I hired this "William Franklin" on February 26th to create an adult content website for me. He was very friendly on the phone and we discussed the kind of site I wanted to create. I believed that this would be a good match for my project. I paid him $800 through Paypal (thankfully, as they dispute and track payments). He was hesitant to have me pay him through Paypal, however (first big RED FLAG insert here).
This was my very first foray into creating an adult website. I had thought about it many times, and my husband and I were excited that we could create this site. Given the nature of our site, I was struggling to find someone to develop it and help us create it as a business. I wasn't sure how to go about it. William said he had lots of experience in "the adult biz" and was experienced. He knew exactly what to do, so he said. He quoted me a laundry list of things necessary: SSL certificate, and CCBill set up costs, etc. He also asked if we planned to do "webcam shows" which would cost us more for the "video streams". He said "he would have our website up and running in 3 days" and that "we would be making at least $10k per month to start off our adult website. We would make the money back and get going soon".
Here is the list of payments I made to him over the month through PayPal:
2/26 — $800 initial fee
3/2 — $300 invoice for CCBill and SSL set up
3/8 — $125 for some other fee (he said he would "give us a break" at 50% OFF)
3/12 — $75 FOR ANOTHER FEE...
3/20 — he kept spamming my email with PayPal reminders and said his father was in the hospital having a bypass. He also pleaded with me to "pay as soon as possible" because his 2 year old son was out of diapers.
I paid him for all invoiced fees, and still nothing done.
My husband and I uploaded all videos and photos through Filezilla for him to create our website. "William" kept promising he would have our site up and running so we could start making money. Now, candidly, I tell you, we sent him videos and videos of my husband and I making love. It's certianly bad enough to have been scammed. But worse, when the guy has videos of us in the nude, making love, hoping to create a better living and raise our income as a real business.
It feels pretty yucky to have been scammed by him. He avoids my inquiries and stalls, excuse after excuse, after excuse.
I wrote him a letter (email) and stated that I wanted to cancel everything. My husband and I changed our mind and needed to rethink our plan. We wanted to discontinue the working relationship and wanted a partial refund, at least. He did not like hearing that, and refused. I wanted the refund, and the content, which belonged to us. He pleaded for us to continue, and promised he would have something to show us soon. He said he had to do a lot of editing.
Now I am out of the money and feel ridiculous for making such a mistake.
Also, I googled him: "William Franklin: and "William Franklin scam web theft" and found that he has scammed many, many people. He has a notorious reputation for scamming people not only for "web design" but for other web related services: web designers and developers, all scammed.
0 comments