About Spot the Scam

A free practice test for spotting the scams of the AI era, by Psych Sec. The idea behind it: the weakest point in security is human psychology, not code, and the best defense is practice.

How it works

Each test shows ten messages: texts, emails, calls, chats, letters and ads. About six are scams and four are legitimate, so you have to judge, not just say “scam” to everything. After each answer you see the tells, highlighted in the message, and the safe move.

Everyone gets the same test each week, which makes scores comparable when you challenge a friend. It favors the scams named in the newest FTC alerts. “Take another test” gives you a fresh random set.

Where the examples come from

Every example was written for this site, modeled on scams described in public FTC and CISA alerts. Company names are invented, phone numbers use the 555-01xx range reserved for fiction, links are disabled, and the scam web addresses were checked to be unregistered when written. Lessons follow the FTC's and CISA's published guidance, linked on every page.

Privacy

No cookies, no tracking, no accounts. Your answers never leave your browser. A share link carries only the test's code and, if you choose, your score.

Updates

The site checks the FTC's consumer alerts, CISA's feeds and the FBI's IC3 announcements every week, updates the alerts page and the lessons, and picks the next week's featured scams. New examples are added as new scams appear.

Put the test on your site

Libraries, senior centers, schools and IT teams can embed a weekly “scam or legit?” card. Paste this where you want it:

<iframe src="https://theguysaccount.github.io/psych-sec-social-engineering-defense/embed/" title="Spot the Scam: scam or legit?" width="100%" height="760" style="border:0;max-width:640px" loading="lazy"></iframe>

For teams

A team version with your own staff's results is planned but not available yet. The public test is free for anyone to use with their team today.

Open source

The code and content are on GitHub. Spotted a mistake, or a scam we should cover? Open an issue.

Not affiliated

Spot the Scam isn't affiliated with the FTC, CISA, any government agency or any company. It's educational and isn't legal or financial advice. If you lost money or shared personal information, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.