No one can mess up your life like a con artist. Their venom can kill your career, your retirement and so much more.

But sometimes con artists make their own bed.

And it’s such a thrill when you see them have to lie in it.

That’s what the person in this story did, armed with his expertise.

Read on to see his glorious revenge.

Not pay me for the website I built? Say goodbye to your business, house and reputation

I used to be a freelance front-end developer (dev) and a search engine optimization guru.

Back then getting on the first page was pretty simple.

Plus I had a single website that had serious page rank clout due to it being linked as a trusted source, directly from one of the top and most trusted websites in the world.

I would use this website for the best clients to get their page rank and search engine position leapfrogging other, older and more trusted websites.

But none of that could stop what happened next.

I had a client named Bob, who sold travel packages.

He needed to revamp his basic, existing website, with a complex website built with pretty tricky backend coding.

I could do the front end but I had to hire a backend dev to build the functionality.

Bob had a major launch in a month’s time and it had to he ready.

I usually ask for 25% deposit up front but Bob said no, he was stung by the last dev and wasn’t going to lose any more money.

From the moment I met Bob my gut was telling me this was going to end badly.

But I needed the money and it was worth a lot of money for me and the dev.

I skipped the deposit on the promise he would pay in full before it went on his server.

For an entire month we worked day and sometimes all night to get this done in his time frame.

Bob insisted the site be uploaded and tested on his server before he parts with a penny.

My developer didn’t like it either but agreed.

Bob gave me the FTP details and server login and I uploaded the site. I told him it was live and then… nothing.

I sent several emails and then phone calls.

The emails went unanswered and the phone went to voicemail.

Then the seeds of revenge were sowed.

Then I found he had locked us out and the following day he went live with our work.

I called and he said, “I’m not ever going to pay you and there is nothing you can do about it,”then hung up.

I was shaking with rage.

I registered a new domain name, which was Bob’s travel domain name plus sucks at the end. If Bob’s website was called bobstravel.com, i had purchased bobstravelsucks.com

I uploaded our work, basically an exact mirror of his live website, onto my new domain and did some SEO magic on it, so it would rank above Bob’s site.

Within a month my website jumped above his website in Google for every conceivable search phrase you would use for the packages he sold.

No matter what you typed in, my site was the first result and his was always below mine.

During that month I created a second website, which was Bob’s full name with “sucks” at the end.

On this second website I posted what happened, screenshots of his emails and warning everyone what a conman he is.

About 4 months later I get a cease and desist email from a solicitors’ firm.

A quick google showed the firm was made up and didn’t exist.

I reply back with “I’m not ever going to take them down and there is nothing you can do about it!”

Every now and then I’d get emails from people he had conned by taking their money for a travel package but never booking their package.

I put those on both of my websites, making sure those juicy important keywords: his full name and company name were spread across each negative review.

A few more months pass and I get an anonymous email linking to a new domain called mynameSUCKS.

I’m told to remove my two websites and he will remove this new one.

It isn’t even on Google. No one could find it.

I reply back for a second time with his comment to me.

As each month passes I’m getting more and more people emailing me saying they’ve been ripped off.

I keep adding them to my website.

Turns out the travel agency world is well regulated and they started an investigation into Bob’s company, using my website as their main tool.

And Bob really feels the burn.

Bob pleads and literally begs me to pull the sites down.

Not only is he being investigated by the travel agency association, but he had some very important friends that didn’t appreciate the bad press he was causing in their circles.

He offers to pay me the money he owed.

Nothing more, just what he owed.

I didn’t budge.

A few months later, I discover his travel company has been removed from all travel associations.

I maimed his business so badly, it went bust.

Apparently his property was tied into loans on the failing business and he lost his house too.

It took me just about a year to turn his business from a cash cow to a dead cow.

Here is what folks are saying.

I found it empowering!

Definitely. He helped a lot of people.

It’s an absolute must. A red flag if someone doesn’t want to pay a deposit on a large project.

I’m sure there are so many of them.

Clever indeed! He didn’t give them any power over himself.

Just pay your workers, people.

It could save your hide in the long run.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.