Ask him what kind of line he plans on using with the rod. His answer will tell you if he is a scammer or just a dense flyfisherman...
Oh yeah....its your livlihood and no one wants to have to chase after money that is owed them.I've been pretty lucky over the years. I've been in business around 17-18 yrs and while I have had a few "issues" that had to get worked out with payments, I have not ever actually been scammed so far. I always try to be very careful though just to avoid those sort of problems.