> Even if the alleged institution was real (which it wasn't - they didn't even put up a website until after the article was submitted), the author had valid cre

> Even if the alleged institution was real (which it wasn't - they didn't even put up a website until after the article was submitted), the author had valid credentials (which they didn't), or someone knew of them personally (academia is a small world) Not sure about these journals, but a lot of peer review is blind, so the reviewers do not have access to any of this information intentionally.