Quote Originally Posted by Falcon2005 View Post
I'd say a history of doing that would be enough to indicate fraud or deception. Being convicted maybe another issue.
The first step for making this a justiciable fraud would be to prove that a money exchange took place, and that the money was intended as up-front payment for mutually agreed upon services.
If this was a cash payment, and if there was no video recording of the payment, there is absolutely no chance that reporting this would go anywhere.

Under these circumstances, the OP did the best he could: accept that he's been had and warn others.