Takes the Cake

My first reference question of the day truly takes the cake:

A man calls describing himself merely as "Bob" (what is it with the Bobs?) and wants value information on some paintings.

Okay, that's not unusual. I give him my normal spiel about how we are unable to determine value, etc., etc. I tell him I can try to find places that have sold work by the artist and put him in touch with them. He says "okay."

Then, I ask him what the artist's name is and he gives me a last name. Then, I ask him if he knows the first name and he proceeds to spell and re-spell the first name in a number of inconsistent ways. "It's Hiro, no it's Hero, no it's Mish, no it's Misi..."

I stop him and say "what is the subject matter of the work." He says he doesn't know. He then proceeds to tell me they were stolen. Okay, wait a minute... you have artwork that's been stolen, but you can't really remember the name of the artist and you don't remember what they looked like?!

Am I the only one who thinks something's up here? How do these people get my number?