Alternative method to activate iphone 4 without previous owners apple id?

I recently bought an iphone 4, but in order for me to get into it i need to sign into an apple id to activate the phone. I tried to sign into my own but i was unable to, it says i need to sign into the previous owners id first.
i was just wondering if there was any way around this? As i'm unable to contact the seller that sold it to me.

I would recommend you get a refund from ebay if thats where you got it. It is a security feature in case the iphone is stolen, it has to use the apple id that was associated with the iphone.

That means the phone is stolen.