This is the second call for internet scam artist/web developer, Abhishek Tripathi (also known as Abby). He lives in India. Anyone seen this trick?

a. He designed the blog, HickTown Press and I must say he did a great job for me, which is why I trusted him to do some more work for me which he has not delivered on.

b. Initially I used his company to host my blog on his server. However, when my blog went off line one time too many, I switched servers. When I asked him why my blog went offline, he said that the server host he used “accused him” of not paying the bill so they took him offline. Keep in mind that I paid him $100 in advance so where did my money go? Obviously it did not go to paying the bill!

c. The scam came in with a website I was having him design for me. I paid for my blog in advance and he delivered but he did not deliver my website. He had a trillion excuses as to why he was unable to complete it and finally he promised to return to my money. Then he disappeared into the wind.

I actually liked Abby. We became email buddies when he was designing my blog and I enjoyed conversing with him about the differences between India and the U.S., etc.

I knew he had emotional problems though because he kept lying about being 17 years old and though I knew he was lying, I just wrote it off as him being a grown man who refused to grow up. Much like Michael Jackson.

In fact, I recall finding information on him from 3 years ago where he was claiming to be 17. How long can a man remain the same age? So I knew he was disturbed but I liked the quality of his work.

d. He claims to be depressed, which may or may not be true. He is a habitual liar, I’ve discovered. Whenever he disappears and re-emerges, he claims that he was hospitalized with depression. Again, he lies so much that it’s difficult to know the truth from fiction with this character.

e. After he disappeared the last time, I discovered that he has disappeared with the money of quite of few folks. This is how he gets folks. He builds up a trust. Keep in mind that he DID complete my blog. You are reading it at this moment.

In fact, I still don’t believe that Abby started off intending to scam me. I believe he genuinely liked me. The guy spent a great deal of time giving me advice about how to build up the blog, how to use it, etc.

But as he sunk deeper into his web of deception and taking on too much work, he deteriorated into a sad scam artist.

Several of us are going to report Abby to PayPal. It still bothers me because I liked Abby. But the guy is mentally ill and he needs to be stopped from using PayPal in his scams.

Again, if you’ve seen Abhishek Tripathi, tell him that his “depression” will certainly decrease if he stops scamming folks. Surely he’ll feel much better about himself.