Straw man

The third party who makes a straw purchase for another person.

A doll or scarecrow, particularly one stuffed with straw.

An innocuous person or someone of nominal or lesser importance, as a front man or straw boss.

An insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument, particularly one deliberately set up to be weakly supported, so that it can be easily knocked down; especially to impugn the strength of any related or contrasted thing or idea.

An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.

"a tentative straw-man spec"

To falsely attribute an insubstantial argument (a straw man argument) to another through direct declaration or indirect implication; to put words in someone's mouth.