The "Is It Real?" Checklist – Predicai Shield

The Red Flags

Urgency: Are they saying "Do it NOW"? Secrecy: Did they say "Don't tell anyone"? Payment: Are they asking for Wire, Crypto, or Gift Cards? Change: Did they claim a "New Number" or "Lost Phone"?

The Verification

I called the person/company back on a known saved number (not the one that called me). I asked for the Family Safe Word. I checked the official app/website directly (no links).

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Report. Verify. Protect. Still not sure? Use Shield Check™ for a calm second opinion on suspicious texts, emails, and screenshots.
Optional: Report a scam to strengthen the community dataset.

Evidence note: In two user studies (N = 175) on explainable SMS phishing detection, participants improved from 71.2% accuracy to 92.8% after reading LLM-generated explanations; older adults reached 94.2%. Usability was rated “excellent” (SUS 82.6).¹ ¹ Yizhu Wang et al., “Can You Walk Me Through It? Explainable SMS Phishing Detection using LLM-based Agents,” Proceedings of the Twenty-First Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), USENIX, August 11–12, 2025 (Seattle, WA). Talk page · PDF

Is it real?