Payment up front is something we (Cro 2) insist on when running any sort of campaign or competition on forum. We don't work with companies that aren't serius and feel like few months worth of escrowed funds are necessary to show commitment and atrract good members.
Escrow should be the first thing when it comes to financial related activity in the forum, either a contest, giveaway and campaigns. There are many incidents happened the same as this yet unfortunately we again witness such an event where the manager suffers and covers all the losses.