Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

Since the extraordinary story of Threatin emerged last month, no doubt every media outlet was itching to speak to the man at the centre of the scam, Jered Threatin. The race seems to have been won by the BBC's Jessica Lussenhop. The resulting article - for which she also met the band's hired hands - sets out in detail how their UK tour was conjured out of thin air.

There's an additional twist, though. Most initial accounts suggested that when the hoax collapsed, it left Jered Threatin shamefully exposed as a pathetic wannabe. Speaking to Lussenhop, however, he smugly claims to have deliberately orchestrated his own downfall, thereby pranking everyone for a second time. As he put it in a tweet directly referencing the scam, "I turned an empty room into an international headline. If you are reading this, you are part of the illusion."

However, even if you were to admire Threatin's chutzpah, you can't escape the very real negative (largely financial) consequences that his actions have had for countless people - consequences for which he apparently feels no concern. It doesn't matter how skillfully he manipulated the media or how much the whole thing could be regarded as a justified satire on the modern music industry - it's despicable that he can sit patting himself on the back for a prank that left other bands and venues (already hard-pressed enough as it is) out of pocket.

(Thanks to Kev for the link.)