Boss introduced me after the second time, and then allowed me in on the secret. The old man owned thousands (YES! 1000's) of houses he had bought during the depression and now rented. His net worth was plenty. He filled his pockets with deeds, and their friendly chats usually involved the exchange of properties. Boss had plenty of houses, as well.
But, the one that fooled me most was an older black guy, when I worked as a car salesman f(or a couple of months b4 the furniture store). An old Ford Falcon drove onto the lot, and nobody wanted to go out and talk with the dirty, crippled black guy that came out of it. The passenger was a black woman of probably 300-350 pounds. I had nothing better to do.
To shorten the story, he owned a "juke joint" (after hours beer and liquor 'club for the black community), and paid cash for a new Mercury Marauder. I got a commission and an attaboy from the boss!
WE never do know whom we deal with, unless they are well known somebodies and/or we grew up with them, I guess. :-)
The nice thing about FR ( or maybe not, for some ) is that we're all just minds communicating with each other. We really don't know all THAT much about each other, yet we do find like minded, for the most part, people here.
Before graduating from college worked in a bank. Decrepit gentlemen dressed in worn out close came in to open an account. Gave him the spiel regarding types of account. He interrupted wanting to know only about highest level. Then pulled out 10s of thousands cash to the top limit to open the account. I had to call manager over to confirm that the large denomination bills were real. Otoh what better disguise if you are carrying a YUGE amount of cash?