My flatmate thinks their iphone has been hacked. 

They say there were sites on their search history for things in Malaysia that he says he didn't search.

Their mobile data was used? Mind you he says data even when referring to calls and texts.

Says their passcode has been changed as they can't get back in using their passcode without them being in possession of his phone.

He thinks someone has put a pin on his SIM card without actually being in possession of his phone. Is that even possible?

He thinks his next move is to find someone called a white hatter? They apparently trace the person who has hacked your phone? And was told by someone it could cost $10,000. Which is a ridiculous amount to spend. 

Considering there are scam artists online from overseas etc that seem to never be traced I am hugely skeptical that he has a hacker and that they'll be found. 

He's not rich. He's not famous. He has next to nothing to his name. I can't see why he'd be a target. Nothing to gain. No one has requested anything from him and I don't even think he knows anyone smart enough to hack an iphone. But this is what he thinks has happened. 

The thing is, I'm tech stupid and I'm pretty sure I know more about tech than them so it's more likely they screwed something up and typed in their passcode wrong and locked themselves out or something. I don't have an explanation for the Malaysian sites. Maybe a pop up window or something he accidentally clicked on?

I figure Apple employ some very smart people to protect their gear. I think it's possible someone could hack their phone but I just think it's highly unlikely. You'd have to be a super tech geek surely. At a random guess I'd guess that less than 25% of the tech people in NZ could hack an iphone? eg surf the web on someone elses phone, change the passcode. 

They did take the phone to a store, maybe 2 degrees or something and were basically told by the instore person that they didn't believe my flatmate. Which is basically my position too. 

I'm debating attempting to help him by googling the issues or using apple online communities etc but I think it's going to be tough for me because as stated previously, I'm tech stupid and I'm not sure I want to dedicate too much time to it. I think he had a factory reset done or something and someone charged him $30? for it. 

Anyway my question is, how likely is it that someone has hacked their iphone? I'm not asking about how plausible because I think it's possible but say, what percentage of the tech people in NZ do you think could hack an iphone? 10%? 20%? What's the probability?

I'm not asking for anyone to do any solving for him. I just think there are probably some tech savvy people on this forum that have a better idea regarding likelihood of the phone being hacked. I don't personally know of anyone who has had their phone hacked but it quite possibly is something that didn't come up in conversation. And yes, I would take the opinions of an online forum like this over his.