About ScamAlert
We publish plain-English guidance on consumer fraud, traced to primary sources from US regulators and law enforcement — and we tell you plainly when a loss is unlikely to be recovered, or when a security product is not worth buying.
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Our mission
Most scam advice fails at the moment it is needed. It is written in the abstract, it lists warning signs without explaining the mechanism, and it goes quiet exactly where people need it most — after the money has already gone. ScamAlert exists to close that gap.
Every guide we publish is built around three commitments:
- Explain the mechanism, not just the symptom. Knowing why a fraudster needs you to read a code aloud is more durable than memorizing a list of suspicious phrases, because the mechanism stays constant while the script changes weekly.
- Cover recovery honestly. We publish real timelines and real odds, including when they are poor. Telling someone a wire is probably gone is more useful than implying every loss is recoverable.
- Point to official channels. Every guide links directly to the FTC, the FBI's IC3, the CFPB and IdentityTheft.gov. We are not a substitute for those agencies and we never present ourselves as one.
Who we are
Guides are published under the ScamAlert editorial byline. We want to be straightforward about what that means, because a great many sites in this niche are not: it means a small team researches and writes this material, and it means we will not invent contributors or attach professional certifications that nobody here holds.
That practice is widespread in consumer-finance publishing and we think it is corrosive. A byline claiming a credential is a factual assertion, and one that a reader in the middle of a financial emergency has no realistic way to check. So we make a narrower claim, and it is one you can check: every guide is traced to primary sources, and those sources are listed at the foot of every article for you to follow yourself.
ScamAlert Editorial Team
Fraud research and consumer protection reporting
Our guides are researched and written in-house, then checked line by line against primary sources — the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the federal regulations themselves. We do not cite other scam blogs, we do not take affiliate commissions, and we publish the odds of recovery honestly, including when they are poor.
- Bank and payment fraud
- Phishing, smishing and quishing
- AI-enabled impersonation
- Investment and marketplace fraud
- Identity theft recovery
Where an individual expert has reviewed a specific guide, they are credited by name on that article with a link to a real, public profile. If you see no named reviewer, that guide was checked against primary sources by the team and no individual has put their name to it — which we would rather tell you plainly than obscure.
How we are funded
ScamAlert is free to read and is funded by display advertising served through third-party ad networks. Advertising is what keeps the site accessible to people who often cannot afford to lose the money they came here about.
Advertisers have no input into our editorial coverage. They do not see articles before publication, cannot request changes, and cannot commission topics. Ad slots are filled programmatically by the network, which means an ad may appear beside an article that is critical of a similar product. We label advertising clearly and keep it visually distinct from editorial content.
Conflict of interest disclaimer
Consumer security is a category where affiliate revenue routinely corrupts coverage. Identity theft protection services, VPNs, antivirus suites and “security” hardware pay generous commissions, and a great deal of published scam advice exists primarily to route readers toward those commissions.
We have structured ScamAlert to avoid that pressure:
- No affiliate commissions. We do not participate in affiliate programs for security products, credit monitoring, identity protection, VPNs or financial products, and we earn nothing if you buy something we mention.
- No sponsored articles. We do not accept payment to write about, review, or link to any product or company. We do not publish guest posts placed for SEO purposes.
- No paid links. Outbound links are chosen editorially. Links to government agencies carry no commercial relationship of any kind.
- Contributors disclose holdings. Anyone writing about a company or sector in which they hold a financial interest must disclose it, and is normally reassigned.
The practical result is that we can tell you when a product is not worth buying. Our guide on RFID blocking wallets concludes that most people do not need one — a conclusion that is difficult to reach honestly on a site earning commission from wallet sales.
Corrections
We correct errors promptly and visibly. If you find something inaccurate, outdated, or missing important context, email editor@scamalert.blog or use our contact form. Substantive corrections are noted on the article, and every guide displays its last-reviewed date.
What we are not
ScamAlert is a publisher of consumer education. We are not a law firm, a financial advisory business, a government agency, or a fund recovery service. We cannot recover money on your behalf, contact your bank for you, or represent you in a dispute.
Be extremely cautious of any organization that offers to recover scam losses for an upfront fee. Targeting people who have already lost money is one of the most common follow-on frauds, and legitimate recovery runs through your bank and the official agencies listed on our reporting page — never through a company that approaches you.