The number that just called you might be a fake federal agent.

Every number on ScamDialer enters the directory the same way: through a public consumer complaint or a reader report. We focus exclusively on calls that impersonate federal or state agencies — the kind that pretend to be the IRS, the Social Security Administration, Medicare, the FBI, USPS investigators, your local sheriff, or an immigration officer.

For each number we collect the date and rough location of every complaint filed with the FCC, the script the caller used, and the tactic used to apply pressure (threats of arrest, demands for gift cards, fake case numbers, spoofed caller ID, and so on). We then assign a risk score from 0–100 based on how many independent reports a number has received and how aggressive the most recent reports describe the calls.

The directory is built to be useful in exactly the moment most people fail to use it: in the sixty seconds after the phone stops ringing. Open ScamDialer, paste in the caller-ID number, and the answer is usually obvious within five seconds — multiple reports, recent dates, an aggressive script, and a risk pill in the upper right that says Confirmed Scam. The pressure to "respond now" almost always evaporates the moment you give yourself that pause.