Report a Scam

Why Reporting Matters

Every scam report we receive does two things. First, it strengthens the detection model — when many people independently report the same wording, sender pattern, or impersonated brand within a short window, those signals get weighted more heavily, so the next person who pastes that message into ScamSupport sees a clearer warning. Second, the report becomes part of the public community database, so others searching for the same suspicious subject line can confirm in seconds that it is in active circulation.

You don't need to be certain it's a scam to report it. If something felt off — a tax refund you weren't expecting, an account-suspension warning when you haven't logged in, a delivery notice for a parcel you didn't order — submit it anyway. False positives are far less damaging than missed campaigns, and your gut feeling is often more accurate than you think.

What Happens After You Submit

Reports are queued for moderator review. We aim to review every submission within a few days, depending on volume — we're a small team, so we won't promise a 24-hour SLA we can't consistently meet. When a report is approved, we strip personal details (email addresses, phone numbers, card-like number patterns, postcodes, NI numbers) from the message body before it enters the public database, then tag it with the scam type and the impersonated brand. High-volume campaigns are surfaced in the weekly digest and on the community database page.

If you provided your email and the report involves a serious or unusual fraud pattern, we may follow up with a short clarifying question. We will never ask for your password, your card number, or any login credential. Anyone who emails you claiming to be from ScamSupport asking for sensitive information is themselves running a scam — please report that too.

Where Else to Report

Reporting to us helps the community, but for serious incidents you should also use the official channels in your jurisdiction:

• UK: Report Fraud (reportfraud.police.uk) for fraud and cybercrime; forward suspicious texts to 7726; forward phishing emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.
• US: FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov; phishing emails to reportphishing@apwg.org.
• Brand impersonation: forward to spoof@paypal.com, stop-spoofing@amazon.com, reportphishing@apple.com, or phish@office365.microsoft.com — each company actively pulls downinfrastructure used to impersonate them when they have evidence.

What Makes a Good Report

The submissions that strengthen the model the most have three things: the original sender address, the full subject line, and the body of the message exactly as you received it. A screenshot is fine if you can't easily copy the text, but a copy-paste is more useful because it preserves the punctuation and capitalisation patterns the detection model uses as features.

If you received the message via SMS, WhatsApp, or another messaging app rather than email, mention that in the description field. The same scam phrasing scores differently depending on the channel.

You don't need to write commentary or analyse the message yourself. Just paste it.

When Reporting Won't Help

One important caveat: don't reply to the original message to "test" whether it's a scam, and don't follow links to "see where they go". Replying confirms your address is live and makes you a higher-value target for the next campaign. Just paste, submit, delete.

Need Help?

If you've already been scammed, take these steps:

• Contact your bank or payment provider immediately
• Change your passwords if credentials were compromised
• Report to your local police department
• Report to the appropriate organisation (PayPal, Amazon, Apple, etc.)
• Consider filing a report with national fraud agencies (ActionFraud in UK)
• Monitor your accounts for suspicious activity
• Consider credit monitoring services