The message always arrives at the wrong moment. Your account will be closed today. A parcel is waiting — pay £1.99 to release it. Hi Mum, I've lost my phone, this is my new number. They're built to rush you, and they're built to look real. Sitting there with your thumb over a link, wondering whether you're being foolish either way, is a horrible little moment — and it happens to careful, capable people every single day.
We've made a small free thing for that moment. It's called My Scam Sense, and it's here: **valoraparentis.com/my-scam-sense**.
What it does
Paste in the message that's worrying you — a text, an email, headers and all — and it points out the warning signs one at a time. Tap any sign to read, in plain words, why it's worth a second look. It's watching for the tricks that keep working:
- False urgency — act now, within 24 hours, final notice. Scammers rush you so you don't stop to think.
- A request for a code, a password or a payment — a genuine bank or company never asks you to share those.
- Prizes and refunds you never asked for — a lottery you didn't enter, a tax refund, a parcel needing a small fee.
- Links that don't go where they claim — look-alike addresses, or visible text that hides a different destination. It shows you the actual link.
- A sender that doesn't match — a free email account writing as your bank, or "Dear Customer" where your name should be.
The one thing it will never do
It will never tell you a message is safe. That isn't an omission we're planning to fix — it's the whole design.
No tool can be certain every time. And the two ways of being wrong are not equal: over-warn, and you lose thirty seconds double-checking something genuine. Under-warn, and someone loses their savings. Telling a frightened person that a scam is fine is the one mistake that can't be walked back, so we don't build a button that could ever do it. There's no green tick, no all-clear, no verdict of any kind.
What you get instead is either "this message has some warning signs" with the reasons laid out, or "nothing obvious jumped out — but that's not the same as safe". Both end the same way: if it matters, contact the company yourself, using a number or website you find — on a bill, on the back of your card, by searching — never the details in the message.
Learn it once, use it for life
There's a second tab called Learn and practise: the handful of habits that catch most scams, and ten real-looking examples to try — some scams, some perfectly genuine messages that merely look alarming. You guess, then see what the giveaways were.
That's deliberate. A tool you have to open every time only helps when you remember to open it. Recognising the shape of these messages yourself helps at the moment the phone buzzes and nobody's around to ask.
Free, private, and a work in progress
No sign-up, no cost, nothing to install. It opens in a web browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and keeps working with no internet once it's open. It's there in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
Nothing you paste leaves your device. The checking happens in the browser on your own phone or computer — the message isn't uploaded, stored or sent to us. That matters, because the messages people most want to check often have their name, their bank or their family in them.
It's an early prototype, shared openly in the hope it helps. It can't catch every scam, and scams change every week. Treat it as a second pair of eyes and a way to learn the signs — not a guarantee.
If something has already happened
If money has already moved, that's a different job and speed matters more than anything here. After a scam walks through the calm order of things — the bank first, then reporting it. And there's no shame in it: these operations are professional, and they succeed against sharp people every day.
Where to find the real help
- Report Fraud (reportfraud.police.uk) — the national reporting service for fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.
- 159 — a short number that connects you straight through to your own bank, if you've had a call claiming to be from them.
- Forward scam texts to 7726 (free), and use your email provider's "report phishing" option.
- Friends Against Scams (friendsagainstscams.org.uk) — free, short online training that helps a whole family recognise the tactics.
If it means one person stops for thirty seconds before tapping a link, it's done its job. It's free, it's right here, and it's yours to use and to share. (Its siblings, if they'd help someone: My Voice, My Day and My Phone.)