I am also sorry. This person scams a LOT of people across various source forums. At the risk of being insensitive while you just realize you've been conned for a few hundred bucks, there are very clear lessons from this:
1. do NOT use the same username on proton/tuta/gmail as you have on the forums. The way the scammer operates is he cruises the forums looking for people who review/ask questions in threads, then he checks if those usernames match on proton/tuta/gmail.
2. Question when a source solicits a sale from you. I have never and will never email customers, past or present, trying to get them to buy anything.
3. Use webshops where possible. We have a great one that would be extremely difficult to clone:
Code:
https://growthguys.ca/shop/
Very sorry for your loss. I do appreciate you looking out for the community and coming here to share your experience. If I ever do really disappear on someone I'd hope they'd like everyone know ASAP.