Vet a suspicious link, email or message before you act on it
Check a suspicious link without opening it, test whether an email came from its sender, spot scam red flags, and know what to do if you clicked or paid.
Paste a link, a set of email headers or a description of a message into the checker above. The link is read as text and never opened, and nothing you paste leaves your browser.
The habit that beats most scams
Do not act on the message itself. Whatever it says, reach the company through a channel you already trust: the number on your card, its app, or an address you type yourself. That is the FTC's core advice (FTC), and it works even when a scam is too new for any checker to recognise.
When you do want to look at a link, the part that matters is the registrable domain, the name just before the public ending. The ending can have several parts (.co.uk) or belong to a hosting service where anyone can make a site (github.io, netlify.app), which is why our checker uses a simplified copy of the Public Suffix List instead of "the last two parts". The method is on how to check a link is safe.
Scams people search for most
| You received | Read |
|---|---|
| A text about an unpaid toll or a parcel | Toll and parcel text scams |
| A QR code on a parking meter, flyer or email | QR code scams |
| An ad for a shop with prices that look too good | Is this website legit? |
| An email that looks like your bank or a supplier | Check if an email is real and the red flags |
Already clicked, paid or typed a password?
Go in this order: stop the money first (by payment type), then secure the device (computer, iPhone, Android), then report it. What each check looks for, and what none of them can see, is on the sources page.