Check the message before you click
How to verify a suspicious text or email with open sources (sender, links, look-alike domains, official alerts), the common package, toll, bank and benefits scams, and where to report them.
Lawful purpose: protecting yourself and others from fraud by checking messages you received, and reporting scams.
Scam Texts and Emails, in plain words
A scam message is designed to make you act before you think: a parcel held for a small fee, an unpaid toll, a locked account, a benefits problem. Every one of them can be checked with public information in a few minutes, without clicking anything in the message.
The open-source habit is simple. Do not trust the message to tell you who sent it. Look at the real sender address or number, look at where the link really goes, compare the web address letter by letter with the organisation's real one, and look for the organisation's own warning page about that exact scam.
When it is a scam, reporting it helps the next person. In the US you can forward a scam text to 7726 (SPAM) and report fraud to the Federal Trade Commission.
How a careful researcher does it
- 1Stop and do not tapDo not click, reply or call a number in the message. A real organisation will still be there in ten minutes.
- 2Read the real senderLook at the full email address or number. A bank does not write from a free email account, and a long or foreign number is a warning sign.
- 3Check the link targetOn a computer, hover over the link; on a phone, press and hold to preview it. Compare the domain with the official site you type in yourself.
- 4Confirm, then reportGo to the organisation's real site or app on your own. Then forward texts to 7726 and report fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
The purpose, the law, the line
9 guides in this case file
- 01Scam text messages: how to check one before you clickSender, links, look-alike domains and official alerts.In writing
- 02USPS scam text: the parcel fee message, checkedAgainst the Postal Inspection Service's own warnings.In writing
- 03DMV and toll text scams: the tells and the official warningsFake fines, fake tolls, and how to report them.In writing
- 04Coinbase text scam: how to verify a security alertWhat the company says it never asks. Anti-scam only.In writing
- 05Venmo text and call scamsHow to verify inside the app, and where to report.In writing
- 06Report a scam text: 7726, the FTC and your carrierWhere each report goes and what happens next.In writing
- 07Social Security scam emails: the tellsWith the SSA Inspector General's guidance.In writing
- 08How to spot a phishing email with open sourcesHeaders, sender domain, link targets, look-alikes.In writing
- 09Email scam checker: free ways to check a senderDated notes on each method and tool.In writing
Guides marked “In writing” are being researched and checked. Each one names its lawful purpose first and dates every tool it mentions.
Official and primary sources
- FTC Consumer Advice: how to recognize and avoid phishing scams
- ReportFraud.ftc.gov: report fraud to the FTC
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General
Osintian is not affiliated with any organisation listed here.
