Editorial Guidelines
Everything we publish is meant to be accurate, clear and genuinely useful to someone under pressure. These are the standards we hold each guide and article to, and how we keep them true over time.
How our content is produced
Our guides and articles are researched and written in-house. Every piece starts from a real question a reader might be asking in the moment — "is this site safe?", "how do I get my money back?" — and is built to answer it without wasting the reader's time. We write in plain English, avoid jargon where we can and explain it where we cannot, and use British spelling, currency and legal detail because most of our readers are in the UK.
Accuracy and sourcing
Consumer-safety information has to be right, because people act on it. We ground factual claims — reporting routes, consumer protections, how a particular fraud works — in reputable, primary sources such as the Financial Conduct Authority, Action Fraud, the National Cyber Security Centre, and official banking and consumer-rights bodies. Where the details differ across the UK, we say so; for instance, England, Wales and Northern Ireland report fraud through Action Fraud, while in Scotland it goes to Police Scotland on 101. We do not invent statistics, and where hard numbers would be shaky or quickly go out of date, we describe the shape of a risk honestly instead of dressing it in false precision.
Independence
Our editorial judgement is not for sale. We do not accept payment to recommend a product, to rate a website more favourably, or to remove a warning. If we ever earn revenue in ways that could be seen to create a conflict — advertising, for instance — we keep it clearly separated from the content, and it never influences what a guide says or how our checker scores a site.
Fairness and tone
We write to inform, not to frighten. Being scammed is not a mark of stupidity, and our tone reflects that: calm, practical and free of blame. We describe how frauds operate in enough detail to help you recognise one, without writing a how-to for would-be criminals. And when we discuss our own website checker, we are careful never to over-promise — it is a tool that weighs public signals, not a mind-reader, as our methodology page spells out.
Keeping content current
Scams evolve, laws change and reporting routes get updated, so our content is not written once and forgotten. Articles carry a publication date, and we revisit them when the facts move — updating protections, contact numbers and examples as needed. When a change is significant, we note that a piece has been updated rather than quietly editing it, so you can see the content is maintained.
Corrections
We would always rather fix a mistake than defend one. Found a mistake, a fact that has aged badly, or a score that looks off? Email [email protected] and we will look into it promptly, updating the page wherever a change is justified. Clear, well-founded feedback from readers is one of the best quality checks we have.