Start here
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 a confirmation is not a settlement
Payment screenshots are trivial to fabricate, and some fake confirmations are sent by email that only imitates the marketplace's design. Inside your own account, a payment either shows as a posted balance or it does not — that is the whole test.
Overpayment stories add a second step: an amount larger than the asking price, then a request to send the difference to someone else. That request moves real money out of your account against a payment that never posted.
The protocol
- Do not ship, hand over, or refund anything until the money appears in your own account balance, not in a message.
- Open the marketplace or payment app directly, rather than following a link from the buyer. Confirm the transaction status there.
- Treat overpayment, courier receipts, and account-upgrade fees as separate red flags. None of them are part of a normal sale.
- Keep the conversation inside the platform. Moving to a messaging app removes the platform's own record and protections.
- If a buyer's story escalates, stop replying and report the account to the platform.
What the tool does
Paste the buyer's messages and get a settlement reading: what has actually been proven, what is being implied, and the wording that ends the exchange until your balance posts. It runs in this browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Limit first: This is a settlement-reading aid, not a fraud investigation service. It can flag an ordinary buyer who is simply enthusiastic, and it can miss a patient one. A clean reading never proves a buyer is genuine.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
If you shipped before settlement, open a case with the marketplace today and report the buyer's account. If you sent money for an overpayment refund, contact your bank or payment app immediately — same-day contact materially improves the outcome.
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not used for a verdict. The reading is a proof-state table (message vs posted balance); the reader has to be able to see which claim counts, so an opaque model would weaken it. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic.
§0.5 protection result: category is scam-fraud-defense; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.