Terms of Service

1. Who we are

ScamCheck South Africa is an online scam-checking service operated by Thomas Erlank in South Africa. You can reach us at any time at sayhi@thomaserlank.com.

2. What ScamCheck does

ScamCheck reviews text, links and screenshots you submit and gives an opinion on how likely the content is to be a scam, using automated AI analysis informed by common South African scam patterns.

A result is an informational risk assessment. It is not a guarantee, not legal advice and not a verdict from your bank, the police or any regulator. Always verify anything important directly with the organisation involved using an official contact method.

3. Free and Premium checks

You can use ScamCheck without an account, up to 5 free checks per calendar month. Premium gives unlimited checks, screenshot and link analysis, document analysis as it becomes available, and your saved check history.

We may change the free monthly limit or Premium features. If we reduce something you rely on, we will tell you on the site before the change takes effect.

4. Accounts

You can create an account with your email address and a sign-in code, or a shared free pass where offered. You are responsible for keeping access to your email account safe. Tell us straight away at sayhi@thomaserlank.com if you think someone else is using your account.

You must be able to lawfully enter into an agreement, and if you are under 18 you need permission from a parent or guardian to use ScamCheck.

5. Payments and subscriptions

Premium is billed in South African rand through our payment provider, at the monthly or yearly price shown at checkout. Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel.

You can cancel at any time from the Cancel subscription button on the About page. Cancellation stops future renewals; your Premium stays active until the end of the period you already paid for.

Because checks are delivered immediately, a started month or year is generally not refundable. If a payment went off in error, or you were billed twice, contact us and we will make it right.

6. Acceptable use

Do not use ScamCheck to break the law, to harass anyone, to probe systems you have no right to test, or to submit content you know is unlawful.

Do not submit other people's passwords, PINs, OTPs or full banking credentials. ScamCheck will never need them, and anyone who asks for them is not us.

Do not try to overload, reverse engineer or interfere with the service, or resell access to it.

7. Your content

You keep ownership of anything you submit for checking. You give us a limited permission to process it for the sole purpose of analysing it and showing you a result, and to keep anonymous statistics (category, risk result, date) to improve scam coverage.

If you report a scam, the details you give may be reviewed and used to improve our guidance. We do not send reports to the police on your behalf.

8. Availability and changes

We work hard to keep ScamCheck available, but we cannot promise uninterrupted service. Maintenance, third-party outages and load-shedding-proof infrastructure all have limits.

We may update these terms as the service evolves. The current version always lives on this page, and the big changes will be flagged on the site.

9. Liability

To the fullest extent allowed by South African law, ScamCheck and Thomas Erlank are not liable for losses that follow from relying on a check result instead of verifying with the relevant organisation, including financial losses, lost data or lost opportunities.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited, and nothing here affects your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

10. Law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. If there is a dispute, please contact us first at sayhi@thomaserlank.com so we can try to sort it out directly.

11. Contact

For anything about these terms, your account, a payment or a check result, email sayhi@thomaserlank.com. You can also read our Privacy & Cookie Policy, which explains how your information is handled.