Threats from the customer, has anyone encountered a similar situation?

Question

Law in IT

Actually, I took on my own head for a hack, which I now regret. I did not conclude any contracts with the customer, he said that I would see how the work would go in the first days and what would happen. The whole project was driven by the previous developers, of which there were 10 people (of course, I would like to contact them and ask how their communication went, but there are no contacts). I decided to create a sandbox to move everything there so as not to touch the real project and work there. The customer always pushed me in the neck with deadlines, although initially it was agreed that I worked in the evenings for 3-4 hours. After 2 days of such bondage, I left the project without taking a penny and raised the project based on the current changes in the repository (these changes were not prod (something about 74 commits)) on a test domain. I also had a guy working with me who had a duty, since his company took over this project. Access, respectively, was taken from me the next day. And everything would be fine, but after they merged the dev branch with the prod version, allegedly problems began, a lot of bugs and other things appeared (although I'm sure they were there before). I’ll clarify one point, the customer had to test everything in the sandbox for performance before merging with the food (they merged with the food already without me). And now, after almost 2 weeks, I receive a message that I am allegedly guilty of bugs and in general I am a malicious hacker and break his site. And either I fix everything that I did such a bastard, or he sends a lawsuit, for a very large amount of money. He also threatened physical violence. As far as I know, the company and the guy who stayed with him to work disowned this after only 2 days, as he was rude to the manager. And there flew similar threats. Only there was more emphasis on physical violence. The customer is from the UAE. Screenshots of correspondence are present. Where I emphasize 10 times that we work only in the sandbox.
Who faced similar? How to act in such situations?

Answer 1

Didn't sign any contracts with the client.

SSZB.
On topic - send them to you-know-where.
They won't do anything to you.
PS I came across. In response to threats, he happily cursed the “giniral director” who personally called, his relatives and his subordinates, the mood rose very much, I recommend it. A year has passed, the flight is normal.

Answer 2

You have to send it politely. And no more contact.
If it bothers you when you are undeservedly poured with mud, then you can simply block contacts and go into inaccessibility. But if I were you, I would try to explain to the person that he is wrong (slander does not bother me personally). Well, i.e. do not argue with foam at the mouth, but somehow let all the negativity go past your ears and repeat for the 10th time that you don’t owe anything, and that it didn’t suit you (i.e. why you left). If you manage to convey a thought, then you can bring it into your karma, as a good deed.
Although if you like swearing or the police, you can, as Ronald McDonald said. Although it seems to me that it is better to strive for peace. Either way, the truth is on your side.

Answer 3

No contract - no problem, honestly say that since there are no fixed relations, then what are the requirements? The customer is an idiot, he wanted to deceive you, he deceived himself.

Answer 4

No contract - no problem. This usually causes problems, but in this case, it works for you. There is no contract - therefore, you do not owe the customer anything and can actually send him on an erotic journey on foot.
By the way, are you also from the UAE? Otherwise, I somehow poorly imagine the implementation of threats - unless it is the royal house of the Saudis, which can fly in a private plane ...