Community Watch PSA – January 2026

Here we go again… Think of this like a neighborhood watch type of situation. This is a public service announcement on behalf of our digital planning community. Both shop owners and customers alike. It seems like we need to have a little chat about the do’s and don’ts. I see some shady stuff happen from time to time in the community. And unfortunately, it’s hitting a little closer to home right now.

I previously posted this message in our Discord community and our FB group on 12/29/25. I just wanted to re-share it here and add to the message just a bit due to continued developments.

I just wanted to take a moment to make sure we’re all on the same page about something. Whether it is my business or someone else’s it is NEVER ok to take someone’s business logo image to then use as your own online profile image somewhere. This is theft of intellectual property. A business owner has either used their own time and talents to create their logo or paid for it to be done for them. Someone else’s logo that you did not create does not belong to you and therefore cannot be used by you. For an example… It’s one thing to screenshot a business logo to add to your Notion where you keep up with all the products you’ve purchased from their shop so you don’t double purchase by accident. That is harmless and for personal use. For an example… It is an entirely different scenario to ask for more and more freebies from a creator/business, ask about their creation process, and then one day change your profile image to be their business logo that you’ve taken. THAT IS NOT OK. I know we all look out for each other as small creators and customers. So this feels important to say. Just like when we see an account trying to pass off other creators’ designs as their own so we all sound the alarm. That’s what this is. We have each other’s backs in this community. I will not name names unless absolutely necessary. … Oh and changing the name on your profile does not erase message history.

CURRENT: It’s come to my attention that this is a continuing issue. I didn’t want to name any names when this first started on the chance there was an honest misunderstanding. My team and those who have reached out with specific concerns are the only ones I shared a name with or confirmed the name because of interactions. Unfortunately that looks like it needs to change. (SEE BELOW)

I discovered a person has in fact taken my business logo and is using it as their profile picture on YouTube. This is not for a channel of theirs but for their associated email account for viewing on YouTube. Of course that has it’s own concerns, because why does someone need to use my logo for their email account. I was able to speak to this person via messages because the day I discovered this they joined my Discord community and sent me a friend request. The conversation started out fine but did not go well in the end from my perspective, even though I remained both professional and polite.

This person has then changed their screen name on Discord to appear as someone else (SEE BELOW). They have also changed their name on YouTube while keeping my logo as their image. This person also sent friend requests to others in my community as well as private messages over a period of several days. They have even started to try to pull members of my community into conversations to talk about me, the issues we are having (not sure what they want to say), and to even try to warn people away from me for some reason.

In the beginning I hoped this was just a misunderstanding. But the longer this goes on, the more I am convinced this is a scammer. I just don’t want anyone to get scammer or put in an uncomfortable position. I have seen warnings of attackers joining Discord servers and chatting with members to gain trust only to turn around and send malicious files/links. I am obviously concerned about someone potentially badmouthing me to others and potentially stealing my logo and/or digital products. But I’m also concerned about anyone in our digital community being taken advantage of.

I’m sad it’s come to this but I feel it’s important to share user/screen names to be on the lookout for so no one is put in a bad situation. I have been keeping screenshot records of all interactions, name changes, and concerns sent to me by members just to be safe if they’re needed. These are all the same person.

If this is you, please stop and make amends to the parties you have wronged.

If this is something you’ve seen happening, say something so we can work to protect ourselves and others.

Look out for one another in this digital planning family.

If you missed my Community Watch PSA from October 2023, you can go back to read that post. Trust me, it’s still relevant today.