Tricks & Trouble Glossary
Every term VeriFyve uses, written in plain English. Bookmark this page, share it with family, or link to a specific term to explain it in one tap.
Scam vocabulary
Fraud tactics, channels, and red flags that show up in VeriFyve alerts, posts, and the Academy.
- Account takeover (ATO)#
- A fraudster gains control of your email, bank, or social account — usually via phishing, SIM swap, or reused passwords — and uses it as a launchpad for further fraud.
- Deepfake#
- AI-generated video, audio, or images that impersonate a real person — increasingly used in CEO fraud, family-emergency calls, and fake celebrity endorsements.
- Gift card scam#
- Any request to 'pay' a bill, bond, or fine in retail gift cards is a scam — no legitimate business, court, or agency accepts gift cards as payment.
- Imposter scam#
- A fraudster pretends to be a government agency (IRS, SSA), utility, tech support, or family member to pressure you into paying immediately.
- Marketplace scam#
- Fake buyers or sellers on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp, or Zelle that ship empty boxes, send fake payment notifications, or 'overpay' and ask for the difference back.
- Money mule#
- Someone — often a victim themselves — who is recruited (job offer, romance, easy cash) to move stolen funds between accounts, hiding the trail for the actual fraudster.
- OTP bypassalso: one-time passcode scam#
- An attacker convinces you to read aloud the one-time password (OTP) your bank just texted you, so they can complete a takeover of your account.
- Phishingalso: spear phishing, whaling#
- A fraudster impersonates a trusted brand (bank, retailer, government) over email to trick you into clicking a link, opening an attachment, or handing over credentials.
- Pig butcheringalso: sha zhu pan, romance investment scam#
- A long-con investment scam (usually crypto) where the fraudster builds a romantic or friendly relationship over weeks, then steers the victim into a fake trading platform.
- Quishing#
- Phishing via malicious QR code, often stuck on parking meters, restaurant tables, or printed in fake invoices. Scanning the code opens a credential-stealing site.
- Red flag#
- A specific signal in a message that raises its risk score — urgency, request to switch channels, payment by gift card or crypto, mismatched domain, or pressure to keep it secret.
- Romance scam#
- Fraudster fakes a romantic relationship online, then invents an emergency — medical bills, customs fees, a stranded trip — to extract money.
- SIM swap#
- Fraudster convinces your wireless carrier to port your phone number to their SIM, intercepting SMS one-time codes and resetting your bank, email, and crypto accounts.
- Smishing#
- Phishing delivered by SMS or RCS text message. Common lures: package delivery, toll violations, fake bank alerts, and IRS impostors.
- Spoofing#
- Faking the source of a call, text, email, or website so it looks like it came from someone you trust. Caller ID, email From: lines, and domain names are all easily spoofed.
- Vishing#
- Phishing delivered by voice call, often with a spoofed Caller ID. Increasingly uses AI voice cloning of family members.
VeriFyve features
How the VeriFyve app organizes cases, risk scores, badges, and community contributions.
- Academy#
- Short, plain-language lessons that explain the latest scam tactics and walk you through what to do if you're targeted.
- Case#
- A single thing you asked VeriFyve to check — a pasted message, screenshot, link, phone number, or business. Every analysis is filed as a case in your history.
- Community feed#
- The public stream of scam screenshots and reports VeriFyve members have approved for sharing. Powers the trends map and helps neighbors warn each other.
- Gold star#
- A small gold star added across the bottom of your Validator Shield. You earn one star for every 5 approved screenshot posts shared to the feed, up to 3 stars total.
- My Team#
- Other VeriFyve members you've linked with. Their cases never appear in your feed, but you can share posts or trusted-contact requests with them directly.
- Playbook#
- Step-by-step recovery instructions for after a scam — who to call, what to freeze, what evidence to keep, which agencies to report to.
- Risk score#
- A 0–100 number VeriFyve assigns to each case. 0–24 is safe, 25–59 is suspicious, 60–84 is likely scam, and 85+ is a confirmed scam pattern.
- Second opinion#
- When VeriFyve isn't sure, you can send the case to a different AI model for a second look before you act on it.
- Trusted contacts#
- People you've added as a sanity check. You can forward a case to them for a quick 'does this look real?' without leaving the app.
- Typology#
- The named fraud category VeriFyve matched (e.g. 'IRS imposter', 'package redelivery smishing', 'pig butchering'). Used for trends, alerts, and Academy lessons.
- Validator Shield#
- A badge added to your avatar the first time you share an approved screenshot to the community feed — a thank-you for helping protect other members.
- Verdict#
- The plain-English label that pairs with the risk score: safe, suspicious, likely scam, or confirmed scam pattern.
AI & safety concepts
How VeriFyve uses AI models, redaction, and access controls to keep your data private.
- Lovable AI#
- The AI gateway VeriFyve uses to run scam-detection models (Google Gemini, OpenAI). All AI calls run server-side; your API keys are never in the app.
- Moderation#
- The review step every community post goes through — automated checks for nudity, illegal content, and obvious PII, plus human review for anything flagged.
- PII#
- Personally Identifiable Information — anything that points to a real person (name, email, phone, address, SSN, account numbers). Always redacted before a post goes public.
- Redaction#
- Blocking out names, faces, phone numbers, account numbers, and other personal data in a screenshot before it's shared publicly. VeriFyve auto-suggests and lets you confirm.
- Row-level securityalso: RLS#
- A database rule that decides who can see which row. VeriFyve uses it so each user can only read their own cases, profile, and notifications — not anyone else's.
- Watermark#
- The faint VeriFyve mark layered onto every shared screenshot so it's clear where the image came from if it gets re-shared off-platform.