Techie buys fake Ledger Nano S+ hardware crypto wallet and almost falls for phishing — a convincing clone would have caught newbies unaware Hardware verification check was the one thing standing between virtual coins and a virtual robbery. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Score one for the safety-minded and cryptographic hardware checks. Joje Mendes, a Brazilian cybersecurity professional, almost got bitten by a sophisticated hardware-and-software phishing attack, in the form of a fake Ledger Nano S+ cryptocurrency wallet. The only barrier between Past's virtual currency and the device's remote operators was Ledger's software, which verified that it was running on legitimate hardware. The story starts when Mendes decided to order the Ledger device from a "major marketplace" in China. He chose to do so because, being a non-Chinese citizen currently located in Shenzhen, importing one from abroad, directly from Ledger, "comes with its own headaches." The device's price was reportedly the same as that of a legitimate unit, but nevertheless, Mendes kept his suspicion mode engaged and installed Ledger's official software before the Nano S+ arrived. True to the unfortunately expected form, after the device arrived, Mendes noticed it was "clearly" a counterfeit, a fact verified by the Ledger software, which marked it as non-genuine. True to his profession, Mendes decided to tear apart the device instead of tossing it, and found quite an elaborate scheme at work — one that's likely catching other unsuspecting users off guard. Article continues belowAfter prying open the case, Mendes found that all chip markings had been scraped off, but eventually managed to identify the central unit as an ESP32-S3 system-on-a-chip (SoC). The device spoofed its identification, claiming it was a "Nano S+ 7704" from Ledger's factory, complete