Half now and half after is very old technique, i was contacted by such person approx a year ago. This scam was possible because of urgency, when few members stated "I can do". suddenly a guy comes in and say I'll give more, Then more members comes in.

So this competition made it easy for him to scam, and for you guys to urge to finish the deal. Cool lets at least try to follow some set of rules before dealing,

Have you guys tried to charge-back through PayPal, any update on that