Unfortunately this happens all too often. I suspect that this individual used a stolen credit card number to book the reservation and used your name as the credit card holder, which was not verified by the airline and took the cash from you (often they also use PayPal transfers). By the time the airline receives the fraud chargeback from the credit card company, the "travel agent" is long gone and often the passenger never realizes it until they go to check-in online or show up at the airport for the flight and find out they do not have a ticket.

Unfortunately, the airline will not honor the ticket and the buyer of the travel is out the funds.