moral of the story.... never use western union. WHY does someone need to use western union ? Why can't he accept wire transfer? no checking account ??? That's not a good sign. Can't take credit cards either....
Another red light that should go off is when someone says " I will pay you as soon as I collect from the other guy" (when he sends me the 2 thousand I will send you 1 thousand i owe you).
this mean the guy has no money... so so far it looks like he has no checking account, no money, and you think you know him ?
I wouldn't be surprised if more then half of all western union payments sent to people that were not related to each other were fraud/scams..
also, niothing "happened" to him. His phones were disconnected. It would take more then 3 weeks for his phones to be cut off even if his bill was due the day he dissapeared. He is burried in debt and was already way late on bills (not a good sign) or he got them disconnected to avoid you guys...