Leoblack Reviews 

⚠️ BUYER BEWARE – Echoing a Nearly Identical Experience with Lucas Shepherd / Leo Black

I want to echo Brad's warning because I went through a nearly identical situation with Lucas Shepherd, who also operates under the name Leo Black and leoblack.com.
I hired him through Upwork under his verified profile name, Lucas Shepherd, to develop a full production-ready web application.

Lucas authored his own scope of work, billed me more than $2,000, and repeatedly claimed he was “developing” the app in the background while providing false progress updates and screenshots. When the delivery date arrived, there was no usable code, no backend, and no completed product—just partial design files that were inferior to what I had already provided.

When I escalated the matter, Upwork’s mediation team agreed that no work was delivered and even recommended a partial refund. Lucas refused, and Upwork later confirmed that their process is “non-binding,” meaning they could not enforce repayment despite clear non-performance.

It’s alarming that multiple clients have reported the same pattern: smooth communication early on, vague technical excuses, disappearing after payment, and no actual deliverables. I’ve since filed formal complaints and begun legal action to recover my losses.

My advice mirrors the original reviewer’s: avoid engaging with Lucas Shepherd, Leo Black, or leoblack.com in any capacity—directly or through freelance marketplaces.
If you are already in contact with him, protect yourself immediately by using escrow payments only, demanding verifiable progress updates (like GitHub commits), and never relying on vague hourly tracking or “back-end work” promises.

This has been the worst and most deceptive freelance experience I’ve encountered in years of hiring developers. Consider this a serious warning to other businesses and clients.

Lucas M Shepherd is the developer behind LeoBlack.com, verifiable here @whoisleoblack on LinkedIn, so you can confirm the service provider and his DBA business name, Leo Black are the same.

I was a client that paid for web front end UX Wordpress services. I provided my requirements and we discussed the work in detail. We made an agreement for a scope of work, I was invoiced from Leo Black, leoblack.com, and I paid 50% advance payment.

Lucas was always slow to respond and that deteriorated to chasing Lucas for updates. The answers I was getting were technical, cryptic and began to change from the scope we agreed on.

Finally, communication lapsed, nothing was ever delivered and I had no choice but to file small claims action and pay out of pocket for professional services to pursue legal action in WA state.

Lucas M Shepherd, DBA Leo Black and leoblack.com received a payment for an agreement that was invoiced and nothing was delivered, this is the worst case scenario for a business to lose both time and money.

I highly advise anyone looking to do business with Leo Black, leoblack.com or Lucas Shepherd to avoid an engagement, or use an escrow platform, such as UpWork, however Lucas deleted his UpWork profile which may mean he can only be contracted directly, which opens potential clients to the same outcome.

Working with Lucas and LeoBlack.com was worst case scenario.