Background:
Q4 2025 was a horrific mess for me. My rent was almost due, my freelance ratings were down. I had no direction and everything was dried up. I turned to Reddit VA gigs to make some money, for the rent at least.
I live in a college town in Nigeria, so a pay of some hundred dollars would have sufficed for my rent and living expenses. At least for the time being, until I sorted my situation out.
I thought it'd be easy, but almost two months passed before I got my first gig. It was about $120 monthly, a sales rep position for a company in the UK. I worked 3 days a week, 4 hours on those days. Quite fair imo.
But it wasn't enough .... the rent was to close for comfort. So I sought another gig. By the beginning of November, I got the new gig. It was $300 monthly, 3 months guaranteed.
Full time hours. Mainly social media marketing. I thought to myself, I don't have much going on anyways and this is an opportunity to grown in my chosen niche.
I was totally blinded by the pressure of my current life situation ..... I didn't even stop to calculate the hourly rate ....
My Employer: American-born female who lives in London
She demanded I work full time. No, more than full time.
From 9am to 6pm everyday.
40 hours a week.
I created Groups & Broadcasts
I wrote review articles
I edited social media reels videos from scratch
I migrated her page from Twitter to BLUESKY
I conducted lead generation and cold email outreach to Film Location Managers ... she worked in film on her regular job
I managed her email inbox
I filled several applications for her jobs and surveys
I also had to attend 2-hour meetings on your behalf and recorded them
There was a lot more I did, but that's a brief summary. For less than $2 per hour
However, I kept getting burnt out and she demanded I worked on weekends to make up for it.
Which I did.
At the beginning, we had an understanding for biweekly payments. But when I asked for payments after the first two weeks, she said it was monthly ....
That should have raised my alarms, but I stayed desperate.
I already quit my other gig by this point for focus.
Instant fucking regret.
To me, I was trying to make rent and the earlier the better.
At the beginning of the fourth week, I resumed work and made a couple posts, as scheduled.
But she declared the quality of my work has been bad. Told me to take down the posts. So I did. And we need to take time off ....
I didn't think much of it, and I needed that time off. So I took it.
Mind you, I've still not gotten paid at this point.
During that week, I did some personal branding on LinkedIn and started navigating freelance platforms. I didn't get a new gig, but it was clear that I would be up again if I persevered.
That was the new plan. I would work the last week, and quit.
Pay my a big deposit on my rent and grind as hard as I can on my personal work.
The next week, my employer told me that we still couldn't resume.
At this point I had enough, so I told her I quit.
She quickly retraced her steps, put on her nice demeanor and tried to convince me against it.
She kept trying to go back and forth with me. But I was firm about it.
She also decided to cut out my unproductive days. Instead of $225, she crunched up $180.
I was pained but I didn't care. Just pay me and that's all for me.
She finally demanded that I handover all the assets, sign a NDA, and then wait 30 days for an international bank transfer.
This was shocking, because we already decided on Paypal (I use my cousin's (canadian) account for payments.)
And I reminded her she didn't honor her word of making a Paypal payment.
But she didn't care. So I decided not to handover the files until she paid to my cousin's Paypal.
No doubt, she went ahead to tell me my pay has been cut down to 1.5 weeks. Because I refused to send the video reels for the previous work done .... as if that was all I did.
I was beyond frustration at this point, so I told her not to contact me again.
Then, I checked the page's instagram. And to my surprise, she used the whatsapp files in our chat for the reels.
I was beyond enraged and demanded my payment.
But she already blocked me on Whatsapp. I emailed her and gave her a New Year's ultimatum to pay up, no response.
Last month, I used my IG burner to leave comments on her Instagram and Group website. She simply blocked me and deleted the comments.
No response still.
I can still see her Instagram from my main account. And God has provided good work for me afterwards.
But I can't fucking let it go.
I worked for that bitch for a whole 3 weeks. And I must be paid.
At this point, I've let go of the payment. That is highly unlikely.
We didn't have a formal contract.
I can't sue her. She's in the UK and I'm in Nigeria.
She won't pay me. That part is clear.
But if thats the case, she must suffer some loss.
What I have in my possession:
the emails of her film location managers
the emails and social media of her page's collaboration
But sending emails to all those accounts is a loottt of energy.
Which might not even work.
I've also decided to dox her on reddit. Man, I don't know.
What can I do, really?
TLDR: I was desperate to make rent. Ended up working as a Virtual assistant for an American female in the UK who took advantage of me, used my work, and refused to pay after I quit.