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How it works

What it is and how levels work

Before You Pick Up is a place to check a phone number before you trust it. People report what happened when a number contacted them. You look the number up and see the pattern. This page explains how that works, what the levels mean, and what we do when someone says a listing is wrong.

What it is, and isn't

It's a shared record of what people ran into with a phone number: a scam text, a match who pushed for gift cards, a buyer who sent a fake payment screenshot. Each entry is one person's account, tied to the number, with no names in it.

It isn't a background check, a people search, or an identity check. Reports are unverified. A listed number is a signal, not proof of who is behind it: numbers get spoofed and reassigned all the time. Using this site to decide about employment, housing, credit, or insurance is against the terms.

How it works

Look up

Type a number. If anyone has reported it, you see how many people, which patterns they picked, when, and any notes they wrote. If nobody has, the page says so, and that's all it says. "No reports" means we have nothing on it, not that it's safe.

Report

Pick where it happened, what stage things were at, and which patterns you saw from a fixed list. A short note is optional, and it's checked for anything that identifies a person before it's saved. No account needed. Reports go live right away unless the number is being flooded, in which case a person looks first.

Levels

Each number gets a level from the visible reports on it. The point is to summarize, and to err on the quiet side.

No reports
Nobody has reported this number here. That doesn't mean it's safe, just that we have nothing on it.
Low signal
A single reporter, or only older or lower-severity reports. Worth a look, not a conclusion.
Elevated signal
At least two different people reported this number, and what they describe is the kind of thing that costs people money or puts them at risk.
High signal
Three or more different people reported serious patterns, including recently. Be careful with this number.

The rules behind it, in plain terms:

  • One person alone can only ever get a number to "low", however many reports they add.
  • "Elevated" needs at least two different people.
  • "High" needs three or more different people, serious patterns, and something recent.
  • Old reports fade. A report loses about half its weight each year, and never counts for less than a quarter of a fresh one.
  • Reports a moderator reviewed count a bit more. Disputed reports count a lot less. Removed reports don't count at all.
  • We count people using a private key (your account, or a keyed hash of your connection), so ten reports from one source never look like ten people.

The pill on a number's page shows the level. The lines under it say why: how many people, how recent, and what kind of thing they described.

Moderation

Some checks happen on their own when a report comes in:

  • Notes are scanned for names, phone numbers, handles, emails, addresses, workplaces, and links. Anything that identifies a person is refused before it's saved.
  • Rate limits: 5 reports per person every 15 minutes, 20 a day, and one report per number per person per month.
  • When a number gets a burst of reports from different people within an hour, new ones are held for a person to look at first.
  • A form sent faster than a person could fill it in is held too.

A person reviews flags, held reports, and disputes. They can publish, remove, or redact a report, mark it reviewed or disputed, or take a whole number's page down. Every action is logged with a reason.

"Removed" means the report is hidden everywhere and doesn't count toward anything. We keep the record so we can answer questions about what was there and why it came down. We don't publish it again.

If your number is listed

Numbers get spoofed and reassigned. If yours is listed and it shouldn't be, send a dispute. Say how long you've had the number and whether you know why it might have been reported.

What we do with it:

  • We email you to say we have it.
  • While we look, we may mark the reports on that number as disputed. The label is visible, and disputed reports count much less toward the level.
  • A person decides: keep the reports, remove some or all of them, or take the number's page down. We tell you which, and why. We aim to answer within a few business days.

We never charge for review or removal. Anyone who says they can get you delisted for a fee is not working with us. And we can't tell you who reported the number: we don't publish that, and we don't hand it over.

What we store

The short version. The privacy policy has the long one.

What we store, and for how long
WhatDetailsHow long
The numberEncrypted at rest, keyed by a hash so we can look it up. Shown in full on its own page, partly hidden in lists.As long as it has reports
The reportCategories, where and when, and the optional note (checked for identifying details first).Public while it's live. Kept as removed if it comes down.
Who reportedA keyed hash of the connection's IP, or your account id if you were signed in. Never shown.IP hash up to 180 days. Account link until you delete the account.
LookupsCounts with a hashed IP, so we can spot scraping.90 days
AccountEmail, hashed password, whether 2-step sign-in is on.Until you delete it
DisputesThe number, your email, your message, and what we decided.While open, then as a record of the decision

We don't sell or share any of it for advertising. Read the privacy policy.

Who runs it

A small independent team in the US. We built it because friends kept getting scammed by the same scripts, and looking a number up before replying would have helped.

We're not affiliated with any carrier, dating app, marketplace, or payment app. There are no ads. Hosting is on Vercel, the database is on Neon, and email goes through Resend. Say hello, or tell us what's broken: hello@beforeyoupickup.com.