Got a message that is pressuring you?

Paste it here. Second Read points out the warning signs, explains each one, takes apart any links without opening them, and suggests a safe next step. It never says a message is “safe”.

Message text, email or chat, as it arrived

Sender optional: number, email or name

Your school's email domain optional

Links optional: paste a link here instead of tapping it

Nothing you paste is saved or sent anywhere. Leaving or closing this page clears it. Ctrl/⌘ + Enter also checks.

How it works

Paste the message, and the sender or link if you have them.
See each warning sign highlighted in the text, with a plain explanation and the public guidance it comes from.
Check what each link really points to. Second Read reads the address; it never opens it.
Act on a safe next step: contact the organisation through a channel you look up yourself.

Built for international students in the US, who are often targeted by fake immigration, police, tax and job messages. It is a checking aid, not a guarantee, and not an emergency service.

How you can tell nothing leaves your device

The page is not allowed to send data. Its Content Security Policy says connect-src 'none' and form-action 'none', so the browser itself blocks any attempt to send what you paste. You can see the policy in the page source.

No storage. No cookies, no local storage, no history of what you checked. Closing or leaving the page wipes the fields.

No AI service, no lookups. The checks are fixed, readable rules that run in this tab. Links are taken apart as text and never opened.

Works offline. After your first visit, you can turn off Wi-Fi and it still works.

Spell-check is off in the boxes, because some browsers' enhanced spell-check sends typed text to an online service.

Live count: network requests made by this page since it loaded: 0 (after loading its own files)

Our automated tests paste a marker string, run a check, and confirm the page made no network request at all, and that an attempt to send data from the page is blocked by the browser.

What Second Read can and cannot do

It knows a fixed set of rules based on public FTC, FBI and university warnings. New or unusual scams can slip past it, and a message with no warning signs can still be a scam.

It cannot see images, QR codes, voice calls, attachments or what a link really opens. It cannot confirm who really sent a message: senders can be faked, and real accounts can be hacked.

It understands English best, with a small set of Chinese phrases. It can be fooled by messages that quote scam wording, such as a friend warning you about scams.

On our synthetic test messages it missed some scams and raised some false alarms. The numbers are in the project README.

If you are in danger right now, call 911. Second Read is a prototype checking aid, not an emergency service and not a guarantee.

Credits

Domain logic uses the Public Suffix List (Mozilla Public License 2.0), version .

Lookalike characters come from Unicode UTS #39 confusables (Unicode License v3), version .

Warning signs and advice are paraphrased from public guidance by the FTC, FBI IC3, USCIS, IRS, DHS SEVP and university international offices. Each sign links to its source.

Built with an AI coding assistant (Claude); design decisions, testing and write-up reviewed by the author. Source code: github.com/Bowen1314/second-read.