How often do freelancers ignore their gut feeling about bad clients?

I'm running a small research test on whether messy project chats can be compressed into a fair, conservative evidence summary without overstating what was agreed.

I'm looking for one past freelance or contractor project that later became confusing or disputed, where the original chat history still exists, both sides can review the summary independently, and names and private details can be redacted.

The summary only extracts three fields: amount, deliverable, and deadline. It is designed to preserve uncertainty rather than clean it up.

I am not looking for active legal disputes, and I do not need public posting. Private sharing is fine. If a case seems like a fit, I can send a simple intake template.

The worst part about those discovery call red flags is they're usually disguised as enthusiasm. "We need someone who can move fast" sounds great until you realise it means no proper brief, changing requirements mid-sprint, and "can you just add this one thing" emails at 11pm.

My personal rule now: if they can't articulate what done looks like, I pass. Vague project scope almost always means they'll know it when they see it, which means infinite revisions.

The loan situation is rough. Been there with a client who kept pushing payment dates "just another two weeks" for three months. Now I do 50% upfront, non-negotiable, and it's filtered out the worst offenders before we even start.