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The free tool below runs entirely in this browser — no account, nothing stored or transmitted. Redact anything you would not want kept before you type it.
Open the companion tool →Why the trusted message is the trap
A fraud alert is the one message you are conditioned to act on immediately, and scammers know it. A fake alert can look identical to a real one — same bank name, same tone, same urgency — and point you at a number or link they control.
The check is the same as for any other message: do not act inside the message. Call the number on the back of your card, or open the bank's official app, and confirm the alert there. A real fraud team will find the alert; a fake one will not.
The protocol
- Describe the alert: what it claimed and what it asked you to do.
- Read the legitimacy basis: the ask and the channel each get a line.
- Do not call the number in the message or click its link.
- Call the number on your card or open the official app to confirm.
What the tool does
Describe a fraud-alert message and get a legitimacy reading with the ask and channel broken out. It runs in this browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Limit first: This is a verification aid, not a fraud investigation service. It can miss a pattern and it can flag an ordinary alert. A clean reading never proves an alert is real.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
Call the number on the back of your card or open the bank's official app. If money moved, act with the bank first, then report to the FTC.
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not applicable — the check is a channel verification the reader runs with their own bank; a model cannot reach the bank. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic.
§0.5 protection result: category is financial-agent-exposure; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.