Browser extension
A small Assayer button added to Chrome or Edge. Click it while viewing a page to scan that page and open your private result.
Learn More about Assayer
What is Assayer?
Assayer is a free tool that checks links, messages, and pictures for signs of scams.
It runs several checks for you and gives you a private report with the result, evidence, confidence, limitations, and safest next step—usually in seconds.
Checking every unfamiliar link, seller, message, or payment request yourself can take a long time. Assayer checks many of those clues for you so you do not have to research everything by hand.
Send a link, message, or picture. Assayer looks for warning signs, reassuring signs, known web warnings when available, and important information that may be missing. It cannot guarantee that something is safe, but it gives you a clear private report so you can make a better-informed decision faster.
Why Assayer exists
Researching an unfamiliar seller, message, advertisement, or payment request by hand can take a lot of time and effort. Assayer runs repeatable automated checks, compares warning and reassuring evidence, and organizes the findings into a private report with a result, confidence level, limitations, and safest next step. It cannot guarantee an outcome, but it can help you notice important clues and make a better-informed decision much faster.
How to use Assayer
- Step 1
Send something
Add a link, message, or picture.
- Step 2
Assayer scans it
It looks for warning signs, reassuring signs, and missing information.
- Step 3
Read your private result
See the result, evidence, confidence, and safest next step.
Faster checks on a computer or phone
Use the Assayer browser extension or phone share flow when you want a faster path to a private scan result. Assayer does not offer a native App Store or Play Store application.
Phone access
Share
- Messages
- Assayer
Private result
Assayer opens your private check automatically.
Share a link, message, or saved picture with Assayer from your phone. Assayer opens the private result automatically.
What Assayer checks
These are capabilities in Assayer’s current check process. Assayer does not search the entire internet, open hidden parts of a website, monitor your phone in the background, or decide that something is fully legal or illegal.
Links and known web warnings
Assayer can check for known web warnings when that lookup is available, and it tells you what checks were completed. A clean or missing lookup is not proof that a page is safe.
Names, contact details, and mismatched claims
It looks for brand names, hostnames, and payment recipients that do not match what the message or page claims.
Unusual or risky payment instructions
It flags requests for gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or payment outside a normal marketplace checkout.
Pressure, impersonation, and urgency
It notices threatening deadlines, secrecy language, and messages that try to look like a trusted company.
Visible information in pictures and pages
When you send a picture or page text, Assayer can review what is visible in that evidence—not hidden systems behind a site.
Important information that is missing
If a seller name, website, payment method, or other key detail is missing, Assayer says what else is needed.
Warning evidence and reassuring evidence
Your private result separates warning signs from reassuring signs so you can see both sides of the evidence.
Confidence and limitations
Assayer states a confidence level and lists limits of the check. It does not guarantee that something is safe.
What you can send
Assayer works from what you choose to send. It does not watch your calls, texts, or email on its own.
Text messages
Paste the message text, or send a clear picture of the text.
Emails
Paste the email text or important lines, or send a picture of the email.
Websites and product pages
Paste the page link, and add a picture of the page if that helps.
Online advertisements
Send a picture of the ad, or paste the link the ad opens.
Social-media messages and listings
Paste the message or listing text, or send a picture of the post.
Sellers and payment requests
Paste the seller page, invoice, or payment instructions you were given.
Voicemail transcripts
Paste a written transcript, related message, number picture, or notes. Assayer does not listen to live calls or analyze audio files.
Photographs of physical mail
Send a clear photo of the letter or package notice you received.
Example scans
These short examples are illustrative. They are not real user reports and are not live scan statistics. Real results depend on the evidence you send.
Illustrative example — not a live scan
Suspicious delivery text
What the person sends
A text that says a package is on hold and asks you to pay a customs release fee immediately or it will be returned.
What Assayer may notice
- Urgent pressure to pay a fee right away
- Threat that the package will be returned if you do not act
Illustrative result:Caution
Safest next action
Do not pay through the message link. Contact the delivery company using a phone number or website you find yourself.
Illustrative example — not a live scan
Unfamiliar online shop
What the person sends
A store link that claims to be PayPal checkout, but the address uses lookalike letters (paypa1) instead of the real brand spelling.
What Assayer may notice
- Hostname characters that do not match the claimed brand
- Possible brand impersonation in the address
Illustrative result:Caution
Safest next action
Do not enter payment details. Open the brand’s official site yourself and compare the address.
Illustrative example — not a live scan
Marketplace seller requesting unusual payment
What the person sends
A seller message that asks you to leave marketplace checkout and Venmo the seller directly to save on fees.
What Assayer may notice
- Payment directed outside marketplace checkout
Illustrative result:Caution
Safest next action
Stay on the marketplace checkout with buyer protection, or walk away if the seller refuses.
Illustrative example — not a live scan
Email pretending to be a known company
What the person sends
A message that claims to be support and asks for your account password and the verification code you just received.
What Assayer may notice
- Password request
- Verification-code request
Illustrative result:High Risk
Safest next action
Do not reply with codes or passwords. Sign in only through the company’s official website or app.
Reported figures from public sources
These statistics are published with citations and narrow scope notes. They show that shopping and payment fraud is a real problem. They do not prove what Assayer will prevent for any individual. Reporting systems do not capture every fraud event.
These percentages describe reports or survey answers. They are not Assayer results and do not measure how often Assayer prevents fraud.
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults who said a purchase never arrived or was counterfeit and was not refunded | 36% | Pew Research Center, About a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them, 2025-11-19 |
| Online-purchase scam reports to BBB Scam Tracker with a reported money loss (2023) | 82.6% | Better Business Bureau, 2023 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report, 2024-04 |
| People reporting a scam loss who said it began on social media (2025) | Nearly 30% | Federal Trade Commission, Reported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020, 2026-04 |
Sources: Pew Research Center; Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker; Federal Trade Commission. Full citations appear on the cards below. Reporting systems do not capture every fraud event.
Dollar figures are reported losses, not the total amount lost in the real world and not a measure of Assayer’s effectiveness.
| Category | Figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All FTC fraud reports in 2025 | 3M · $15.9B | In 2025, the FTC received 3 million fraud reports, with consumers reporting $15.9 billion in losses. |
| Scams that began on social media | $2.1 billion | In 2025, people reported $2.1 billion in losses from scams that began on social media. |
Source: Federal Trade Commission. Scope notes and source links are on the cards below.
3M · $15.9B
In 2025, the FTC received 3 million fraud reports, with consumers reporting $15.9 billion in losses.
These are reported consumer fraud losses. They are not all shopping scams, and they are not all AI-related scams.
Source: Federal Trade CommissionFTC Testifies Before the Joint Economic Committee on the Agency’s Efforts to Combat FraudPublished 2026-03
View sourceReporting systems do not capture every fraud event; many people never file a report.
36%
36% of U.S. adults said they had ever bought an item online that never arrived or was counterfeit and was not refunded.
This is a self-reported survey finding about that specific shopping outcome among U.S. adults. It is not a claim that 36% of Americans were scammed online, lost money in every sense, or experienced fraud in the past year.
Source: Pew Research CenterAbout a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to themPublished 2025-11-19
View sourceSurvey responses and formal fraud reports both miss some experiences; reporting systems do not capture every fraud event.
82.6%
82.6% of 2023 online-purchase scam reports submitted to BBB Scam Tracker involved a reported monetary loss.
This describes reports submitted to BBB Scam Tracker. It is not a percentage of all shoppers, all scam attempts, or the general population.
Source: Better Business Bureau2023 BBB Scam Tracker Risk ReportPublished 2024-04
View sourceBBB Scam Tracker reflects voluntary submissions; reporting systems do not capture every fraud event.
$2.1 billion
In 2025, people reported $2.1 billion in losses from scams that began on social media.
Nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam in 2025 said it began on social media.
These figures describe reported losses and reports to the FTC. They are not a share of all social-media users.
Source: Federal Trade CommissionReported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020Published 2026-04
View sourceReporting systems do not capture every fraud event; the FTC notes that most scams are never reported to the government.
Why you can trust the process
Assayer separates warning evidence from reassuring evidence, states what was checked, identifies missing information, assigns a confidence level, shows limitations, and gives a safest next step. It does not guarantee that something is safe.
Reports use private authorization links so they are not publicly searchable. Raw pictures are kept only briefly (about 45 minutes by default) and then deleted. Anonymous reports expire after about 24 hours. You do not need an account or payment to check something.
Guides
Practical reading on common patterns and how to understand an Assayer report.
How Assayer works
What you can submit, what Assayer checks, how to read result labels and confidence, and what reports can and cannot tell you.
Read guideSuspicious websites and URLs
Hostname mismatches, lookalike domains, HTTPS limits, redirects, and safe verification before you open a checkout page.
Read guideSuspicious messages and impersonation
Urgency, secrecy, credential requests, sender mismatches, and how to verify through independent contact paths.
Read guideSellers, listings, and payment requests
Seller identity, price plausibility, payment-recipient mismatch, irreversible payment methods, and marketplace protections.
Read guideScreenshots and mixed evidence
What screenshots can reveal, what they cannot prove, and how surrounding context improves an Assayer report.
Read guideFictional report examples
Illustrative submissions showing how Assayer may reason — not actual scans or guaranteed outcomes.
Read guideIf you have already paid or need reporting steps, see Safety and reporting guidance. For scanner instructions, visit Help.
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