Most likely it was a scam, and you not replying made it so the person scammed someone else, then got caught and the email taken down.

If you didn't pay, then consider yourself lucky, as most pussy then get nothing out of it.

If it was a scam then it was the most convincing one I've ever seen. I'm pretty familiar with most of the art scams, but this one didn't send any red flags up at all

Seems like a potential red flag and dodged bullet, these days email deletion is rare if it's not a bot or puppet account and I agree with the person that says it may have been a phish/scam attempt. The idea is to lure someone into communication as an interested buyer. Just be careful out there and good luck getting authentic comms!

If it was a scam then it was the most convincing one I've ever seen. They don't usually ask for something as niche as a ref sheet and they definitely don't normally track down an artist's Trello to see what they're working on

Like I said, potential--the issue is where the direction of things go after the initial phase. However, it's worth still remaining optimistic if someone does come forward as legitimate! Only you will be able to determine the exact mood and pulse of a conversation as it's happening, but just know methods to be convincing are evolving with the times year by year--sometimes even my spouse and I have to really double check. I've grown very cautious in general. But I know you're also cautious and savvy so I'm not particularly worried about you in all honesty--the client will come around again if they are serious and it just may be a few months of email tag if they had to delete for some reason and it wasn't a scam

Yeah I get you hahah. I just hope, if it was a real person, that they're okay v_v Like you said, deleting an email is strange these days