Joyel West Lee Puryear Scam Artist Using Craigslist and Zelle to Scam People Mabelton Georgia

This guy is a joke.  He posts ads on Craigslist in various states and cities claiming to offer affordable website development and mobile application development services and requests payment upfront, only to never produce any work.  Be careful!! 

 I hired this guy back in January 2022 to develop a website and mobile application for my business.  He requested $4000 total for the project to be paid up front through Zelle.  During our meeting via Zoom, he talked about how many websites he developed similar to mine and that he can develop one for my company very quickly. 

He seemed trustworthy at the time, but I guess when you have so much experience scamming people, you just get that good.  So I paid him $4000 through Zelle. 

1 week later, he began asking me to invest $30,000 so that he can open a website development company.  That was exactly when I suspected he was scamming me.  I declined the offer and asked him to just focus on the project he was hired for.  Soon after, he presented another "Investment Opportunty".  That was the subject line. 

This time he was asking for $5000 - $15000 to invest in him.  I decided to simply say I will consider it after my project is complete.  At this point I no longer trusted him but he already had $4000 of my money.   3 months later in April, he's only been giving me excuses after excuses as to why he has not produced anything for my company. 

When I pressed him hard, he produced mock-up images of a website login.  I was floored.  3 months and he only showed a login page which takes 5 mins max to create on any website.  I have experience creating websites so I know.  He tjen asked for more money to help him hire some assistance so that he can work faster on the project. 

I knew it was a lie, but I believed that if I paid him more money, he would hire assistance and finally my website and mobile app would be developed.  So I sent him another $2500 through Zelle.  Again, that was a lie from Joyel.

In May of 2022, I decided to confront him and tell him that I was going to report him to the authorities for scamming my business because he clearly was not working on the project.  Again, he provided excuses about things being so slow he not being able to afford anyone to help him, even after I gave him another $2500.  I could not believe what he was telling me. 

He added that he had family emergencies so he was not working on any projects, then that he had some people investing in his company so soon he would have more staff to help with my project, all lies.   This guy is terrible!

I have to add that because of him, I lost lots of business from companies that had expressed interest in using my business platform which he never developed.   I told him this and all he did was provide excuses.  So I when I said I was reporting him to the authorities to pursue this as a criminal matter and will sue him for the money, he pleaded that I please allow him to pay me back because he did not want to deal with this in court. 

So I agreed to allow him to pay me back.  Another lie from Joyel.  He never paid back a penny.  He only gave excuses after excuses as to why he could not pay me back, offering to pay the following month.  He did this for May, June, and July.  Finally, I decided to report him to my bank, to Zelle and the authorities who are all now investigating him.

My advice to anyone considering doing business with people you find on Craigslist or any website for the matter, is to try to do business with people that live in your state or city.  Try to meet them in person and if that is not possible and has to be via camera (record the meeting), request they send you a copy of their driver's license and a recent utility bill or other document proving who they are and where they reside. 

And never pay anyone the full amount upfront.  Be sure to create a contract that specifies the details and expectations of the project, start date and date of completion.  This will help you tremendously.   

I was lucky enough to have maintained communication with him via email and text all of these months, playing nice to keep him close, so that eventually when the time was right, he would be comfortable enough to provide me with proof of who he is and got him to send me a copy of his driver's license which I did not request to see before I sent him money.  

Please note that part of his scam is to provide mock-up images, simple displays of work that anyone can do in a matter of minutes, and to play nice and give excuses to appear as if he is truly working on your project and is not scamming you, but believe me, he is scamming you.  

He refuses to have regular meetings to show progress of the project, he cancels or requests to reschedule meetings often, then only calls you randomly, or emails you randomly, and eventually does not answer your calls at all, only to text you stating he heard your voicemails, etc. and here's my response.   Total scam artist.  

I believe he scammed many people like this throughout the years but he will be caught soon and he will stop.  If you have been scammed by Joyel Puryear, please share your story.  Your story can help the District Attorney put him away for many years and can possibly help get your money back.  Also, please share these stories on your social media accounts to bring awareness.  You might be surprise who you know that has been scammed by him as well.