Double blind doesn't always work, sometimes it's painfully obvious who the PI is, but it should stop stuff like this from happening.
> We are no longer able to accede to requests from authors that we withhold their identities from the referees. Such "double-blind" reviewing has been discontinued. [0]
[0] https://journals.aps.org/prl/authors/editorial-policies-prac...
Double blind doesn't always work, sometimes it's painfully obvious who the PI is, but it should stop stuff like this from happening.