Scammer Defence: Scam Alerts

Scammer Defence

In-app purchases

About this app

Scammer Defence sends you a text message when someone you care about runs into a scam on their phone.

It is built for families. Set it up once on a parent's or grandparent's phone, enter your own mobile number, and then you can stop checking in. If something happens, you get a text. If nothing happens, you hear nothing.

WHY TEXT ALERTS
Most security apps show a warning inside the app, where the person being targeted is the only one who sees it, and scammers are practised at talking people past a warning screen. A text goes to you instead, on your own phone, while there is still time to call.

WHAT SETS OFF AN ALERT
Each protection is its own switch, and each one works on its own:
• A banking or financial site is opened
• A remote access tool such as TeamViewer, AnyDesk or ScreenConnect is reached
• A known scam or phishing site is opened in a browser

RARE BY DESIGN
Ordinary browsing touches dozens of blocked domains a day without anyone doing anything, because ad tags for banks and payment providers sit on the same lists as the real thing. So a single blocked site does not send a text.

Scammer Defence waits for two blocked sites within two minutes, then texts you naming both sites and the times. Two attempts close together is a person being walked through something; one is usually just a web page loading.

A scam in progress still reaches you. If a remote access tool is blocked and tried again, or a different one is tried instead, that is two attempts. And if a remote access tool and a banking site are both blocked in the same couple of minutes, the text says so specifically, because that pairing is how tech support scams work.

Scam and phishing sites opened in a browser alert on the first one.

There is also a hard limit of 3 alerts a day, and never twice for the same site within 6 hours.

BLOCKING, NOT JUST WATCHING
Scam and phishing domains are blocked before the page can load, whether or not a text is sent. Blocklists refresh daily from established threat-intelligence feeds including Phishing Army and URLhaus, and the banking and remote-access lists update daily too, so newly registered scam sites are covered without waiting for an app update.

RUNS ON THE DEVICE
Protection uses Android's VpnService to filter domain lookups locally on the phone. Your browsing is not routed through our servers, and it is not collected, sold or profiled. The only thing that leaves the phone is the alert itself.

SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR ANYONE
One screen. Switches you can read at a glance. Nothing to manage on the protected phone, and a PIN so protection cannot be switched off by someone talking the user through the settings menu.

WHAT YOU GET
• Text alerts to any mobile number you choose
• Daily-updated scam, phishing, banking and remote-access blocklists
• Independent switches for scam, banking and remote-access protection
• On-device filtering, with browsing never routed to us
• Restarts with the phone, no need to reopen it

Subscription required for text alerts.

VPN DISCLOSURE
Scammer Defence uses the VpnService API to inspect and filter domain lookups on this device only. It does not route your traffic through a remote server, does not change your IP address, and does not collect or transmit your browsing history.

What’s new

• Alerts now wait for two blocked sites within two minutes, and name both sites and times. A background ad tag for a bank no longer texts on its own
• A blocked remote access tool that is retried, or swapped for another, still alerts. A remote tool plus a bank is called out specifically
• Scam sites in a browser still alert on the first one
• Clearer PIN setup screen, dismissable with Back
• Banking and remote-access lists now update daily