Every month, more than 30,000 people paste a suspicious link, forward a strange email, or message us on WhatsApp to ask one simple question: is this real? We answer, free, in plain language, with no account and no catch.
Nobody here is paid, and the tools we build are given away. What nobody donates is the running cost of the machines behind them. Every amount helps — a small donation goes an unreasonably long way.
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30,000+
People helped every month
Free answers on suspicious links, emails, and messages
5.7M
Campaign impressions
Scam warnings on NYC street kiosks across nine campaigns
$0
Amount we charge
No paywalls, no accounts, no upsell, no data sold
100%
Volunteer-run
No salaries. Your donation pays for machines, not people
Where the money goes
Google gives us $10,000 a month in search advertising. LinkNYC gives us kiosk space across Manhattan for nothing. Every researcher, investigator, writer, and engineer here is a volunteer.
What nobody donates is the unglamorous part — the servers and services that actually answer a person at 11pm who is frightened about an email. That is the gap you fill.
The machines behind every check, scan, and reply. This is where most of what you give goes.
The data sources our investigators use to find a scam campaign before it reaches the people we are trying to protect.
Translation and review, so guidance is right and not merely readable. A scam warning only works in a language you think in.
Printed posters and handouts for schools, libraries, and community groups, plus the cost of running the workshops themselves.
We are not going to tell you that $25 saves a specific number of people — we would be making that up, and this is an organisation whose whole value rests on not making things up. What is true is simpler: our costs are small, our reach is not, and every dollar lands on the running costs directly. A few dollars a month from enough people keeps all of this free indefinitely.
This is the work
So we do both — a workshop at a college in New York, a session for educators in Panama, a warning on a street kiosk that somebody reads while waiting for the light to change.
What your donation keeps online
Between them they answer more than 30,000 people a month, and not one of those people was asked for a card, an account, or an email address.
Scam guidance over WhatsApp, in multiple languages. For the many people whose whole digital life happens in a chat app.
Forward an email
Forward anything suspicious to check@inboxspotter.com and get a plain-language answer back. No account, no app.
50 scam families documented
A free, searchable record of real scams, so anyone can recognise the pattern before it reaches them.
Alerts you can forward
A free feed of the scams going around right now, written to be shared with the people you look out for.
Every one of these stays free because the running costs are covered by people who donate.
Cover a bit of it →Other ways to give
The single most useful thing you can do. $5 a month, reliably, is worth more to us than $60 once, because it is the difference between hoping a service stays up and knowing it will. Choose monthly in the form above.
Most matching programs accept 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and it doubles or triples your gift for five minutes of your time. They will ask for our EIN: 99-4835568. Email info@cybersecurityreach.org and we will deal with the forms.
Often materially better for you at tax time than giving cash. Email info@cybersecurityreach.org and we will send you what you need.
Not in a position to give? That is completely fine, and there is something else you can do that costs nothing: send one of our alerts to the person in your life most likely to be targeted. See the current alerts · Or volunteer with us
Questions, answered
Yes. Cybersecurity Reach Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 99-4835568. A receipt for your records is emailed immediately after you give.
Servers, APIs, and databases — the machines that answer people. Keeping those running is the first call on every donation, and it is genuinely what it takes to run every tool on this page. Anything beyond it funds original scam research, translation into Spanish, printed materials for partner schools and community groups, and workshops. Nobody at CSRF draws a salary, so none of it goes to staff. Every amount helps, whatever size it is.
The expensive parts are donated. Google gives us $10,000 a month in search advertising through the Ad Grant. LinkNYC gives us kiosk space at no cost. Every researcher, investigator, and engineer is a volunteer. Your donation covers the one thing nobody donates: the running costs of the infrastructure. Every amount helps.
The monthly figure comes from our own impact system and is the same number we report internally and to partner organisations. The 5.7 million is campaign impressions from the LinkNYC delivery reports — that is ad views, not people helped, and we are deliberately careful not to describe it as anything else. If a figure here matters to your decision, email us and we will show you where it comes from.
Yes, and it is the most useful thing you can do. A predictable $10 a month is worth more to us than an unpredictable $120, because it lets us commit to keeping a service running. Choose the monthly option in the form. Pause or cancel any time.
Many do, and it is the fastest way to double your gift. Ask your HR team — most matching programs accept 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and they will ask for our EIN, which is 99-4835568. Email info@cybersecurityreach.org and we will handle the paperwork with them.
Yes. These are often more tax-efficient for you than cash. Email info@cybersecurityreach.org and we will set it up.
They will get a clear answer, for free, because someone covered the running costs that month. Thank you for being one of those people.
Cybersecurity Reach Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 99-4835568. Questions about giving? info@cybersecurityreach.org
Give any amount
Monthly or one-time. Takes under a minute.
Secure giving via Givebutter · Tax-deductible receipt emailed instantly
