Is this a scam?

How the check works

• Phishing and malware lists. The link’s site against 392,145 active phishing sites (Phishing.Database) and 41,011 malware links (URLhaus by abuse.ch), refreshed every 6 hours. A list names a site exactly; on a shared platform such as sites.google.com only the exact page counts.
• How old the site is. The registration date from the registry’s own record (RDAP). A site registered under 30 days ago is a strong warning sign.
• Its name and shape. A brand’s name in a site that isn’t the brand’s own (for example “usps.com-track.top”), look-alike letters from another alphabet, a bare internet address, an @ inside the link, a shortened link. A brand’s own site, and any .gov site, is never flagged.
• The words. 12 scripts the FTC, the FBI and USPS warn about, from unpaid tolls and parcel texts to gift-card and crypto payments.
• The phone number. Twelve months of complaints people filed with the FCC: how many, the most common subject and the newest date. Caller ID can be faked, so a number with complaints may itself be spoofed, and we never publish a list of numbers.
• An AI check, only when needed. When the checks above haven’t decided, an AI model (Jev by TypeSafe) judges whether the message follows a known script and asks for money, a code or personal details under time pressure. It decides; it never writes. Every sentence in a result is ours or an official source’s.

The three verdicts

• Looks like a scam — a phishing or malware list names the link, or two or more strong warning signs.
• Be careful — one strong warning sign, or our AI check finds it asks for money, a code or personal details under time pressure.
• We found no warning signs. That doesn’t make it safe. — nothing we check for fired. We never say “safe”: no check can promise that.

Private by design

What you paste is checked in memory and never stored or logged; we keep only which checks fired and the verdict. We never open a link you paste: we read only its address. A screenshot is read on your own device and never uploaded. There is no page for a check and no sharing of what was checked.

The scams we check for, and what to do

Scams reported most this week (Oct 5–11, 2026)

Complaints people filed with the FCC about unwanted calls and texts, Oct 5–11, 2026 (Monday to Sunday, Eastern): 3,343, against 3,500 the week before. A complaint is a report, not a proof; political calls are not counted as scams.

1. 1. Business loan offers: 274 complaints (214 the week before)
2. 2. Debt relief offers: 230 complaints (193 the week before)
3. 3. Health insurance offers: 168 complaints (243 the week before)

How they came: Robocalls 1,189 · Texts 878 · Live calls 772 · Not given 504.

Source: FCC consumer complaints, read 2026-10-16.

Report a scam

• Forward the text to 7726 (SPAM) — Free on most U.S. carriers; your carrier can block the sender.
• Report it to the FTC — ReportFraud.ftc.gov
• Complain to the FCC — For unwanted calls and texts
• Report it to the FBI — IC3, if you lost money online

Lost money or gave details? Call your bank or card company now, then follow the FTC’s steps: What to do if you were scammed.

Sources

• Phishing.Database (active phishing domains) (MIT) — 392,145 entries, updated 2026-10-16
• URLhaus by abuse.ch (malware links) (CC0, fair use) — 41,011 entries, updated 2026-10-16
• RDAP — each domain’s registration date, from its registry
• FCC Consumer Complaints Data — complaints about unwanted calls and texts
• The official warnings linked above: the FTC, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI’s IC3, the IRS, Social Security and USCIS