Were I the CEO of SpaceX, I would have been certain to implement a program that instructed employees to be on the alert for suspicious ( desperate ) sounding callers, requesting payments outside the ordinary workflow.
> Bell said he received two responses within the hour. The first was a call from the accountant, who told him his payment had been initiated and should land in his bank account in the next few days. Bell said that as of Oct. 9 it had not arrived.
From having managed a restaurant myself, I can tell you, theres a million details that an owner/manager has to get right on any given day, and they have to do it every day, consistently, or the customers leave.
Perhaps, he heard "payment was initiated" but what was really said was "your invoice is in the system and were processing it" but, because he mentioned the forbidden word "attorney" that immediately altered the procedure required. This happens in the auto insurance industry. If you tell your insurance company you have retained an attorney, the way they deal with you changes.
This story can be framed either way, and thats why I didn't read it.
If it said "class action lawsuit filed ... 1,000+ vendors claim SpaceX has punked them" ... I'd read it.