We answer the internet’s most-asked scam questions — and for anything we haven’t covered, paste any URL into our checker for a free instant preview, with the full verdict for $2.
These are educational verdicts from documented scam patterns — not live reports. For a 0–100 risk score on the exact link in your hand, run the checker.
Yes. Natuerium.shop is a lookalike clone of the real Naturium skincare store at naturium.com — the extra “e” in the domain is the costume. It runs on copied product photos, a .shop domain the real brand doesn't operate, and sale prices too good for the products shown. If you already ordered, dispute the charge with your card issuer right away — don't wait for a package that isn't coming.
Yes. Theorarydin.shop is a typosquat fake of The Ordinary — the real brand sells at theordinary.com and through its parent company at deciem.com. The scrambled extra letters, the .shop domain, and the steep “sale” prices are the classic fake-store uniform. Buy only from the official site or the stockists it lists.
Yes. Lumonel.com shows every sign of a fake crypto-trading platform: the “gains” on its dashboard are fabricated numbers painted on by the operator, and withdrawals get blocked behind endless “fees” — a tax, a blockchain fee, an unlock deposit. No legitimate exchange charges you to access your own money. Never pay a fee to withdraw, and stop depositing now.
The signals point strongly to scam. Coolizi.co.uk follows the viral single-product gadget-store pattern — one polished product page pushed through social ads — and the product itself, a vent-less portable “air conditioner,” defies physics: heat has to go somewhere, and a box with no exhaust is a fan at best. Before buying, check the domain's age and look for reviews anywhere off the site itself.
Yes. Ticketnplay.com.ng is a fake Ticketmaster lookalike — the branding is a costume, and tickets bought there will never scan at the door. Buy tickets only from official sellers, or from resale platforms that reissue the barcode in your name — that's the version that can't be duplicated or sold twice.
Treat it as one. “Send your ID to book the viewing” is a standard rental-scam opener — the listing is usually hijacked from a real property, and a photo of your ID in a stranger's hands is identity theft waiting to happen. Never send photo ID or money before you've toured inside and verified ownership in the county property records, which are free and online.
Yes. Real sellers want the full price — “send any amount to lock them in” means the tickets don't exist, and whatever you send is pure profit. Screenshots and order confirmations prove nothing. Never pay strangers for tickets by Zelle, Cash App, or bank transfer, and only buy where the ticket transfers into your own account.
Yes. No legitimate employer mails you a box to plug into your router. That device turns your home IP address into their proxy — their traffic, including illegal traffic, then looks like it comes from your house. Decline, report the “job” to the platform where you found it, and if you already installed it, unplug it and factory-reset your router.
Almost always. The fake order — and the panic it causes — is the point: the link and the phone number in the email both lead to the scammer. Verify only in the Amazon app or in Your Orders on a site you navigate to yourself, and check the sender: real Amazon mail comes from @amazon.com, not a lookalike or free domain.
Strong red flag. Fake transporters are the #1 puppy-scam add-on — after the deposit, a “shipping company” appears with crates, insurance, and cash balances that never end, because there is no puppy and no transporter. Independently find and call the transport company yourself, check its USDOT registration, and reverse-image-search the puppy photos before another dollar moves.
Yes. Littletikesonline.shop is a clone of the real Little Tikes store at littletikes.com — the product photos are stolen, and the 70–80% “flash sale” pushed through Facebook ads is the bait, with checkout often bouncing you through a redirect to a different site entirely. No authorized Little Tikes retailer discounts like that. If you already ordered, dispute the charge with your card issuer — don't wait for a delivery that isn't coming.
Yes. Adnwai.com is a roughly two-week-old lookalike trading on Pit Viper's brand — a company that sells only through pitviper.com and the partners it lists, never through random discount domains. There's no real address or phone number on the site, and the design is cloned from the real store. If you already ordered, request a chargeback and ask your bank for a card replacement, since the site now has your card details.
Yes. A $500 Dewalt kit “on sale” for $20–90 is impossible pricing — no real retailer sells below cost like that. The domain is days old, the About-Us text is copied from elsewhere, the only contact is a Gmail address, and a near-identical twin (toolsoe.shop) is already running — clone stores come in packs. Buy Dewalt only from the brand's own site or authorized retailers like Home Depot or Lowe's.
Treat it as one. Unsolicited “study” or “survey” sites that arrive forwarded by a family member are a classic data-harvesting pattern — the questions collect personal details, and sometimes payment information, that get resold or used for follow-up scams. Don't enter any information, and tell the relative who forwarded it, so the chain stops with you.
Yes, if it follows the usual script: a text-only interview, then upfront “visa,” “training,” “tools,” or “background-check” fees — or a check you're asked to deposit and forward money from. Real employers never charge you to get hired, and a deposited check that later bounces leaves you owing the bank. Verify the company in its official government business registry and reach out through a website you find independently — never through the links or numbers in the message.
Yes. This is the VIN-report scam: the “buyer” is fake, and the specific site they insist on either harvests your card details or pays them an affiliate fee for every report purchased — after you pay, the buyer vanishes. Real buyers accept a Carfax or AutoCheck report you order yourself, and many will buy their own. Never purchase a report from a link a buyer sends you.
Treat far-below-retail prices as bait. The Switch 2 is supply-constrained, so a deep discount almost always means stolen photos, “box only” fine print, or a seller pushing you to pay off-platform — where Whatnot's buyer protection can't follow. If you buy, use only the in-app checkout and stick to sellers with a long sales history and real reviews.
Assume it's fake until you verify it yourself. Real banks never ask for your password, PIN, full card number, or a one-time security code — and they never ask you to move money “to a safe account,” which is the signature of this scam. Hang up and call the number on the back of your card; if the fraud alert was real, the bank will see it on your account.
Yes — this is “smishing,” one of the biggest text-scam waves running right now. USPS, FedEx, and UPS don't text you out of the blue demanding a redelivery fee or unpaid postage through a link; the link opens a lookalike page built to harvest your card details. Delete it, and if you're expecting a package, enter the tracking number on the carrier's official site or app yourself.
Yes — the “unpaid toll” or “E-ZPass balance” text is a mass smishing campaign, not a real notice. Toll agencies don't demand payment by text message, and the tiny fee, the same-day deadline, and the threats of DMV penalties are designed to rush you onto a fake payment page that steals your card. If you genuinely drive toll roads, log in through the toll agency's official website or app — never through a texted link.
Almost always — if you never signed up for a plan, it's guaranteed fake, and even real customers get targeted with convincing copies. The “your plan auto-renewed for $399” email is a refund-scam opener: the charge doesn't exist, and the phone number in the email connects you to the scammer, whose real goal is remote access to your computer or your online bank. Check your card statement yourself, and contact Best Buy only through its official site — never the number in the email.
Yes. In this con, a “support agent” or buyer claims a refund — or an accidental overpayment — is coming through Cash App or Zelle, then walks you through the app until you've sent money yourself, often as the “difference” you're told to return. These apps treat transfers like cash: instant and effectively irreversible. No legitimate company issues refunds by coaching you through a payment app, and no stranger accidentally sends you thousands.
Yes — the overpayment trick is one of the oldest Marketplace cons. The buyer sends a fake payment confirmation — a doctored email or screenshot — “for too much,” then pressures you to refund the difference before you discover the original payment never existed. Money only counts when it shows as settled inside your own account, checked in the app or at your bank — never in an email. The same con runs with checks mailed “for too much.”
Yes — this is the fake-check job scam: the check is counterfeit, the “vendor” is the scammer, and the job doesn't exist. Your bank must make deposited funds available within days, but a fake check can take weeks to bounce — and when it does, the full amount is clawed back from you, after you've already paid the “vendor” real money. No legitimate employer pays you before you've worked or routes purchases through your personal account.
It can be — “quishing” stickers slapped over the real code are a documented parking con. The fake code opens a lookalike payment page that takes your card details — sometimes signing you up for a subscription — while you think you're paying the city. Before scanning, check whether the sticker is layered over another code, and prefer the official parking app from your app store or the URL printed on the meter itself — typed, not scanned.
No — it's fake. The IRS and the Social Security Administration don't call, text, or email out of the blue to threaten arrest, demand immediate payment, or “suspend” your Social Security number — real agencies open with a letter in the mail, and they never accept gift cards, crypto, or wire transfers. Hang up without pressing anything or confirming any personal details; if you're genuinely worried, call the agency back on its official published number.
Yes — a few seconds of audio lifted from social media is enough for AI voice cloning, and the “family emergency” script (an arrest, an accident, bail or hospital money) is built to make you pay before you think. The payment demand is the tell: gift cards, crypto, a wire, or cash handed to a “courier.” Hang up and call the family member back on their usual number, or ask something only the real person would know — real emergencies survive a two-minute verification.
The pattern is reliable: legit stores have a history — a domain registered years ago, reviews that exist off their own site (Trustpilot, Reddit, the BBB), a real address and phone number, and prices that are good but plausible. Fake discount stores invert every one of those: a newborn domain, 70–90% off everything, no way to reach a human, and reviews that exist nowhere else. When in doubt, search the store name plus “scam” and check the domain's age before your card number goes anywhere near the checkout.
First, call your bank's official fraud line (the number on your card or statement, never one from the call itself) and report the transfer as fraud — ask in writing whether Regulation E or a wire recall applies, since the window to claw back a wire closes fast. Second, file a report at the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) and the FBI's IC3 (ic3.gov); you'll need the report number for banks, credit bureaus, and insurance. Third, freeze your credit at all three bureaus and change your online banking password and PINs, since scammers who get this far often already have other account details. This kind of loss is rarely recoverable in full, but reporting fast is what occasionally gets a wire clawed back.
Treat it as a scam in progress. An unexplained payment landing in your Square account — usually from a stolen card — is the overpayment con: the “buyer” will soon claim it was a mistake and demand you send the difference back, wire money, or ship goods, right before the original charge reverses as fraud and Square claws the funds back out of your balance. Don't send anything back and don't ship anything. Contact Square support directly through the app to flag the payment as suspicious, and expect the original charge to be disputed by its real owner — the money isn't yours to keep or return.
Yes. An unrecognized deposit on Chime is almost always a test transaction from a stolen card or account — scammers probe with small amounts to see which accounts accept money before running a bigger overpayment or “refund” script, or before asking you to send it back to a “wrong number.” Don't spend it and don't send it anywhere, even if a follow-up message asks nicely. Contact Chime support through the app to report the deposit, and expect it to be reversed once the real owner disputes it — if you've already spent it, you can end up owing Chime the balance.
Treat every one as unverified until you check it yourself — “ARS,” “ARS Account Resolution,” or similar names are used both by a real collections firm and, separately, by scammers spoofing debt-collector branding entirely. Legitimate collectors must send a written validation notice with the amount, original creditor, and your dispute rights before they can lawfully collect — a text or voicemail demanding instant payment by gift card, crypto, or a payment app skips that step on purpose. Never pay or confirm personal details from the message; instead pull your free credit report at annualcreditreport.com to see if any debt is actually listed, and if it is, request written validation before paying a cent.
Yes. A fresh wave of copycat domains — names that swap a letter or add “-outlet,” “-sale,” or a country code to Temu's or Shein's real name — is circulating right now via social ads claiming a “store closing” or “90% off everything” clearance. Both real brands sell only through their own apps and official sites; neither runs surprise closures through a different domain. Check the URL bar character by character before you check out, and if you already paid, dispute the charge with your card issuer immediately.
Treat them as likely fake until proven otherwise. Late-July and August bring a predictable spike in single-product and clearance-branded stores pushing “70% off” backpacks, laptops, and dorm gear through Instagram and TikTok ads — most run on domains registered within the past few weeks and disappear once complaints pile up. Before buying, check how old the domain is, search the store name plus “reviews” on a site that isn't the store itself, and never pay by direct bank transfer or gift card for a “deal” that vanishes if you hesitate.
Yes. In the days after any major sale event, a smishing wave rides the traffic: texts claiming “a problem with your recent order,” “payment failed,” or “verify your Amazon account” link to a lookalike login page built to steal your password and card details. Amazon doesn't text about order problems with a link to click — it surfaces issues inside the app or on Your Orders when you navigate there yourself. Delete the text, and check your real order status only in the app or at amazon.com typed directly into the browser.
Yes, almost always. As each new tour leg goes on sale, sellers flood social media and Craigslist-style listings offering “guaranteed” presale codes or already-purchased tickets for popular stadium shows — codes can't be resold since they're tied to the original account, and “tickets” paid for by Zelle, Venmo, or cash app rarely transfer into your name and simply don't exist at the door. Buy only through the venue, the artist's official presale, or a resale platform that transfers the ticket into your own account before you pay in full.
That's the current bulk-bait pattern: the same stock photo of a washer, TV, or gaming console gets reposted across dozens of fake accounts in a local area, priced just low enough to seem like a steal, with the seller always “can't meet in person” and pushing you to pay by Zelle or wire before pickup. Real local sellers will do an in-person, cash-on-pickup exchange in a public place; a seller who refuses that and insists on prepayment for an item you never test is the tell. Reverse-image-search the photo and insist on seeing the item in person before any money moves.
Yes. A host who asks you to “save on fees” by paying via Zelle, wire, or a personal payment link outside the platform is running the off-platform booking scam — the listing is often stolen from a real property, the “discount” disappears once you've paid, and neither Airbnb's nor Vrbo's guarantee covers payments made outside their checkout. Always complete payment inside the official app, and treat any pressure to move the conversation to text or email before paying as the clearest warning sign.
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