Disclaimer
What our results can and can’t tell you
This page carries more weight than its length suggests, so it is worth reading properly. TapSafely runs automated checks and publishes general guidance. It does not, and cannot, tell you that something is safe.
The short version
- Not a guarantee. “No obvious red flags” means our checks did not find known warning signs. It does not mean something is safe, and we will never say that it does.
- Can be wrong both ways. New scams may be missed, and genuine messages may occasionally be flagged.
- Not professional advice. Our content is general information, not legal, financial or security advice for your situation.
- Verify independently. Before paying or sharing information, contact the organisation through a channel you find yourself, never one supplied in the message.
- Emergencies. If you are in danger or a crime is in progress, contact your local emergency number.
Why a clean result is not a clean bill of health
Our checks look for patterns that scams share: a domain registered days ago, a link that redirects through several hosts, a sender that does not match the brand it claims, wording designed to create urgency. A scam that avoids all of those still reads as clean to us. Fraud changes faster than any rule set, and the most convincing scams are the ones built specifically to pass checks like ours.
So treat a clean result as the absence of evidence, not as evidence of absence. The question that matters is not “did the checker flag it”, it is “did I reach this organisation through a route I chose myself”.
Why a flagged result is not an accusation
When a check flags a link or a message, that is a statement about the signals we could see at the moment we looked, not a finding of fact about any company or person. A legitimate business can trip our checks: a newly registered domain, an unfamiliar payment processor, a marketing email written in the same urgent style scammers use. If we have flagged something of yours and you believe it is wrong, write to us and we will look at it and correct it.
What we are not
We are not a government agency, a police force, a bank, a regulator or a law firm. We cannot investigate a case, freeze a payment, recover money, contact a scammer on your behalf, or tell you what your legal position is. When money has moved, the organisations that can actually act are your bank and the official reporting service for your country, both of which are listed on what to do after a scam.
We are also not a substitute for your own judgement. Everything here is written to help you make a decision, not to make it for you.
Automated and AI-assisted checks
Some checks use automated analysis, including AI models, to read a message or inspect a page. Those systems make mistakes in both directions and their output is an assessment, not a verdict. Where an assessment is machine-generated we say so on the result itself.
Accuracy and currency
Reporting addresses, phone numbers and short codes change without notice. We check the directory against the operators’ own pages and date what we publish, but a number that worked last month may not work today. If you find one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it the same week.
Links to other sites
We link to banks, regulators, police services and consumer organisations. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for what they publish or for what happens when you use them.
Telling us we got something wrong
Corrections matter more on a site like this than almost anywhere else, because a wrong answer here can cost somebody money. Use the contact form. We read everything and we correct what is wrong.
Published by A.I.T. Multiverse Consulting Ltd. See also the terms, the privacy notice and the editorial policy.