This was definitely not on my bingo card (a bump in 2025 by another person who got scammed by this dude).
Might be time to start considering small claims. I know, people are gonna say stuff like, "you're not gonna get anything in the end", "it's too much hassle", or insert-some-other-negative-take here, but I'd argue it is less about actually getting your money back and more about causing the person in question various forms of inconvenience. Liens, impact to credit reports, visits from process servers and Sheriffs, etc., can be quite troublesome.
If it was a hundred bucks or so, I'd say cut your losses and walk away, but if I was in the position that some of you seem to be in where you're out several thousands, I would probably take this dude to small claims. He probably won't even show, and you'll (probably) get a default judgment.
It's looking unlikely at this point, but I do genuinely hope you all get some recompense or other form of come-uppance in the end. This is coming from someone who has recently found himself out of a not-insignificant amount of cash from users on this very forum as well.