Who are your last 10 clients, and what is your portfolio...

if you can not prove your clients, that means you lie. if you can not prove that you were useful somewhere, you lie. if someone say " all my clients are private, so i can not show them to you", he lie... because people applying to private usually have sidelines, or at least a portfolio... or where would they be able to apply to privates...

there is no freelancer who start with a first job like this... the "we all started somewhere" is just shit... when you start, do not apply on big projects, you will not be able to answer the needs anyway, or you are a genius...if you are a new coder, release some stuff, support it, and show people that you really have talent...

as we all know, you were scammed here like a sheep (not personal)... because the popular scammers were all on your because you noted some $$$$ in your project description. one good thing: NEVER pay a penny before a result... people can live without cash, they can code without being paid first, and if they say the opposite, do not hire them. other coders will execute the job before being paid anyway...

when someone have a clean reputation with a lot of good results, you can think of an upfront, but not 50%, go like in real life... most creators or artists will require 10 or 15% upfront before working on a contract... why go higher when you are online....