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Where should I report a scam?
A global reporting sequence that starts with the organization able to stop harm, then moves to the appropriate platform, regulator, police or national cybercrime channel.
Scam typesPhishing scams: how they work and how to verify a message
Recognize phishing in email, text and chat messages, including realistic messages that use familiar brands and urgent account warnings.
ReportingHow to report a cross-border or international scam
Find official channels for international fraud, learn when to use econsumer.gov, IC3 or your national reporting agency, and act promptly to protect your accounts.
VerifyHow to check whether a website or online store looks legitimate
Manual checks for unfamiliar websites and online stores without treating any single signal or automated trust score as a verdict.
ResearchGlobal scam signals: what recent data from different countries is showing
Compare recent scam and fraud signals from INTERPOL, Japan, France and Spain, including social engineering, impersonation and pressure tactics.
ResearchAre scams rising in my country? How to check official fraud trends
Check official fraud reports for the US, Canada and Australia, understand what changed, and avoid misleading comparisons of reported scams.
Scam typesWhatsApp job offer scams: verify unexpected calls and recruiters
Received an automated job-offer call or unexpected WhatsApp recruitment message? Verify the employer, vacancy and payment requests before responding.
Scam typesRomance scams: when a relationship becomes a money request
How romance scammers build trust, avoid meeting, create emergencies and sometimes pivot into cryptocurrency or investment schemes.
Scam typesMarketplace scams: fake sellers, buyers and payment tricks
How scams on marketplaces and social-media selling platforms use off-platform payments, fake confirmations, overpayments and delivery stories.
VerifyIs this message a scam? How to check safely
A practical way to verify a suspicious text, email, chat or direct message without trusting the sender’s links or contact details.
Scam typesImpersonation scams: when a trusted identity is the bait
How scammers impersonate government agencies, companies, banks, police, employers, friends and other trusted identities to create urgency and control the next step.
VerifyHow to check whether a Facebook or Instagram profile is fake
Investigate suspicious Facebook and Instagram profiles, copied identities, fake businesses and risky requests before responding.
Scam typesAccount takeover and identity scams: when someone gets inside your digital life
Warning signs and first actions when scammers steal login credentials, hijack email or social accounts, change recovery details or use personal information for fraud.
RecoveryWhat should I do if I was scammed?
A practical first-response sequence after a suspected scam: stop contact, try to stop money movement, secure accounts, preserve evidence and report.
Scam typesMoney-mule recruitment: when a “job” turns you into the payment route
How criminals recruit people to receive, move, convert or forward stolen funds through bank accounts, cryptocurrency, payment apps or purchased goods.
Scam typesJob scams: fake hiring, upfront fees and task schemes
Red flags for fake jobs, work-from-home offers, reshipping roles, fake-check hiring and jobs that require you to pay first.
VerifyHow to verify an online seller before you pay
A practical checklist for checking marketplace sellers, social-media shops and unfamiliar online merchants before sending money.
VerifyHow to check whether an AI website or app is real
A practical verification process for unfamiliar AI websites, ChatGPT lookalikes, AI apps, extensions, downloads and subscription pages.
VerifyHow to check an online store before buying
A practical pre-purchase process for verifying an unfamiliar online shop, its business identity, delivery promises and payment protections.
VerifyCan you trust a website recommended by ChatGPT or another AI?
Why shopping links suggested by AI assistants need independent verification, with a five-minute process to check the exact site and seller.
Scam typesTech-support and remote-access scams: fake warnings that hand over your device
How fake security warnings and support calls lead people to install remote-access tools, reveal banking information or pay for a problem that does not exist.
Scam typesFake ChatGPT and AI-tool websites, apps and downloads
Learn how fake ChatGPT and AI-tool sites, apps, ads and downloads impersonate popular AI brands to steal credentials, payments or install malware.
Scam typesClickFix scams: why fake verification pages ask you to run commands
Understand ClickFix scams that imitate CAPTCHA or security checks and tell you to open Run, PowerShell, Command Prompt or Terminal and paste a command.
RecoveryHow to preserve evidence after a scam
A practical evidence checklist for scam messages, profiles, websites, payments and account activity before details disappear.
ResearchWhy scams work: pressure, trust and decision shortcuts
Research suggests scam susceptibility is shaped by decision conditions, literacy, cognition, wellbeing and context — not by a simple divide between smart and foolish people.
ResearchWhat does “mark” mean in a scam?
In confidence-trick slang, a “mark” is the intended target of the swindle. The history of the word also explains the idea behind the ScamMark name.
ResourcesThe 60-second scam check
A quick checklist for suspicious messages, offers, sellers and calls when you need to decide whether to stop and verify.
Scam typesSextortion scams: threats to expose intimate images or fabricated evidence
How financially motivated sextortion uses real, manipulated or entirely fabricated intimate material to demand money and keep victims under pressure.
Scam typesRecovery scams: when scammers target people who already lost money
How fake investigators, lawyers, regulators and recovery agents use a previous scam loss to demand more money or personal information.
Scam typesQR-code phishing (“quishing”): when the link is hidden in a square
How malicious QR codes hide phishing links in emails, signs, invoices, parking meters and unexpected packages — and how to verify before opening them.
Scam typesPrize, lottery and unexpected-money scams: pay first to receive something that is not real
How fake prizes, lotteries, rebates, inheritances and grants use unexpected money as bait for fees, identity data or hard-to-reverse payments.
Scam typesPackage-delivery scams: fake missed deliveries, customs fees and tracking links
How fake courier and postal messages use expected parcels, small delivery fees and tracking links to steal card details, credentials or device access.
VerifyIs this bank message real? Verify it without trusting the message
How to verify a fraud alert, security warning or payment message that appears to come from your bank.
Scam typesInvestment scams: guaranteed returns, fake platforms and pressure to add more money
Recognize investment scams that promise unusually high or guaranteed returns, show fake profits and make withdrawals conditional on more payments.
RecoveryI sent money to a scammer. What can I do?
Immediate steps after sending money by card, bank transfer, payment app, wire, gift card or cryptocurrency, without promising recovery.
RecoveryI clicked a phishing link. What should I do now?
What to do after clicking a suspicious link, entering credentials, opening an attachment or possibly downloading malware.
Scam typesFamily-emergency and voice-cloning scams: “I need money right now”
How scammers impersonate relatives or friends in emergencies, including calls that may use AI-generated or cloned voices.
Scam typesFake-check and overpayment scams: money appears before the loss is discovered
Why a deposited check can appear available before being found fraudulent, and how scammers exploit that delay in jobs, prizes and marketplace transactions.
Scam typesCryptocurrency scams: fake investments, wallet transfers and recovery traps
How scams use cryptocurrency as an investment story, payment rail or supposedly private recovery mechanism.
Scam typesCharity and disaster-donation scams: generosity under time pressure
How fake charities and charity impersonators exploit disasters, emergencies and emotional causes — and how to verify where a donation will actually go.
Scam typesBusiness email compromise and invoice-redirection scams
How criminals hijack or imitate business email conversations to redirect legitimate invoices, payroll or executive payments to accounts they control.
Scam typesBank impersonation scams: the “protect your money” trap
How fake bank fraud alerts and security calls pressure people to move money, share codes or install remote-access software.
Family safetyA simple family plan for stopping scams before money moves
A low-friction family safety plan built around independent verification, shared pause rules and a trusted second opinion.