Authentication Failure
This is a weird story of a building owner commissioning an artist to paint a mural on the side of his building—except that he wasn’t actually the building’s owner.
The fake landlord met Hawkins in person the day after Thanksgiving, supplying the paint and half the promised fee. They met again a couple of days later for lunch, when the job was mostly done. Hawkins showed him photographs. The patron seemed happy. He sent Hawkins the rest of the (sorry) dough.
But when Hawkins invited him down to see the final result, his client didn’t answer the phone. Hawkins called again. No answer. Hawkins emailed. Again, no answer.
[…]
Two days later, Hawkins got a call from the real Comte. And that Comte was not happy.
Comte says that he doesn’t believe Hawkins’s story, but I don’t think I would have demanded to see a photo ID before taking the commission.
Steve • December 14, 2020 7:49 AM
At least all the owner lost was a little time and money repainting the wall. He could have lost the entire building.
Every once and a while you hear of someone hiring a bunch of people to tear down a house and then skedaddling before the job is complete, leaving the absent owner with no house and the workers with no pay.