iPhone 6s Activation Locked and SIM locked a day after resetting it for sale

[WolfSnap]

Ok, here's the scenario.. My wife's Gold iPhone 6s Plus (purchased full price from Apple, SIM unlocked) became suddenly, magically, activation locked to some random iCloud account -- and SIM locked to a Chinese carrier a day AFTER I logged out of iCloud, turned off Activation Lock, and reset all content and settings.

I called Apple, they asked that I provide them with a copy of the purchase receipt (which I did), and they are investigating.

But, for the life of me, I can't figure out how my wife's old unlocked and activation unlocked iPhone 6s Plus suddenly became activation locked to some unknown iCloud account -- and, according to Apple, became SIM LOCKED to a Chinese mobile carrier.

The phone never left my possession, and no one touched it (but me) after I reset it.

Has this happened before? Apple seems to think this is a novel situation, but, anyone have any idea on how this could have happened?

 

[kupkakez]

Yup this happened to me several months ago minus the SIM lock . My SO and I liked to swap iPhones I had a regular and he had a plus. One night we were swapping phones, erased both of them. When I went to set up the plus it was activation locked to an email address that was neither of ours. Took it to the Apple store and an employee was looking at and documenting it. While waiting for him to come back from speaking with his manager we restarted the phone and the activation lock was gone.

By far the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

 

[Switchback666]

Well i hope you comeback and update how the situation was resolved and of course how it happened.

 

[WolfSnap]

While waiting for him to come back from speaking with his manager we restarted the phone and the activation lock was gone.

No such luck here. I actually put the phone in DFU mode and tried to restore it. The restore completed, but, the lock was still there.

I'm starting to wonder if they're spoofing IMEI or Serial # to make stolen phones work again? or, they figured out some way to undo an activation lock by using some other phone's identity? Just seems so strange to me...

 

[KPOM]

Sounds like some kind of hack to me. I'm guessing Apple will need to replace or re-flash the phone.