How to save evidence and report a scam

How to preserve the details of a suspicious call, message, or website before reporting it.

By AlertaSpam Security Team. Published August 7, 2026

Capture what you can before it disappears: a full screenshot of a text or email (including the sender field and the timestamp, not just the message body), the exact phone number that called from your recent-calls list, and the full link from a suspicious message, ideally copied as text rather than just remembered.

Note the date and time as precisely as you can, and if money was involved, keep any transaction or wire-transfer reference, the amount, and the receiving account or wallet details if you have them — these are often what a bank or authority needs to act.

Do not crop out or edit the timestamp or sender information when saving a screenshot; an edited image is far less useful as evidence than a plain, complete one.

When you submit this evidence — whether to AlertaSpam, your bank, or an official reporting channel — never include your own passwords, PINs, or full card numbers in the text or images you share, even when explaining what happened.