This page explains how our scam-pattern pages are made: how we decide what to cover, where our facts come from, and how we keep them accurate over time.
We publish on a topic where being wrong has real consequences, so we are deliberate about process. Because no single named expert sits behind every page, the process itself is what you are trusting - so we describe it openly.
We cover scams that are real, active, and frequently searched - not hypothetical or invented ones. A pattern earns a page when we can confirm it from multiple independent signals: reports to consumer-protection agencies, documented victim accounts in public forums, coverage by security researchers, and our own observation of how often people are searching for answers about it. We prioritize patterns where the existing online information is thin, outdated, or low quality, because that is where a clear page helps most.
We build each page from primary and authoritative sources, in roughly this order of preference:
Every significant factual claim - loss totals, report counts, dates, enforcement actions - links to its source so you can check it. Where figures vary between investigations, we say so rather than presenting a single number as settled. Where we are summarizing a documented pattern rather than citing an exact total, we label it that way.
We describe patterns and tactics, not verdicts about named businesses. When we show an example scam message, it is a representative reconstruction of the pattern - we do not reproduce real people's messages, real phone numbers, or impersonate a specific real company. Illustrations of fake apps or chats are clearly that: illustrations of how the scam looks, built to help recognition.
Scams mutate - the wording changes, the payment method shifts, new variants appear. Each page carries a "last verified" date. We revisit pages when we learn a pattern has changed and update the content and the date accordingly. A page that has not been re-verified recently is one we have not confirmed lately, and the date tells you that honestly.
If we publish something inaccurate, we fix it. Confirmed errors are corrected promptly, and the page's update date reflects the change. To report an error or a new scam variant, email contact@scamchecker.online.
The site is funded by advertising, disclosed on our about page. Advertising does not influence which scams we cover or what we say about them. We do not take payment to publish, alter, or omit coverage.