Learn · Start here · September 2026
GACS for beginners: what it is and how to use it
GACS stands for Global Anti-Crime & Safety. It is a free public service that lets anyone check whether a website, social account, phone number or crypto wallet has already been reported as a scam — before money or personal details change hands.
The short version
Paste the thing you are unsure about into a checker. GACS searches a registry of confirmed scams built from public reports plus verified technical facts, and gives you a risk read in seconds. No account is needed to look something up.
What you can check
A link or phone number
Delivery texts, "your account is locked" emails, unexpected calls.
A social account
Fake support agents, impersonated brands, romance and giveaway profiles.
A crypto wallet
Check an address before you send anything to it — transfers cannot be reversed.
The full scam registry
Browse and search every confirmed entry by domain, wallet, phone or brand.
How to run your first check
- 1. Copy the thing that made you suspicious — the link, the @handle, the number, or the wallet address. Copy it, do not click it.
- 2. Open the matching checker above and paste it in.
- 3. Read the verdict and the evidence underneath it: how many people reported it, when the domain was registered, whether it is still online, and which threat feeds list it.
- 4. If it is flagged, stop there and warn whoever sent it to you. If it is clean but still feels wrong, trust the feeling — a clean result means "not yet reported", not "guaranteed safe".
Where the data comes from
Every entry in the registry combines two kinds of evidence. The first is human: reports submitted by people who encountered the scam, with screenshots and details. The second is technical and machine-verified — domain registration date and registrar, hosting network and country, whether the site still responds, listings in public threat feeds, and the brand the site appears to imitate.
That second layer matters for a reason worth understanding as a beginner: a lot of "scam list" sites publish thousands of near-identical pages with no real information on them. GACS holds thin entries back from search results until they carry enough verified, page-specific facts to be genuinely useful. Fewer, better-evidenced pages beat a large index nobody can trust.
What GACS is not
- • Not a recovery service. Nobody at GACS will contact you offering to get lost funds back. Anyone who does is running the follow-up scam.
- • Not law enforcement. Report to your national cybercrime unit as well — see the reporting guide.
- • Not financial advice. A risk read is information, not a recommendation to buy, sell or invest in anything.
Good next steps
Frequently asked questions
What is GACS?
GACS (Global Anti-Crime & Safety) is a free, public anti-fraud service at gacs.app. You paste a website address, social handle, phone number, or crypto wallet, and it tells you whether that identifier appears in a registry of confirmed scams and what the surrounding evidence looks like. There is no signup wall on the checkers and no charge to look something up.
Is GACS free to use?
Yes. The scam checkers, the searchable scam registry, and the reporting form are free and open to anyone, with no account required. A free account adds real-time alerts when something you care about is flagged. Paid tiers exist for ongoing family monitoring and for the training academy, but nothing behind those tiers is needed to check whether something is a scam.
How does GACS decide something is a scam?
Each entry combines reports submitted by the public with machine-verified facts about the identifier itself — who registered a domain and when, which network hosts it, whether it is still online, which threat feeds list it, and which brand it appears to imitate. Pages that carry only thin, unverified data stay out of search results until enough corroboration exists. Nothing is decided by a single anonymous report.
What should I do first if I am brand new to GACS?
Run one check on something you already have in front of you — the link in a message you were not expecting, the handle that just followed you, or the wallet address someone asked you to send funds to. That one search takes about ten seconds and shows you exactly what the service does before you decide whether to create an account for alerts.
Can I report a scam I encountered?
Yes, and reporting is the main way the registry grows. You can submit a scam with evidence without an account. Reports feed the registry other people search, so a scam you report today can be the warning someone else sees tomorrow. GACS is not a law-enforcement body — report to your national cybercrime unit as well.
Does GACS recover money that was already lost?
No, and treat anyone who promises that with suspicion — 'recovery agents' are one of the most common follow-up scams targeting people who have already been defrauded. GACS is preventative: it helps you check before you act, and it documents what happened so you can report it properly.
Authoritative sources
Independent primary sources used to check and corroborate the guidance on this page.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
Official US channel for reporting internet-enabled fraud and cybercrime.
- US Federal Trade Commission — ReportFraud
Consumer fraud reporting and published enforcement data.
- UK Action Fraud
UK national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
Canada's central repository for fraud reports and scam alerts.
