It's not being paranoid. You just forgot it's internet. And no one can be trusted, especially when sending money. For me it's not about the internet, it's trusting the guy at the other side of the line. You sometime pay devs for plugins or other work. What guarantee do you have they'll actually do it? You just trust them too right? We trusted Knii and he misused that trust, and imo the guys that send money are not at fault here.