About The End Scams Project
The End Scams Project is a free, public-benefit training site. It lets people practise responding to scams using invented messages, calls, and pop-ups. It is free to use, shows no adverts, and asks for no account.
Who runs this site
The End Scams Project started in Houston, Texas, in 2026. Its scam alerts began with Houston and now cover the whole United States. It is independent and is not part of any government agency, bank, or business.
The practice is free for everyone and will stay free. We sell custom scam alerts and in-person sessions to organizations, and that money helps pay for the practice and for expanding it. Customers cannot pay to change what this site says.
Our mission
Our mission is to help people pause and check before they act on a suspicious call, text, email, or computer warning, and to make it easy for families to practise that habit together.
Scams work by rushing people: a warning that something is wrong, a caller who sounds official, a relative who suddenly needs money. Reading about scams can explain the warning signs. We believe it also helps to have rehearsed the response, so that when a real request arrives, stopping to check feels familiar rather than rude.
What we offer
Practice stories
Four short, interactive stories, about 15 minutes in all. In each one you help a friend or neighbor with a suspicious moment: a text asking for a small fee to deliver a package, a computer warning with a number to call, a caller asking for a bank security code, and a text from a new number, from someone who says he is her son and needs money tonight. Each story asks you two questions, and in between you do the safe step yourself on a pretend phone or computer, such as hanging up on the caller. Every message is invented, and there is no score and no timer.
Scam guides
Plain-language guides to common scams: how they tend to work, the warning signs, a safer next step, and what to do if it has already happened.
Latest Scams
Dated alerts about scams being reported now. Each one names the published sources it is based on, so you can read them yourself.
Help Now
What to do first, and where to report, if money or personal information has already gone.
The practice is available in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Tagalog, French, and Russian.
Why practice, rather than a video
A lot of scam education is something you watch or read: a video, a talk, or a list of tips. Those explain the warning signs. Our practice asks you to use them. You step into a realistic, invented moment and decide what to do, the way you would have to in real life.
Built on published research
In 2024, a committee of the FTC's Scams Against Older Adults Advisory Group reviewed the research on scam-prevention education. Its members included the FTC, the Justice Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FINRA, and AARP. The practice follows several of the approaches the review found support for:
- Teach how scammers work in general, such as rushing you or asking for a code, not only one scam at a time.
- Keep the safe steps few and simple, so they come to mind when it counts. Each story centres on one.
- Let people experience a scam safely, an approach the review calls promising.
- Use a calm, positive tone. The review found older adults remember positive messages better, and a fear-based approach tested by AARP did not help.
- Put people in the role of helping someone else, which the review suggests highlighting for older adults. In every story you help a friend or neighbor.
The committee has not reviewed or endorsed this site.
consumer.ftc.gov
What studies of hands-on learning have found
FINRA Investor Education Foundation and AARP
Three days after a 90-minute fraud workshop, a high-pressure telemarketer called attendees about an investment. 18% gave him their contact details, compared with 36% of people who had signed up for the workshop but not yet attended.
pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
After 15 minutes of training, people who played an interactive anti-phishing game were better at telling fake websites from real ones than people who spent the time reading training materials.
A 2026 study of 144 older adults
People who practised helping someone else through a simulated online scam were better at spotting online fraud afterwards than people who had no training. People who only watched were not significantly better.
A review of 225 studies of university science courses
Students in traditional lecture courses were 1.5 times as likely to fail as students in courses with active learning: 33.8% against 21.8%.
The same research is clear about its limits. Lessons fade: the advisory group's review found benefits disappearing within months unless people had a reminder, and in the study of older adults the differences were gone a month later. None of these studies tested this site. The scam guides and Latest Scams are there to come back to.
We never contact individuals first
We do not ring, text, or email members of the public. There is nothing in this service that reaches out to you. If someone calls, texts, or emails you personally claiming to be from The End Scams Project, it is not us — however much they seem to know, and however reasonable they sound.
We do email organizations, such as libraries, senior centers, community groups, and businesses, about working together. Those emails come only from an address ending in @endscamsproject.com.
What we will never ask you for
Nobody genuinely from this project will ask you for any of these, during the practice, by email, or anywhere else:
- Money, a payment, a donation, or a fee of any kind.
- A password, a PIN, or a one-time security code.
- Bank account numbers, card numbers, or card security codes.
- Your Social Security number, or a photograph of any ID.
- Remote access to your computer or phone, or for you to install anything.
- A real scam message you have received, forwarded to us.
A request for any of those is a reason to stop, whoever appears to be asking.
We charge organizations for custom alerts and in-person sessions, and we never charge anyone else. Any email about that comes from an address ending in @endscamsproject.com. If you are not sure a request is real, write to [email protected] yourself and ask.
How to check you are on the real site
- Type endscamsproject.com into your browser yourself, rather than following a link somebody sent you.
- That address is the only one we use. www.endscamsproject.com forwards to it, and nothing else is ours.
- A page that looks like this one at a different web address is not this project, whatever the page says.
- Our email addresses all end in @endscamsproject.com. We write from those and nowhere else.
What we do ask for
After the fourth story there are three broad questions: which country you are in, a wide age range, and whether fraud has ever cost you money. Each one offers “prefer not to answer”, and you can skip all three and still get your certificate. If you want a certificate you type a name onto it, and that name is never saved or sent anywhere; it is there for printing and then gone.
No learner account or direct identity is required. The service processes limited technical and training data as described in the privacy notice, which includes Google Analytics for general site use. We do not send your practice answers, your story choices, the name on a certificate, or anything from a safety plan to analytics.
What practice cannot do
No scam education, ours included, can promise that someone will never be scammed. We do not claim the practice prevents fraud, saves money, or predicts who will be targeted. It is not a hotline, and it cannot investigate what happened or recover a loss. The Justice Department's National Elder Fraud Hotline (833-372-8311), the FTC, and the FBI all take reports, and Help Now explains where to start.
How the content is made
The practice has no timers, no scores to beat, no leaderboards, and no shaming, because mistakes are part of practising. Practice scenarios and assessment content are versioned and checked before they go out. Every name, company, phone number, and web address inside the practice is invented, so nothing in it can contact you and nothing in it costs money. The scam alerts are dated, and each one names the published sources it came from so you can read them yourself.
Questions people ask
Is this site real?
Yes. The End Scams Project is a public-benefit training site that lets people practise responding to scams using invented messages. It is free to use and has no adverts. The surest way to confirm you are on it is to type endscamsproject.com into your browser yourself rather than following a link someone sent you.
Who runs The End Scams Project?
It is an independent project that started in Houston, Texas, in 2026. Its scam alerts began with Houston and now cover the whole United States. It is not part of any government agency, bank, or business.
How is it paid for?
We sell custom scam alerts and in-person sessions to organizations, and that money helps pay for the practice and for expanding it. The practice itself is free for everyone and will stay free. Customers cannot pay to change what this site says.
Will anyone from The End Scams Project ever call, text, or email me?
No. We never contact individuals first. There is no phone line that rings out, no text messages, and no unsolicited email to members of the public. If someone rings, texts, or emails you personally claiming to be from this project, it is not us, however convincing it sounds. We do email organizations, such as libraries, senior centers, community groups, and businesses, about working together, and only from an address ending in @endscamsproject.com. You can always reach us first, by email, and we will only ever be replying to you.
What will you never ask me for?
Money, passwords, one-time security codes, bank or card numbers, your Social Security number, a photograph of your ID, or remote access to your computer or phone. Nobody genuinely from this project will ever ask you for any of those. We charge organizations for custom alerts and in-person sessions, and we never charge anyone else. The practice itself asks for none of them either, because none of it is real.
How do I know I am on the right website?
Type endscamsproject.com into the address bar yourself and look at what the browser shows. That single address is the only one we use, and www.endscamsproject.com simply forwards to it. We do not run the practice on any other web address, so a page that looks like this one at a different address is not ours.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It is free, and there is no account. Nothing to pay, no email address to hand over, nothing to install, and no subscription that starts later. Your progress is kept on your own device, and you can clear it at any time from the site itself.
Do you track me?
We use Google Analytics to understand general site use: which pages are visited, and broad device, browser, and location information. We also record that practice was started and that all four stories were finished. We do not send your practice answers, your story choices, the name you type on a certificate, or anything from a safety plan. No learner account or direct identity is required. The service processes limited technical and training data as described in the privacy notice.
Can you help me get money back, or look into what happened to me?
No. This is education, not an investigation or recovery service, and we would rather say so plainly than let anyone wait on help we cannot give. If money has already gone, the Help Now page lists the official places that do handle reports, and acting quickly matters more than having every detail ready.
Who is it for?
Anyone, though it was designed with older adults, families, and caregivers in mind. Libraries, senior centres, and community groups are welcome to work through it with people, and can get in touch about running a session.
How is this different from other scam-prevention programs?
A lot of scam education is something you watch or read. Here you practise instead: you help a friend or neighbor through an invented text, phone call, or computer warning and make the decisions yourself. The design follows approaches that a 2024 research review by a committee of the FTC's Scams Against Older Adults Advisory Group found support for, such as teaching scammers' general tactics, keeping the safe steps simple, and using a calm, positive tone. The committee has not reviewed or endorsed this site. It is free, needs no account, and works alongside services like the Justice Department's National Elder Fraud Hotline rather than replacing them.
How to reach us
By email only. If you are writing as an individual, we will only ever be replying to you.
- General questions: [email protected]
- Privacy and deletion requests: [email protected]
- Accessibility: [email protected]
- Security reports: [email protected]