'I was ghosted without pay': Website designer cheated out of $1,500, tricks former client into getting properly paid

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 22, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Freelance workers are not to be messed with when it comes to pay! Anyone who has worked freelance knows that you have to be your own advocate at all times, especially when it comes to proper compensation. It's remarkable how many clients feel that they can negotiate or even cheat freelance workers out of what they are worth. Just because there isn't a full-blown company behind these folks does not mean that they deserve to be manipulated more than others. 

For anyone out there who thinks they can get away with this kind of behavior, think again. Most freelance workers come prepared. They know their rights and, if they work in technical services, they definitely know how to enact some proper vengeance. In this instance, we have a website designer who was cheated out of $1,500 when his client ghosted him out of nowhere. However, when she came out of the woodwork asking why her site was hacked, an opportunity arose for the web designer to get his fair share of the money he was owed!

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    Cheezburger Image 10508512512
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

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

  • This web designer successfully negotiated for a performance fee from a client. This meant that he was entitled to a portion of the ad revenue, but then the unexpected happened. His client ghosted him just when he was supposed to get paid. Some time later, her site was down and she assumed that the designer was behind it. He wasn't, but this gave him the window to get exactly what he deserved!

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    "She ended up begging me to stop hacking her website"

    This is my freelance-revenge story that happened about 8 years ago, and it was one of the first times I was ghosted without pay.
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    I created a landing page for her Elven symbol jewelry store (a bunch of esoteric, but I was young and trying to break into copywriting, so I took any deal I could).
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 04
    We agreed on a pure performance deal, so I got nothing upfront, but we settled on a 5% performance fee.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 05
    Her wordpress store was really small, and I was aiming to get $300-800 out of it, but honestly at some level I would have been happy to just do it for practice & my portfolio.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 06
    Long story short: I wrote the landing page & built it inside her wordpress site.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 07
    She started running some Facebook ads to it, and I was shocked to see that it was actually converting.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 08
    $120 on day 1, $200 on day 2, $150 on day 3, $360 on day 4, etc.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 09
    By the end of the month that landing page brought in $6,000 in revenue. I honestly thought I struck gold.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 10
    $300 in royalties in the first month?? I was going to make bank from two days of work.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 11
    Well, predictably, she disappeared the moment I mentioned "first invoice."
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 12
    3 months go by. Nothing. No replies to emails, calls go unanswered. She's still running ads (I can see all the sales coming in, because I still have access to her website).
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    Then out of nowhere I get a panicked message. "My site is down! Are you doing this? Please stop!"
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 14
    Now, I had NOTHING to do with her store going down. Probably just her cheap hosting. But after being ghosted for months while she made thousands off my work...
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 15
    I knew this could be my one and only shot at getting paid. So I decided to play along...
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 16
    Portfolio | Resume | Business Build your dream website. -> MacBook Pro
    via Carriza Maiquez

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

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    But I had to be careful. I couldn't just "admit" in writing that I'm the hacker and threaten her to pay up, what if she went to the police and showed them the messages?
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    No, I knew I had to make her THINK I was... but not admit to anything at the same time. So I replied:
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    "Sorry, but I'm not going to talk to you until you pay me what you owe me." This turned out to be the perfect level of vague. I never said I hacked her site. I never threatened to keep it down. I just looked suspicious.
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    She immediately called me and asked me what I want. I told her I still have access to her website & google analytics, I can see what she made off of the landing page, and that I want what we agreed on: 5% of sales from that landing page.
    via ClawedPlatypus
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    It ended up being just shy of $1,500. She said she'll take care of it. We got off the call, I sent her the final invoice, and she wired the money immediately.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 22
    She then messaged me with a payment confirmation from her bank and asked me to enable her website. IT WORKED!!
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 23
    I was shaking when I typed back this reply: "I had nothing to do with your website crashing, you should talk to your hosting provider." I never heard from her again.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 24
    soliloquy_terminal • 20h ago This is just lovely!
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 25
    Nikkian42 • 20h ago She probably wasn't paying. that either.
    via ClawedPlatypus
  • 26
    . Commercial_Pea... • 19h ago See I know I probably waste time that I should be engaging in productive activities but when I read sh like this, it just gives me LIFE - ppl like you restore my faith in clever humanity. Thank you!
    via ClawedPlatypus

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work stories work revenge-stories petty revenge underpaid petty entitled people karma website funny work stories entitled people
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