Terms of Service

Last Updated: October 16, 2026

1. Acceptance of These Terms

Welcome to ScamShield. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the ScamShield website at scamshieldapp.org, including the ScamShield Analyzer and associated educational resources.

By accessing or using ScamShield, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must discontinue use of the service.

These Terms apply to all visitors and users of ScamShield. Additional terms may apply to particular features if expressly presented to you.

2. Purpose of ScamShield

ScamShield is an educational and informational platform designed to help users recognize potential scams and better understand suspicious communications.

The ScamShield Analyzer allows users to submit suspicious text messages, emails, URLs, and images for analysis. Depending on the submission, the Analyzer may identify potential warning signs, explain suspicious patterns, provide risk assessments and confidence indicators, and suggest possible next steps.

ScamShield is intended to support users in making more informed decisions about online safety. It is not a substitute for independent verification, professional advice, or the services of law enforcement, financial institutions, legal professionals, or cybersecurity specialists.

3. Eligibility and Responsible Use

You may use ScamShield only in compliance with applicable laws and these Terms. If you are under the age at which you can legally agree to these Terms in your jurisdiction, you should use the service with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian where required by law.

You agree to use ScamShield responsibly and only for lawful purposes. You must not use the service to facilitate fraud, harassment, impersonation, unauthorized access, or other unlawful conduct.

4. Use of the ScamShield Analyzer

The Analyzer is designed to evaluate content submitted by users and provide an informational assessment of potential scam indicators.

By submitting content, you acknowledge that:

• The results are generated through automated analysis and may be inaccurate or incomplete.
• ScamShield may not identify every warning sign or detect every scam.
• Legitimate communications may be incorrectly flagged as suspicious.
• Fraudulent communications may receive a low-risk assessment or may not be identified as suspicious.
• Risk levels and confidence indicators are estimates intended to assist your judgment, not guarantees of authenticity or fraud.

You are responsible for evaluating the results in context and independently verifying important claims before acting on them.

5. User Submissions

You may submit text, URLs, images, screenshots, or other supported content to the Analyzer for evaluation.

You represent that you have the right or lawful authority to submit the content you provide and that doing so does not violate applicable law or another person's rights.

You agree not to submit content for purposes that are unlawful, abusive, deceptive, or unrelated to the legitimate use of the service in a manner that interferes with its operation.

You should avoid submitting unnecessary sensitive information, including passwords, authentication codes, bank login credentials, complete payment card details, government identification numbers, or confidential information unrelated to the analysis.

Do not submit information belonging to another person unless you have an appropriate legal basis to do so.

6. Processing of Submitted Content

Submitted content is processed to generate the analysis requested by the user. To provide this functionality, content may be transmitted to ScamShield's application infrastructure and third-party artificial intelligence or hosting providers.

ScamShield does not maintain a user-facing history or persistent database of submitted Analyzer content or results. However, temporary processing, technical logging, and data handling by third-party infrastructure or AI providers may occur. Accordingly, users should not interpret the absence of a saved submission history as a guarantee that no system involved in processing ever temporarily retains information.

For further information about how submitted content and technical information are handled, please review the ScamShield Privacy Policy.

7. Prohibited Activities

You agree not to:

• Use ScamShield to commit, facilitate, or conceal fraud, phishing, identity theft, or other unlawful activity.
• Submit content that you do not have the right or lawful authority to use or disclose.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to ScamShield, its infrastructure, or connected services.
• Interfere with the operation, availability, or security of the website or Analyzer.
• Attempt to bypass reasonable usage restrictions, security measures, or technical safeguards.
• Use automated tools to overload, disrupt, scrape, or abuse the service without authorization.
• Introduce malicious code, harmful files, or other material intended to compromise systems or users.
• Use ScamShield's output to harass, threaten, defame, or unlawfully target another person.
• Misrepresent ScamShield's results as verified findings or official determinations when they are not.
• Use the service in a manner that violates applicable laws or infringes the rights of others.

We may take reasonable measures to protect the service against misuse, security threats, or conduct that violates these Terms, subject to applicable law.

8. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Analysis

ScamShield may use artificial intelligence systems to analyze submitted content and generate results. AI systems can make mistakes, misunderstand context, overlook relevant information, or produce inaccurate explanations.

ScamShield does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or timeliness of any AI-generated result.

An analysis is not a definitive determination that a person, business, website, message, or organization is legitimate or fraudulent. Users should independently verify suspicious communications using trusted contact information obtained from official sources.

ScamShield does not authorize users to treat its output as the sole basis for consequential financial, legal, medical, employment, or other significant decisions.

9. No Professional Advice or Guarantee of Protection

ScamShield provides general educational and informational assistance. It does not provide individualized legal, financial, investment, or professional cybersecurity advice.

Although the platform is designed to help users recognize potential scams, no detection system can guarantee that every scam will be identified or that every legitimate communication will be correctly classified.

You remain responsible for decisions you make after using ScamShield, including whether to respond to a message, visit a website, disclose information, send money, or engage with a person or organization.

When you suspect fraud, consider contacting the relevant organization through a verified channel and reporting suspected criminal activity to the appropriate authorities.

10. Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise stated, ScamShield's website design, branding, original educational materials, written content, graphics, and software are owned by ScamShield or used with appropriate authorization and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You may access and use ScamShield for personal, educational, and other lawful purposes permitted by these Terms.

You may not reproduce, redistribute, sell, modify, or commercially exploit ScamShield's protected materials without appropriate authorization, except where permitted by law or an applicable license.

These Terms do not transfer ownership of ScamShield's intellectual property to you.

11. Third-Party Services and Links

ScamShield may rely on third-party services to provide hosting, artificial intelligence processing, security, or other technical functions. The availability and operation of these services may affect the Analyzer.

The website may also link to external resources, including government agencies, financial institutions, and consumer-protection organizations.

ScamShield does not control all third-party services or external websites and is not responsible for their independent content, availability, terms, or privacy practices. Your use of third-party services may be subject to separate terms and policies.

Links to external resources are provided for convenience and informational purposes and do not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the linked organization or its services.

12. Availability and Changes to the Service

We aim to maintain ScamShield's availability and functionality, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or continuous access.

Features may be unavailable due to maintenance, technical issues, third-party service disruptions, security concerns, or circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

We may update, modify, suspend, restrict, or discontinue any part of ScamShield when reasonably necessary, subject to applicable law. We do not guarantee that any particular feature will remain available indefinitely.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ScamShield is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory.

To the extent permitted by law, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability, and accuracy.

We do not warrant that the service will always be secure, uninterrupted, error-free, or capable of identifying every fraudulent communication or malicious website.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits a warranty or right that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under applicable law.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ScamShield and the individuals or entities responsible for operating the service will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising out of or related to the use of, inability to use, or reliance on ScamShield.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, this limitation includes losses arising from inaccurate analysis results, undetected scams, incorrectly flagged communications, reliance on risk assessments, service interruptions, or third-party service failures.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability where such exclusion is prohibited by applicable law.

Any additional limitation or cap on liability will apply only to the extent permitted by the law governing the relevant claim.

15. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to be responsible for claims, losses, liabilities, and reasonable expenses arising from your unlawful use of ScamShield, your violation of these Terms, or your infringement of another person's rights.

This section does not require you to indemnify ScamShield for claims to the extent they result from conduct for which you cannot lawfully be held responsible, or otherwise override protections available to you under applicable law.

16. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using ScamShield at any time.

We may restrict or suspend access to the service where reasonably necessary to address security threats, prevent abuse, comply with legal obligations, or respond to violations of these Terms.

Where appropriate and legally permitted, we may take steps to notify affected users of significant restrictions. We are not required to provide advance notice when doing so would compromise security or violate legal obligations.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including applicable disclaimers, intellectual property provisions, and limitations of liability, will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

17. Privacy

Your use of ScamShield is also subject to our Privacy Policy, which describes the information that may be processed through the website and Analyzer.

Please review the Privacy Policy to understand how submitted content, technical information, and information processed by third-party providers may be handled.

If these Terms and the Privacy Policy address different subjects, each document applies to its respective subject matter. Nothing in these Terms overrides rights granted by applicable privacy law.

18. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms to reflect changes to ScamShield, its features, applicable laws, or operational practices.

When changes are made, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the beginning of this document. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before implementing changes.

Your use of ScamShield after revised Terms become effective will be governed by the updated Terms to the extent permitted by applicable law. If you do not agree to a revision, you should stop using the affected service.

19. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms will be interpreted in accordance with applicable law. Any governing-law or dispute-resolution provision will apply only to the extent permitted by the laws governing the relevant dispute.

Nothing in this section deprives users of mandatory consumer protections or other rights that cannot lawfully be waived under applicable law.

20. Severability and Waiver

If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

A failure to enforce a provision does not constitute a waiver of the right to enforce that provision later.

21. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the ScamShield Privacy Policy and any additional terms expressly applicable to a particular feature, constitute the terms governing your use of ScamShield, subject to applicable law.

22. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms or the operation of ScamShield, please contact us through the contact information provided on our website at scamshieldapp.org.

Contact email: outreach@scamshieldapp.org