Dave Jones, of Sydney Australia, has a popular YouTube channel he describes as “An Off-the-Cuff Video Blog for Electronics Engineers, Hobbyists, Hackers, and Makers”, with the tag line “no script, no fear, all opinion”.
His videos often review new products, troubleshoot electronic dumpster finds, or compare products and test equipment, usually with a good bit of Aussie humor and sarcasm. You can find links on his website eevblog.com.
Being a somewhat “respected” reviewer (no, really), he often may make requests from various electronics manufacturers for things like schematic diagrams, manuals, or even samples. Some he may even have an NDA in place to help assure confidentiality.
Someone took advantage of his popularity and created a fake email account using references to Dave’s name and website. They proceeded to make a request from a manufacturer who actually complied and sent the desired confidential information.
It was eventually discovered because, as the fake email was forwarded through the company, at some point someone included Dave’s real email address (he was well known there and someone must have had his real email in their contact list). Dave then saw the thread of emails and sounded the alert, realizing that a scam had taken place.
In this day and age, we need to be always on our guard against attempts to steal information (or worse). As technology progresses, there is no limit to the vulnerabilities that may arise.
Check out his YoutTube report on the incident below: