I Thought My New Potential Client Was Strange. But What She Did After Our Call Was Unhinged.

"There were a few red flags: AI images passed off as real photographs, an interview where she asked me no questions and seemed upset when I tried to give her information about my work process, and an accent that she seemed to be actively hiding that didn't match her backstory. But I work with creatives. They're weird. She wouldn't be the strangest one on my roster."

"She sent me a post to "familiarize myself with her work," and not only was it stream-of-consciousness, hard to follow, and a little unbelievable, but the next post on the blog was about the freelancers she had contacted. It was posted three days after I had initially responded to her job posting. She blasts everyone who contacted her, basically saying we were all too small-time to work with her and are incapable of understanding her work."

A freelancer connected with a potential client through a paid job board and noticed multiple red flags. The client used AI images presented as real photographs, conducted an interview with no questions, reacted poorly when the freelancer explained their process, and appeared to conceal an accent incongruent with her backstory. The client posted stream-of-consciousness blog entries and publicly criticized contacted freelancers three days after outreach. The client quoted the freelancer's email verbatim and framed it as evidence of being "too small-time." The freelancer feels angry, unnerved, and unsure how to proceed while protecting safety and professional boundaries.

Read at Slate Magazine