Hello! I'm a new freelance writer and I've been enjoying myself thus far. I'd like to ask for advice on what to do if a client vanishes without payment.

I generally do 50% deposit and 50% upon delivery, and this has worked beautifully in all but one situation.

One of my clients contracted two essays with me. We did our 50/50 payment smoothly for the first one, and she then asked if she could pay 100% of the second essay only after delivery. This was because, according to her, she'd only get paid afterwards.

I agreed to this since she was friendly and cooperative for the first essay. However, upon receiving the second essay, she deleted her email!! I'm now at a loss as to what to do.

I noticed that her Paypal email is different from her correspondence email, and I've contacted her on that too, but it's been a week and I still haven't heard back from her.

Here's the thing - I know the university she attends. This is because the academic articles she sent me include time stamps that indicate the university server from which they were downloaded.

After some quick Googling, it wasn't hard to deduce which department and course she's in.

Would it be an unethical breach of trust to email her and insinuate that I know what university and programme she's in, and then remind her to pay up?