Scam Checker FAQ - How to Check if Something Is a Scam

ScamVerify™ is an AI-powered threat verification platform that helps you identify scams across multiple channels. You can verify phone numbers, website URLs, text messages, emails, documents, and QR codes using federal complaint data, carrier forensics, threat intelligence databases, and AI analysis.

ScamVerify™ currently supports six verification channels:

Phone numbers - check any U.S. phone number against FTC/FCC complaints, carrier data, robocall databases, and AI analysis.
Websites - scan URLs against Google Web Risk, URLhaus malware database, and domain reputation checks.
Text messages - paste a suspicious text to extract and verify any phone numbers or URLs it contains.
Emails - paste email headers or content to check sender reputation, embedded links, and phishing indicators.
Documents - upload a photo of a suspicious letter, court notice, or receipt for AI-powered entity extraction and verification.
QR codes - upload a photo of any QR code to verify the destination URL before scanning it.

Free teasers are available to everyone with no account required. Teasers show a preview of available data for any lookup. Creating a free account gives you 5 full lookups with complete AI analysis, complaint details, and carrier forensics. After that, paid plans start at $5.99/month. See our pricing page for details.

No account is needed for free teasers, which show a preview of the data available for any phone number, website, text, email, document, or QR code. To see full results with AI analysis, carrier forensics, and detailed complaint data, you need a free account (5 lookups included) or a paid subscription.

Most scam lookup sites only check phone numbers against a single database. ScamVerify™ verifies threats across six channels and cross-references multiple authoritative sources: FTC Do Not Call complaints (14M+ records), FCC consumer complaints, carrier forensics, industry robocall databases, Google Web Risk, URLhaus threat intelligence, and community reports. Our AI synthesizes all of this into a single, actionable risk score with a plain-English explanation.

Go to the phone lookup page and enter any 10-digit U.S. phone number. You will see results within a few seconds.

Each channel has its own checker page. For websites, enter the URL on the website checker. For text messages, paste the full message on the text checker. For emails, paste the email content or headers on the email checker. For documents, upload a photo on the document checker. For QR codes, upload a photo on the QR code checker. Each tool automatically extracts and verifies phone numbers and URLs found in the content.

The risk score ranges from 0 to 100. 0-25 is low risk (likely safe), 26-50 is moderate risk (use caution), 51-75 is high risk (likely scam), and 76-100 is critical risk (confirmed scam or spoofed number). The score is calculated differently for each channel based on the data sources available.

Risk scores are based on multiple independent sources. For phone numbers, we cross-reference FTC complaints, FCC complaints, carrier data, robocall databases, threat intelligence, and community reports. For websites, we check Google Web Risk, URLhaus, and domain reputation. When multiple sources agree, confidence is very high. However, no system is 100% accurate. New scam numbers or phishing sites may not yet be in our databases, and legitimate numbers or domains can occasionally be incorrectly flagged.

We aggregate data from multiple authoritative sources:

Phone: FTC Do Not Call complaints (14M+ records), FCC consumer complaints, Twilio carrier forensics (carrier name, line type, CNAM), industry robocall detection databases, threat intelligence scoring, and community reports.
Website: Google Web Risk (phishing, malware, social engineering), URLhaus threat intelligence (malware URLs), and domain reputation analysis.
Text & Email: All phone and website sources above, plus sender reputation analysis and content pattern detection.
Document: Vision AI entity extraction (GPT-4o) plus all phone, website, and threat intelligence sources for extracted entities (phone numbers, URLs, QR codes, addresses).
QR Code: QR decoding plus the full website verification pipeline for the destination URL (Google Web Risk, URLhaus, domain intelligence, AI analysis).

Our AI engine synthesizes all available data into a single risk assessment.

Spoofing is when a caller deliberately shows a fake number on your caller ID. Scammers use this to appear local or to impersonate legitimate businesses. Spoofed numbers often show as "invalid" because they don't actually exist in the phone network.

This means the number doesn't exist in the phone network. If you received a call from this number, the caller was using spoofed (fake) caller ID to hide their real number. This is a common scam tactic and automatically results in a critical risk score.

Yes. AI analysis is not perfect. It provides a risk assessment based on available data, but it cannot detect every scam or guarantee accuracy. Always use your own judgment, especially for numbers or websites with limited data.

Currently, ScamVerify™ only supports U.S. phone numbers (including U.S. territories). We are working on expanding to other countries. Website, text, email, document, and QR code verification work for any content regardless of origin.

Free teasers show a preview of the data available for any lookup, such as whether FTC complaints exist or what carrier a number uses. Full lookups reveal the complete analysis: AI-powered risk assessment, detailed complaint breakdowns, carrier forensics, threat intelligence results, and a plain-English verdict. Teasers are unlimited and require no account. Full lookups require a free or paid account.

Each search you perform counts as one lookup, whether it's a phone number, website URL, text message, email, document, or QR code. If a text message, email, or document contains embedded URLs or phone numbers, those sub-checks are included at no extra cost.

No. When you subscribe, your lookup count starts fresh. Any lookups you performed before subscribing (including your 5 free lookups) do not count against your new monthly allowance.

Yes. Unused lookups from your monthly allowance roll over to the next month, up to 2x your monthly limit. For example, a Pro user (200/month) can accumulate up to 400 rollover lookups. Free accounts do not get rollover. Top-up packs never expire and are consumed last.

No. Top-up lookups never expire and are always consumed last, after your monthly allowance and rollover balance. They carry forward across billing periods and are unaffected by plan changes.

Yes. Go to Settings, then Billing, then Change Plan. Upgrades take effect immediately with prorated billing. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period. Cancel anytime with no penalty - your access continues until the end of the period you already paid for.

Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period. You keep full access until then. Your rollover balance will be capped at 2x your new plan's limit when the change takes effect. Top-up lookups are unaffected by plan changes.

Monthly plans: cancel anytime, no refund, access continues until the end of your billing period. Annual plans: prorated refund for unused months. Top-up packs are non-refundable.

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) through our secure payment partner, Stripe. Your payment information is never stored on our servers.

Click "Sign In" in the top right corner, enter your email address, and we will send you a verification code. Enter the code to sign in instantly. You can also sign in with Google. No password is needed.

The watchlist lets you monitor phone numbers for changes. When a number on your watchlist has a significant change, such as a risk score increase, new FTC/FCC complaints, new community reports, or a carrier change, you will receive an email notification. Your watchlist is completely private and there is no limit to how many numbers you can monitor.

Visitors without an account: Device information, usage data, and hashed IP addresses for rate limiting and fraud prevention.

Registered users: Your display name, email address, watchlist data, lookup history, and notification preferences. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email, and profile picture from Google.

See our Privacy Policy for full details.

No. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Go to Settings, then Privacy & Data, then Delete Account. This permanently removes your account and all associated data including your watchlist, lookup history, and notification preferences. This action cannot be undone.

Yes. Click "Share Your Experience" on any phone number or website result page to submit a report. No account is required. You can report scam calls, robocalls, suspicious websites, phishing attempts, or identify a number as a legitimate business.

Community reports significantly impact the risk score. Multiple scam reports from different users increase the score, while legitimate business reports can lower it. Reports from different users carry more weight than repeated reports from the same user.

Yes. Your identity is never displayed publicly. We hash your IP address for rate limiting and abuse prevention. We do not store or have access to your raw IP address, and this information is never shown to other users.

First, check if there are specific community reports causing the high score. You can submit a report identifying your number as a legitimate business. For persistent issues, contact us through our contact page with documentation proving your business ownership. We do not offer paid removal - this policy protects consumers and ensures data integrity.

Visit reportfraud.ftc.gov or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC collects scam reports and uses them to build cases against scammers. You can also forward spam texts to 7726 (SPAM) to report them to your carrier.

If your personal phone number appears on ScamVerify™ and you would like it removed, submit a request through our contact page with proof of ownership (such as a recent phone bill). We review requests within 30 days. Note: We cannot remove numbers with multiple scam reports from different users.