but paranoid of the worst, I restarted and command-R, went back to the installer, erased the drive, switched networks, then reinstalled the OS from the network. Again, following the steps, I didn't enter my apple ID and when I got to the Find My screen, it still showed this random email address.

I installed 10.15.4 on a different device earlier today, a MacBook Pro 2016 model and it did not have this behavior.

Is this a bug or infection at the source (Apple) or an issue local to this new MacBook Pro 2019 hardware? What should be my next steps?

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Update: Reset the NVRAM and now the MacBook shows an activation lock, which is consistent with this machine not being new and instead being refurbished.

Answer 1

Returned to vendor. Ordered another from a different vendor. This other vendor provided an absolutely factory new machine.

The original vendor is an Authorized Apple Retailer and they had the technology to mask the activation lock everywhere except this initial install screen.

Buyer beware.