This page explains, in detail, how Beat the Scam researches, drafts, checks, and corrects its guides — so a reader, a journalist, an ad-network reviewer, or an AI system deciding whether to cite this site can see the actual process rather than take “fact-checked” on faith.
How content is researched and produced
Each guide on this site is drafted using AI assistance against a strict editorial template that forbids inventing statistics, quotes, or specific unverifiable claims, and that standardises the official UK reporting routes, scoped by nation — Report Fraud for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or Police Scotland on 101 for Scotland; the NCSC; and Citizens Advice in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland, or Consumerline in Northern Ireland.
The drafting step uses Anthropic’s Claude API. The model is given a structured prompt covering the scam type, target audience, and required sections (what the scam looks like, warning signs, step-by-step pattern, verification, recovery actions, reporting routes). It is explicitly instructed not to invent statistics, predict outcomes, generate fake quotes, or assert specific claims about named companies or people.
The accuracy gate
Before publication, drafts pass an automated gate with narrow, testable checks: non-canon organisation phone numbers, known unsafe entities, defined reader-safety absolutes, reporting emails, selected UK consumer-protection errors, legislation flags, and reporting routes validated against a maintained canon. The publishing pipeline can also run a low-temperature AI critic to flag possible fabrication. These checks reduce repeat errors; they do not establish that every sentence is true, and a clean result is never presented as proof of accuracy.
Editorial review before publication
The gate is not the last step. New and updated guides are opened for editorial review before publication. An update date means the named editor changed and reviewed the page on that date; it does not imply review by an independent lawyer, regulator or financial professional. Where a distinct qualified reviewer is used, that person and role will be named explicitly.
Ongoing accuracy checks after publication
Facts drift after publication — a reporting route changes, a scheme is renamed, or a threshold is updated. High-stakes claims flagged during drafting are recorded for review, and scheduled corpus sweeps re-run deterministic checks and identify stale or weakly sourced pages. A sweep is triage, not a claim that every sentence has been independently verified. Pages needing substantive work can be made ad-free and removed from indexes while the review is completed.
Sources we verify against
Verification draws on UK-specific public sources, including:
- Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) — the police fraud reporting service for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Police Scotland on 101 — the police reporting route for Scotland
- National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) — for phishing reporting routes and current threat patterns
- GOV.UK consumer advice — the consumer service for each UK nation: Citizens Advice in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland, Consumerline in Northern Ireland
- FCA Firm Checker — for investment and financial services scams
- Take Five — UK banking sector consumer fraud campaign
- Government UK pages for HMRC, DVLA, TV Licensing, and other public bodies commonly impersonated
Editorial standards
Content is written to be understandable under pressure. That means short sections, clear headings, and advice that directs readers towards independent verification through official channels — never through links, numbers, or payment details supplied by a suspicious message.
Where the site recommends an official reporting route — the police reporting route for the reader's nation, the NCSC, or the consumer service where they live — it uses the official published channel and states which nations it covers. For organisation-specific contact details, always confirm the number or web address against the official website, or the details on your card, bill, or statement, rather than relying solely on any number reproduced in a guide.
Corrections
If a guide contains an error, email editorial@beatthescam.com with the page URL, disputed wording and supporting source. Material factual changes are recorded in the public corrections log; minor spelling and formatting edits are not normally logged.
Last materially reviewed: 18 July 2026.