How these frauds actually work.
Most advice about scams is a list of things to avoid, written by people who have never sat with somebody the day after. This is the other thing: the mechanics of each attack, the one moment it could have been stopped, and what to do if it already happened.
Written for the person in the family who ends up explaining it to everyone else. Free to read, free to forward, no account needed. Nothing on these pages tracks you.
Attack files
One scam per file, in the order people ask about them. Each is a diagram, a page of plain English, and what to do tonight.
There is no such thing as a digital arrest
A man in uniform video calls your father. He says a parcel in his name was found with drugs in it. He says a case is open and that the call must not be cut.
Pretending to be familyHi Mum, this is my new number
Your mother is making tea when her phone buzzes. It is her son, she thinks, from a new number, because his phone fell in water.
Fake deliveryThe parcel that was never sent
Everyone is waiting for something to arrive, which is why this is the most sent scam message in the world. The fee is tiny on purpose. It was never the point.
Fake jobThey pay you three times so you will fund the fourth
The clever part is that the first payments are real. You can withdraw them and buy something. That is what makes you trust the next part.
Fake investingTwo hundred people, mostly the same person
One morning you are in a group you never joined. An expert posts tips. Dozens of members post their profits and thank him. Almost all of them work for him.
Dated notes
Breaches, leaked databases and new patterns, as they appear.
Nothing published yet. The three rows below show the format: a date, one sentence on what happened, and one sentence on what it means for an ordinary person. Every note carries its sources.
Rules we hold ourselves to.
This is money and fear, so the standard has to be higher than a marketing blog. These are the rules, in public, so you can hold us to them.
A real name on every file
Written by a person, dated, and re-dated when we review it. No anonymous advice about your money.
Sources, or it does not ship
We report what has been documented and we link to it. We do not accuse companies of things we cannot show.
The honest line at the end
Each file says what KnownSquare changes about that attack, including the ones where the answer is nothing at all. A product that overclaims here would deserve to be disbelieved everywhere else.
Corrections stay visible
When we get something wrong, the correction is written on the page rather than quietly edited away.
Forward this to the person who needs it.
These pages are written to be sent to a parent, an uncle, a neighbour. No account, no paywall, no tracking.
What we are building