Everything about the story was false, such as the plausible-looking receipt showing the monster tip and Trump's signature, the existence of Billy D, a putative waiter at Santa Monica's Buffalo Club, as well as the fact that Trump had been in Los Angeles [that] week at all. (Trump told the New York Post's Page Six that he wasn't in California that day and that "this was done by the stupid restaurant to get publicity.")

Not quite. The story, it turns out, was fabricated, soup to nuts, by a 4-month-old snap-and-gab site called Derober.com. Derober is run by two brothers from Venice Beach — both professional photographers — and specializes in doing funny things with celebrity-related images.

Reached by phone, Derober's John Resig, 29, spilled the beans and laughingly marveled at the hoax's success. "How many people get on the front page of Fox News with a story that doesn't contain one single ounce of truth?" he wondered in amazement.

Resig supplied screen shots of the Fox News home page, where the story had been displayed for hours with a photo and the headline "Trump Change." A Foxnews.com representative did not deny that the story had been posted on the site for some time but noted that an update had also had been added noting that the original story was false.

Derober's Resig [said] not a soul had contacted him or his site to verify any of the evidence — let alone question it. "You could drive a Mack truck through the holes in this story," said Resig. "There was no effort made at due diligence. Which would've taken, by the way, like two minutes and a cellphone. Like, really."