My wife had a solid job offer rescinded a few years ago. She got the whole "welcome aboard" speech and everything. However, when attempting to check an old reference, the person she listed as her reference wasn't available and so another guy who'd she had never met decided to give it instead. He gave an entirely fictional and terrible reference for no apparent reason. They had never worked together, had no history or anything yet this guy decided he would just mess someones life up. Anyway, even after explaining that to the potential employer they still didn't care and rescinded the offer. Life is weird sometimes.