‘I locked him out’: Cyber security contractor locks a client out of their computer system after they refuse to pay an invoice, teaching them a lesson about weaseling out of their end of the deal

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 12, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

Contractors seem to always get burned when it comes to payday. My dad is a general contractor and despite working for luxury clients whose remodel budgets almost always exceed $10 million, they somehow always think of new excuses to avoid paying for $1,000 invoices and petty cash deals. When it comes to closing out a payment that's a drop in the bucket, why do customers get so stingy? 

The job is done, now you have to pay. 

That's why a lot of contractors refuse to start work until payment has been received, but in some cases that's unavoidable. This cyber security expert in our next story had a client that he believed was good for their cash, until he realized on payday that they were just as cheap and unreliable as Scrooge McDuck. 

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  • If you're in the market to pay a professional to protect your business from cyber security hacks, wouldn't you assume it'd be quite simple for said professional to hack your system? He knows it inside and out, what's to stop him from becoming the cyber threat. Hilariously, and rightfully so, the man in this next story taught a client a valuable lesson about closing out your invoices, by taking control of his own programming from the back end and locking them out. 

    Sorry, not sorry.

  • "AITAH a client I did some work for refuses to pay his invoice so I locked him out of his computer systems"

    NGO.JPG MacBook Pe
    via Cytonn

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Some context first. I'm a contractor for various companies who need cyber security, systems to be locked down, etc. (I'll keep it simple to not geek out too much). While I charge by the hour, I do try
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  • to keep my billables low, especially if I like the client. I also vocalise what I am working on very often, for full transparency. Recently, I did some work for a company recently and sent them
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  • the invoice as per usual. For some reason though, this time, one of the part-owners had a real issue with a couple of things that I did. He claimed that nobody ever actually 100% signed off on it
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  • (despite him confirming the work himself), and that some things I did were similar and redundant. The part he was referring to was a temporary system I set up on my own machine, while I finished their long-term solution.
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  • So I ended up locking them out of one of their systems until the invoice is paid. I'm not trying to cause any damage, and as soon as they pay the invoice, they can have access again. FYI this is a system I
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  • built for them from this invoice, not something random that I've commandeered. AITAH, or is it justified? The lawyer has said there's no legal issues because it's unpaid labour, but I'm on the fence
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  • ** Username 4 a 0 a - -
    via Luidmilla

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • CriticEcho Definitely not the a h le. They knew the work was being done and confirmed it. Sounds like they're just trying to weasel out of paying
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  • Enigmaticsole Nope I would say you are good. Ownership hasn't transferred until they pay. Can you lock them out of any more systems?
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  • FelineCompanionC In the future, I'd be cautious about "vocalizing for transparency", and keep that part in writing. HI, I'd be keeping everything in writing, even to the point of "To recap
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  • our phone call, A, B, and C." You said that he "confirmed the work himself". Did he confirm it in writing, or in one of those transparency conversations?
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  • Nervous_Cranberry This same situation happened 25 years ago at my friend's company. Their firewall guy didn't get paid so he locked them out of their own servers until he was paid. The boss
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  • called the police on him, he was charged with extortion. Apparently if it was his own server he had locked them out of it would have been fine.
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  • No-Jacket-800 NTA. Basically sounds like a service like water, phone, Internet, ect getting suspended for not paying your bill. Seems pretty standard.
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  • ACrask ΝΤΑ If it was me and the money wasn't desperately needed, if there's any form of "delete" the work, I'd do that and move on.
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  • deathboyuk If it's real, there's little moral reason you could be in the wrong. Be clear about the work, deliver the work, get paid. If the customer reneges, f them for trying to abuse the contract.
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  • But on that topic, if this is your line of work, either you really need to look at your practices and defend against this more rigorously, or, well, this isn't on the level.
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  • You've either got a paper trail for a statement of work (or similar) that itemises what's to be done or not. You don't just 'vocalise' something if it's a change to the signed-off plan, you get a signed off amendment.
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  • And if you're in cyber security/opsec, you never go blabbing about this sort of work on a social media site because of the potential risk of doing so.
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  • Again, if it's real, I 100% hope you get your money or an appropriate pound of flesh for your time, it just reads a little funny to me. ΝΤΑ
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  • Usual Equivalent_888. my husband works with computers, was a contractor for so many years. Love this solution. Make sure you have stuff in writing. Always work through emails and texts. Good luck!
    via Usual_Equivalent_888

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customer service sys admin security cyber security employee invoice work coworkers customers technology client employees computer Tech locked out contractor payback
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