Scam Catcher Methodology
This page documents source provenance and refresh cadence for Scam Catcher's phone scam intelligence.
Source Sync Cadence
| Source | Type | Cadence | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCC Consumer Complaints | Government complaint dataset | Daily ingestion + weekly reconciliation | consumercomplaints.fcc.gov |
| FCC Unwanted Calls | Government complaint dataset | Daily ingestion + weekly reconciliation | fcc.gov/unwanted-calls-complaints |
| CFPB Consumer Complaints | Government complaint dataset | Daily ingestion + weekly reconciliation | consumerfinance.gov consumer complaints |
| OSINT scam reporting sources | Public source intelligence | 7-day recrawl | Publicly available scam-reporting platforms |
| Community scam reports | User-contributed signal | Near real-time writes | In-app feedback confirmations |
Scoring Overview
- Each lookup combines source evidence by recency, source reliability, and cross-source agreement.
- Scam type and vector labels are inferred from matched evidence and user-confirmed outcomes.
- STIR/SHAKEN attestation is treated as one signal, not a standalone guarantee of legitimacy.
Limits and Safety
- Results are informational risk signals and may be incomplete or stale for newly active numbers.
- Scam Catcher does not store raw client IP addresses; abuse controls use salted one-way hashes.
- Do not use this output as the sole basis for legal, financial, or emergency decisions.
Last Updated
2026-04-21
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