Reading a post here today reminded me of a memory from long ago, maybe 1991. I worked for a total d-bag who had a small computer consulting company. I provided support and custom programming for a new generation of high powered workstations — of which, the company had exactly one, because they cost like 20 grand a pop. As his customers started buying these machines that would need support, the boss wanted to hire a second guy to be alongside me. They interviewed a few guys for the position. I overheard the boss tell one of them, and I still remember the exact words, “We'll get you on the machine at thirteen bucks an hour,” to which the guy happily agreed because that was a pretty good wage back in 1991. The guy showed up the next morning and worked alongside me a whole week. The following week, he wasn't there, and I never saw him again.
A few months later, I heard what had happened. I don't recall how I heard, or from whom, I only recall that the reason it came to light was because the small claims court case had just completed. Turns out this guy didn't live in the area. He was planning to move after landing the job, but his new landlord required proof of employment. Since he hadn't received a paycheck yet, he asked the boss to write him a letter confirming his position and salary, which the boss did. The guy used the letter to lease the apartment, and began his move.
Then the shit hit the fan. Turns out the guy was never actually hired. The boss hadn't made up his mind yet. His sentence, “We'll get you on the machine at thirteen bucks an hour,” which everybody in the world would understand as a job offer, was in fact not a job offer. What he meant was, “We'll give you the opportunity to come into our office and rent time on our super duper expensive workstation so you can learn it and possibly then become hired by us to support it, and for this amazing opportunity, you will have to pay us $13 an hour because we're providing this rare educational service to you.” So the guy came in the whole week thinking he had a job and that he was getting paid to learn this system, and then he got a bill for $520. And then he found out he hadn't been hired, and that the boss had knowingly just flat-out lied when he wrote the letter. So here he was, jobless, with a big bill, and had just moved to a new city and signed a lease based on a salary that was a lie.
So… yeah, guy won the case.