I payed $2041 for multiple hooks and verses from 3 different artists (Tom Macdonald, Goner, & Marlon Craft), which were promised to me by the defendant Azjh through Instagram direct messaging.
We had several conversations from October 2019 to February of this year regarding payments and how many hooks and verses from each of the artist we would get, as well as general conversation about when I would receive the features.
He showed me "proof" through sending me screenshots of his direct messaging feed with the artists messaging him. I payed him throughout the months of October to January, with him promising me he had the artist's features and was going to send them to me after he was done working on them, or send them through email when he "gets home".
After I called him and demanded my money back, or there would be legal intervention because he wouldn't send me what he promised, he got angry and ghosted me, began not returning any messages and cancelled his phone number.
My Instagram got hacked 4 days after effectively erasing all messages I had with him except the few screenshots I already took and the PayPal and Cashapp receipts I have from sending him all the money.
Without the defendant's address, you have no way to serve them with process, and would have to hire a private detective to see if they can find them. Hopefully you've got their real full name.
Your screen shots and your proof of payment, plus your own oral testimony MIGHT suffice to prove the elements of a cause of action in Small Claims court for breach of an oral contract. You'd need to prove
1) the contract (exactly what you agreed to buy and what they agreed to sell, and whether the copyrights, not just the compositions/beats/lyrics/verses were included;
2) defendant's breach;
3) no excuse for breach, which is defendant's burden to prove; and
4) your damages.
You'll have to sue the defendant where the defendant lives.
If these obstacles are insurmountable, you may need to chalk all this up to an expensive lesson on how NOT to do business, with someone you don't know, without a written contract specifying their name/address, dispute resolution procedures, an attorney's fee clause, jurisdiction and venue, etc. etc.
Note that the coronavirus has closed many facilities, and that may include your local courthouse, or the courthouse where the defendant lives, so even if you theoretically could proceed, you still might no be able to act right away.
