The playbook scammers use — and the checks that stop them cold.
Romance scams cost victims hundreds of millions each year, and the scripts are remarkably consistent. Knowing the pattern is most of the defense.
It starts with an attractive profile and fast, intense affection («love bombing»). Then a reason they can't meet or video-call — deployed overseas, working on an oil rig, camera broken. Then, once you're attached, an emergency that only money can solve. Recognizing the stages early is how you step off the ride.
Refusal to video-call; a story that conveniently prevents meeting; professions of love within days; and — the decisive one — any request for money, gift cards, or crypto «investment help». No genuine partner you've never met needs your bank details.
Reverse-image their photos. Search their username, email, or phone — a real person shows years of consistent footprint; a scammer's identity is thin and new. Our fake-profile guide has the full 7-signal checklist, and you can run a catfish check directly.
Stop contact, keep everything, and report to the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) and FBI IC3 (ic3.gov). Call your bank immediately — some transfers can be reversed. Don't pay «to recover» funds; that's the follow-up scam.
Romance scams don't target the gullible — they target the trusting, often during loneliness or grief. Scammers invest weeks building genuine-feeling intimacy before the first ask, so by the time money comes up, the victim is emotionally committed and rationalizing. That's why external verification matters: your instincts are exactly what the scam is engineered to disarm. A footprint check is a fact your feelings can't argue with.
The record coverage of a people-search engine, plus an AI layer that reads, verifies, and summarizes the digital footprint.
Addresses, phones, emails, property, and known associates from public and commercial databases.
Social profiles, usernames, and public web mentions matched into a single identity.
Plain-language summary: who they are, what stands out, what to watch.
Sentiment, red-flag detection, and a reputation score for fast, informed decisions.
Start from an email, phone, or username and work back to a verified person.
See your own exposure and get a removal checklist for data brokers.
Scattered public records and online signals — matched to one person and organized into a clear, AI-verified report in about two minutes.
A plain-language read of who they are and what stands out.
Address, phone, and public records matched to one identity.
Social profiles and public mentions across the web.
Red-flag detection and an honest identity-confidence score.
Three steps, about two minutes.
A name, email, phone, or username is enough. Add a city to narrow results.
Recordwell queries 410+ sources, matches records to one person, and drops noise.
A structured report with contacts, footprint, public-record mentions, and a reputation summary.
One search, many answers — for the moments that matter.
Verify your match is real, spot catfish, and meet with peace of mind.
Check a landlord, buyer, seller, or business contact before you commit.
Track down an old friend or classmate from just a name or username.
See your own exposure and clean up what's public. Check yourself →
The coverage you expect, with the honesty most people-search sites don't offer.
We read the raw signals and write a clear, plain-language summary — not an overwhelming list.
Breach and personal details are unlocked only after you verify the email is yours.
Transparent pricing and one-click cancel. No dark-pattern traps.
217 county assessor and appraisal databases — who owns what, from the office that recorded it. Most people-search products carry none of this.
Not a resold broker feed: county property rolls, state licence boards, federal courts and sanctions lists, loaded from the agencies themselves. See the list.
Found your own data? We show you how to get it taken down.
We're new — so instead of invented reviews, here's exactly what Recordwell does, and what it won't do.
Real sources, clearly labeled. Every result shows where it came from, and we separate confirmed records from other people who share the name — no pretending a guess is a match.
You stay in control. Free during beta, no card required, sensitive data unlocked only after you verify it's yours — and a one-click way to remove your own information.
Not a background-check service. Recordwell is not a Consumer Reporting Agency, so results may not be used for hiring, tenant, credit, or other FCRA-covered decisions.
A real picture of someone isn't on page one of a search engine — it's scattered across social profiles, public records, news and breach data. Most are slow, paywalled, or impossible to cross-reference by hand.
Public profiles and usernames matched across platforms into one identity.
Courts, licenses, corporate filings, donations and sanctions screening.
Search results, news mentions and public web references, summarized.
Whether an email shows up in known data breaches and what was exposed.
We read the raw signals and write one clear report — not a data dump.
Sensitive items link back to official first-sources so you can confirm.
Doing this by hand means juggling many tools and hours of cross-referencing — and you'd still miss what AI connects in minutes.
We name every one. Most people-search sites advertise “40+ verified sources” and never say which — because they resell one broker's database. We load the official files ourselves, from the agencies that publish them.
County assessor and appraisal rolls: who owns what, from the offices that record it. Almost none of our competitors carry property data at all.
Nurses, doctors, contractors, lawyers, cosmetologists, childcare workers — state boards across 55 states and territories, loaded from the boards' own files.
CourtListener dockets, SEC EDGAR, FEC donations and employers, FBI Wanted, OpenSanctions, SAM.gov exclusions, LEIE, CMS Open Payments, USASpending awards.
Corporate registries, lobbyist filings and public-employee salary disclosures — 15 payroll datasets plus 36 finance and business sources.
GitHub, GitLab, Reddit, Keybase, Mastodon, Dev.to, Docker Hub, Bitbucket, npm, ORCID, OpenAlex and more.
GDELT global news, Wikipedia, Wikidata, Gravatar, email reputation, and Have I Been Pwned — we report how many breaches an address appears in, never what was in them.
The clearest signals: they won't video-call, their story prevents meeting, and money eventually enters the conversation. Verify their identity against public records.
Never send money, gift cards, or crypto, and never share bank or ID details — no matter the emergency or how long you've talked.
Reverse image search catches reused photos; a footprint check catches invented identities that image search misses.