Check if a giveaway or prize DM is a scam. Screens for recurring fraud signals like upfront fees and data requests — free.
Free with no sign-up, and the check runs inside your browser, so what you enter never leaves your device. The result is a signal to help you decide, not proof for money or legal decisions.
Paste the DM or text that starts with "Congratulations, you won!". We check it against the prize-scam formula — unearned win, upfront fee, time pressure — plus the risk of any link inside. Nothing leaves your device.
A real win never asks for money — not shipping, not customs, not a "small verification fee". And real brands only contact people who actually entered. If you never entered, the notification is a scam from its first word, however polished.
A common variant imitates a brand's official account with a look-alike handle and mass-DMs its followers. Put the sender's handle through the impersonation checker, and cross-check the brand's official profile for the event.
Giveaway fraud almost always starts with impersonation: an account copying a brand's name and profile photo, sending bulk DMs to its followers. So checking whether the sender is genuine is faster than dissecting the wording.
Do it in reverse. Do not search for the account inside the platform. Go to the brand's own website and follow the social links from there. Impersonators appear in search results but are not linked from official sites. Verification badges are weak evidence now that several platforms sell them by subscription.
Once you have the real account, check whether the event is actually announced in its feed. Giveaways that only ever contact winners quietly by DM are rare. An announcement that does not exist settles the question on its own.
In several countries prizes above a threshold really are taxable, and organisers either withhold or ask the winner to cover the amount. Memorising "any mention of tax means fraud" loses you a genuine prize; accepting "it is tax, so it is fine" loses you money. The dividing line is the procedure, not the amount.
A legitimate process names the organiser and its business details, uses a company account rather than a personal one, can produce a receipt or withholding document, and confirms winners through an official channel. Above all it gives you time.
Fraud inverts each of those: a personal account, payment today, no documentation, everything conducted inside the DM. Add a request for gift card codes or crypto and there are no exceptions left — no legitimate organiser collects tax in gift cards.
A name and phone number alone rarely cause immediate harm, but they become raw material for the next approach. Expect more polished contact through another channel, and treat unfamiliar prize or refund notices with particular care for a while.
If you entered a username and password, change it now and anywhere you reused it. Two-factor authentication blocks sign-in even when the password is already gone. If card or bank details went in, call the issuer to freeze and reissue.
A photograph of an ID document is a different matter. It can be used to open accounts or credit in your name, so check what accounts and services exist under your name through an official identity lookup and consider an identity-protection registration. Report the account and the link to the platform as well.
A DM arrived from an account bearing a familiar brand name, with a matching photo and bio, announcing a prize and asking for delivery details through a link. Entry is the first gate. If you never entered, there is nothing to have won. The check flags the combination of a win notice and a link request, but the judgement is already finished before that.
A DM opened with "congratulations, you won", asked for a small shipping fee, and warned the prize would be cancelled if not paid within 24 hours. Win notice, fee request, time pressure and a shortened link all register. The small amount is usually not the goal — getting card details entered is.
The message came from the official account, linked to the brand’s own domain, asked for no payment or card details, and referred to an entry that had actually been made. Almost nothing fires. "Did I ever enter this?" remains the simplest and strongest first filter.
Small brands and individual creators sometimes do ask winners to cover postage, which lights up the same signals as a scam and scores high. Look at the payment route rather than the amount: an official store checkout is one thing, an unfamiliar form asking you to type a card number is another.
No. This is a reference check for known patterns, and a carefully worded scam can score low. If you never entered but "won", be suspicious regardless of the score.
Vocabulary like "winner" and "deadline" appears in real notices too. The decisive signal is a money or personal-data request. Check whether that item lit up first.
Not asking for money does not make it safe. Collecting names, contact details, addresses and identity numbers can be the entire objective. Photographs of ID documents in particular can be used to open credit, so send nothing until the channel is confirmed.
Even a genuine account is separate from where its link goes; accounts get compromised, and domains sometimes point somewhere unrelated to the brand. Copy the address into the link check on this site, and confirm any win through the event announcement on the brand's own website.