I do freelance advertising/marketing.
I joined a client’s Facebook page as an editor,
under the impression, that I would have some creative control.
over the content, I put out without needing a review.
Instead, she is telling me what to design,
what to write, and what images to use,
in private and suggesting I post it …
but it’s often stuff that I don’t agree with…
or don’t understand fully…
or I think could be a liability risk…for her…
and possibly me by extension.
I’m realizing that my name will show up on the log,
and I will have no evidence of her telling me what to say,…
she could claim she never told me to say that…
Her first request…
involved advertising a grant she had found online…
that people could use for her services…
she created a program with the same name…
and wanted to advertise it…
I have no idea how Grant laws work…
I tried so hard to find information on it…
but couldn’t find anything on advertising a
grant that wasn’t directly given to you…
I was concerned she might be appropriating it as her own…
a little bit to heavily,focusing on the money and not the program…
and suggested a more toned-down approach…
she got defensive…and said I wasn’t following instructions…
then I suggested she could post the design herself if she was sure
it was appropriate…she never did…
this got me thinking,
could I be used as a pawn to post false/ illegal/fraudulent advertising,
and then take the hit if someone reports it?
to what extent could I be liable?
If your gut instinct is this strong, I’d drop it like a hot rock even if she gave full control to your design work. Why would it be profitable for you to work for this person?
As to how much of a hit you could take if called out? How well separated are your personal assets from your business assets? Cuz if you are not protected by being at least an LLC you might end up on the hook for all your valuables if pulled into some kind of lawsuit or scam.
Based on your words something doesn’t smell right.
I would NOT be posting anything under my name. If it’s her page … she posts it! End of story. Send her the designs and tell her you are not posting it. Don’t pussyfoot around. Be direct.
I would have insisted that my responsibilities and the client’s responsibilities were clearly spelled out in writing before starting the job, but it sounds like that’s water under the bridge. Not knowing the precise nature of the situation, I’m hesitant to give advice but based only on what you’ve said, I’d terminate my involvement if the client failed to address the following concerns to my satisfaction.
First, as a designer, when all a client wants from me is to do their bidding, I don’t want the work.
Second, I would not post anything to a client’s social media account under my personal account.
Third, If I have legal concerns that might affect me, I wouldn’t proceed. For that matter, if I have ethical or honesty concerns, I wouldn’t proceed. Taking it even a step further, when I personally have strong opinions about something that runs counter to my values, I won’t take the job.
Are you saying that her potential customers could be eligible for a grant by a third party that they could then use for her services and she’s trying to encourage her audience to do this?
yeah…but she is taking it a step further…
Like grants have names,
so if it’s called “youth media streaming assistance grant”
and Netflix created a “youth media streaming assistance program” afterwards
and said this 10K grant is to watch shows on our platform…
contact us for more information…
this was about a year ago,
I didn’t post it but she found a graphic and posted it herself,
after that, she kept me on hiatus for about 5 months.
to clarify…from the outside it looks like she is posting,
it’s only on the inside that you can see the log of who posted what,
so technically she could still tell people I posted it…
but can’t prove it I guess…
anyways, now she wants me to transcribe text from an image.
but it might have incorrect information in it or spelling mistakes…
and I’m not sure if I need to fact check…or fix it…
and at what point does it become my text if I do…
or if it will look bad on a portfolio…
I mean one point says “call 911 if you are passed out”
should I change it to “if you may pass out, or recently fainted”
emergencies are not my area of expertise either,
I tried to inform myself but I again think it could be a liability risk,
if I don’t know what I’m advertising that could result in harm
…so I turned that down also.
I don’t know…I feel she should be thankful,
that I’m not just taking her money and putting her business at risk…
but she seems annoyed,.
and I’m not sure if I’m being overly cautious as a beginner.
or if I’m intentionally being kept in the dark…
You seem to be a glutton for punishment.
Especially if she needs a scapegoat bad enough to post something and say you did it.
Sever ties.
Completely.
As for that “Call 911 if you are passed out” are you sure it isn’t a satirical piece? I’ve heard something similar for a parody of phone voice directories, specifically, “Press 9 if you are unconscious.” LOL. It was a whole comic routine someone did at a convention I went to a while back.
Here’s an idea: If you’re against it and don’t want your name on it, tell her you’ll use her facebook account to post what she wants instead of using your own and to supply you with the login details.
Line
She runs an Autism Employment Training Service,
she was hired by my parents as an employment trainer…
it started out good…and she has helped me a lot,
but I’m starting to see exploitative undertones.
her quality of service has degraded.
and I’m concerned she is now implicating
me in some kind of fraud.
She is charging me to do work for her as training,
but it’s REAL work…and I’m not her employee.
thus I could be responsible for it.
I think she might be paying her daughter for my stuff.
and her daughter is making cheap knock-offs,
and then she is swapping them internally for audits,
I started withholding designs without payment,
I’m noticing that after I pay her sometimes…
she cancels my work and releases her own ads.
and then sends me a photo of the results on my phone.
like she is fabricating a trail
she is also using a different name on her invoices.
she offered to pay me under her real name,
but this was done on videoconference.
she wanted me to do small payments weekly.
but she insisted on the description being “generic”
so I said no and never did any payments.
I’m scared she may have photographed
the invoice or something…should
I delete the account or???
I made an account for her with a
a borrowed tablet that she
took back that I’m worried about.
I didn’t put any private information on it but it;'s
registered under my number,
I’m worried she might try and do things in my name.
she also seems to be funnelling projects from a
private Facebook group,
to her own Facebook page.
I think she tricked me into being an admin.
I’m no Lawyer … but why do you continue to have anything to do with this woman? If you are that concerned … run!
Remove yourself from Admin on anything you have signed up for. I don’t know how to say this other than being very direct.
** The only person allowing you to be duped is you. You have strong suspicions something wrong is happening. You can’t control what she does … but you can certainly control how you react to it. If she is committing fraud and you continue to stay, then you have made a choice.
Everyone keeps telling you to get away … but now you are back with a page of worries.
I’m very sorry you’re encountering this issue. However, you posted about it two months ago and nearly everyone advised you to terminate you involvement with this person and the situation. For whatever reason you didn’t do it.
As I said, I’m sorry, but you seem to be allowing this to continue. Once again, put an end to your involvement, as in right now, today, immediately.
I asked her why she was mixing
me up with her daughter…a legitimate question.
and then she removed me from her Facebook…
and dropped me as a client. after 4 years of volunteering.
I accessed the tablet she was
supposed to be for charity
she said she gave it to
a kid going away to school,
and she kept it for herself,
I don’t know how she got two of them.
when she is not even eligible to apply.
I locked the account down.
I also locked down the design account
I deleted all my content in the group,
which was sad because it was doing good.
and demoted myself to “moderator”
does anyone have any insight though…
again it’s been 4 years…
I’m concerned about what has
already happened.
I think this might be a “ghost worker” thing…
someone does “free work” and someone
else gets paid for it…the only reason I know
that is because she placed me with
with a worker advocacy organization that
gave me that as a campaign…
If I don’t understand what is happening,
then I can’t stand up for myself in
a way in which people believe me.
My parents are already upset with me.
I’m old enough…
but my parents paid for the service to help me out
because I suck at life…
but now I’m also worried about them because they don’t
understand technology. I think they were guided
into using an intermediary banking app to make payments.
I don’t think they understand the risks,
but nobody friggen listens to me…
because I can’t explain complex networks
in a simple way by talking…so whatever I say comes
out as a conspiracy theorist.
I did some digging into her,
and it seems she has 5 legal names,
with her first name in the middle.
she uses the first 3 in some situations,
and the last 3 in others
can you do that on business/banking info???
If I understand correctly… you are a young adult, but not a minor. You have autism. Your parents paid for your enrollment in a job training program for people with autism, and you were in it for 4 years, up until recently. As part of the job training you performed work for the woman who runs the program, as well as work for outside clients. You didn’t receive payment for any of this work because it was a training program, and not a job. Some of your work was rejected, and she gave it to her daughter to finish, and she paid her daughter.
Additionally,
She may have kept a tablet that wasn’t hers.
Your parents might be scammed because of the suspect banking app they used to pay her.
She has 5 legal names
You think she might be using you to post misleading information so you can act as a scapegoat
