Tools to Help You Decide
If you’re here, you already think something fishy’s going on. Maybe you’re worried about someone that you or a family member is communicating with online. Maybe someone they trust has offered to help them make money in Bitcoin or by some other method. How can you check into it? How can you find out if it’s possibly a scam?
Self-Help
- Ask questions!
- Reverse image checks – got a picture of the person from Social Media? See where else that image is used with Google Image Search.
- Social media checks – does the person list a corporation on their LinkedIn profile? Do they really work where they say they work? Call the company and ask to speak to them.
- Reverse phone number lookups – have they called you from a local area code? Is that really their number?
- Website checks via Trend Micro – is the site safe or a known scam?
- Domain ownership via Icann – is the site owned by who they claim it’s owned by? Or is it registered to an individual hiding behind a privacy shield?
Gather information about the scam and scammer(s), including (if you have it):
- Name(s) of potential scammer(s)
- Website addresses
- Any Email addresses
- Any Social Media profiles
- Any phone numbers they called from
- Photos of people or sites