I have made 3 different site designs for various people, and every time I always get scammed. For example one site I made for an online store, they decided not to pay for it, so I decided to go to their site 1 month later. And boy was I suprised when I saw my same design! And this wasnt the first time that has happend to me!

Have any one else had the same thing happen to them, and if so what did you do.

I was thinking about bring a law suite but for $500 I dont think it would really be worth it.

Wow, maybe you should make them pay first? if not the whole cost, just a down payment?

Most people give me a hard time about putting a down payment, so I make the site and then they just never pay.

Not good.. I don't know what to tell you then :/

Just show them a gif/jpg of the design and do a watermark saying "sample" over it.
This will make sure people cant rip you off, that way they can see what the design is like but still cant use it until they pay for it.

well I did that and 1 person had another person recreate my design, its kinda sad I mean what next...

It happened with me to when I did a banner. No more that why I got paid first the I via email you if the client do like I change it but that all the design

I do a bit of web design for people and this has happened to me (people just recreating the design from a sample jpeg)

but what really annoyed me was when someone stole my main site design. Every image, CSS, table etc. was copied, they just changed all the text to their own

Is there anything at all that can be done about this?

No Thank god

I understand that most people dont like down payment but what about using Escrow Services? This would be fair to both buyer and seller

I have worked with many designs. Making a partial payment is one option. Normally I request a low res preview of the first draft. If the designs looks like it going well I am open to partial payment upfront. I have never expected a designer to hand over a PSD, html, and sliced files before payment. I do expect to see previews during the work progress.

I guess on very expensive designs like an escrow service would work. You should also have a written agreement with the buyer.

On the other hand I have been scammed by designers selling my supposedly unique designs before. So the problem can go both ways.

Take a screenshot of it and show it to them