There is a reason why "Con Man" is short for "Confidence Man". They gain your confidence and smooth away any red flags with perfectly reasonable explanations.
Take the time to read the OP's blog. Mr. Scammer scammed many people with multiple schemes and good Photoshop skills. It was a "long game" that he initiated last year by setting people up with actual and real reservations so he could have references before he preyed on others. He then contacted people directly through FB Messenger without posting on their threads so people didn't see that he was "helping" 20+ other people at the same time. He selected people with trips months and months away so they wouldn't figure out there was a problem for a while. Then, when questioned by people who had issues with the "reservations", he came up with different excuses why he couldn't help them right away to string them along and put off the inevitable crash of his scam. My personal favorite excuses were the photos of both his grannies having been beaten by some unknown assailant, each granny sent to two different people. (Note, I do feel sorry for the actual woman who were really beaten and their photos stolen by him. They were victimized twice. In fact,
@c0reyann, you may want to blur out their faces on your blog post.)
This guy is a scummy scammer. Sure, there were plenty of red flags and the OP's problem with trying to pay said scammer was probably the more egregious one. But again, Mr. Scammer had a reasonable explanation of why she was having problems and was reassuredly patient while his fish flopped on his line. Apparently, his whole electronic world is full of "glitches" but he can wait for things to get settled.
I am glad that she is sharing her story here and elsewhere. It's a good PSA to back out if there is ANYTHING that makes you uncomfortable. It's not worth it.