I requested a very small job from him and he still asked for 50% up front payment which I obliged since it was our first transaction with him. He then missed 2 deadlines with excuse that he was busy with other work. Then he dissapeared for 2 weeks later explaining with one email that he was ill and hospitalized and needed to pay his hospital bill with my money.
Its been 2 months now he is completely out of communication even though his mobile phone rings.
I'm not sure if he is a scam web designer or not but one thing is very clear. He lacks work ethics and has no problem keeping other peoples money without doing any work.
Stay clear of this guy!
He is not a scammer as far as I know, but we had real problems working with him. We personally met with this guy, We worked on two projects with him. The minor project he did ok, but the second project we started seeing how he lacked good work ethics. He also became offensive and defensive when we were trying to communicate our concerns with him -- we ended up not completing the second project and getting another developer.
The same person claimed to have designed our website. He did not. Do not trust this person.
update your contract with him mentioning the difficulties you suffered