Honest, independent, and built to be checked.
aiscamspotter is a free consumer-protection project. There is nothing to buy, no login, and no upsell to a paid “recovery” service. This page explains exactly how the checker works, where our information comes from, and where its limits are — so you can decide how much to trust it.
Last updated
How the scam checker works
When you paste a suspicious message, email, link, or phone number into the analyzer, it is sent to a large language model (Anthropic’s Claude) with a structured prompt that asks one thing: does this match known scam patterns, and if so, which ones? You get back a plain-English verdict — a risk read, the specific red flags it found, the most likely scam type, and the concrete next steps to take.
- Pattern-based, not a database lookup. The checker reasons about the wording, urgency, payment method, and structure of a message — the same signals investigators use — rather than matching against a fixed blocklist.
- Your text is not sold or published. We do not require an account and do not build a profile on you. Don’t paste passwords, full card numbers, or government ID numbers — you never need to share those to get a verdict.
- It can be wrong. AI can miss a novel scam or over-flag a legitimate message. Treat the verdict as a well-informed second opinion, not a guarantee.
Editorial standards
Every guide on this site is written to the same rules:
- Sourced to authorities. Figures and warnings are grounded in primary, official sources — the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and AARP’s Fraud Watch Network — not recycled blog claims.
- Dated and revisited. Scams evolve. Pages carry a last-updated date and are revised when tactics, reporting channels, or the law change.
- Action over fear. Each guide ends with what to actually do: how to report it, how to limit damage, and where to get help.
- No affiliate pressure. We do not earn commission steering you to “scam-recovery” firms — a category that is itself full of scams.
What this is not
aiscamspotter is an informational resource, not legal, financial, or law-enforcement advice. If you have lost money or shared sensitive information, act through official channels: in the U.S., report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI at ic3.gov, and contact your bank or card issuer immediately. Our got-scammed guide walks through the first 24 hours step by step.