Well, on first reading I thought it was "Colman posing as a Taliban scams US..."

I was thinking he must have grown a hell of a beard to convince them. But, as you say, bottle probably was necessary.

Given that so many recognised him as "genuine", I rather suspect that it was pretty organised. It might even have been the real bloke or a senior staffer who turned up, took the money and then decided the offer wasn't good enough, so in order to not ruin the relationship made out they'd been scammed instead.

Give it 6 months and they can do it all again probably.

keep to the Fen Causeway