About TextCheckUK
Last updated
TextCheckUK helps people in the UK make sense of unknown numbers and unexpected text messages: what kind of number it is, what the message is trying to get you to do, and where to report it.
Who runs the site
TextCheckUK is an independent information site run by Softmed Labs SRL, a company registered in Romania. It is not a government service. We are not connected to any regulator (including Ofcom, the FCA and the ICO), to any mobile network, to the police, or to any organisation or sender named on our pages. Pages are signed by the site, not by a named person.
Why it exists
A text from a number you do not know is hard to judge on a phone screen, and the official advice on what to do is spread across many sites: the NCSC, Ofcom, the ICO, the FCA, HMRC and others. We put it in one place, next to two free checks that run in your browser:
- the UK number checker, which looks a number up in the range data Ofcom publishes and shows what kind of number it is, what calling it back costs and whether its block is allocated;
- the scam text checker, which looks for the warning signs described by official bodies and by the organisations whose names scammers use, each with the source it comes from.
Neither check can tell you who owns a number or prove that a message is genuine: numbers can be ported to another network or faked. They help you decide what to check next, and the guides and reported texts explain what to do. Numbers and texts you check stay on your device; the privacy policy has the detail.
How pages are researched and checked
Every page starts from official or primary sources: GOV.UK and the departments behind it, the NCSC, Ofcom, the ICO, the FCA, the police, legislation, and the organisations whose names scammers borrow. We check each fact against the source listed on the page and record the day we read it, and we print only what those sources support. What we cannot verify, we leave out. Each guide ends with its sources; each page about a reported text also shows the checks we made and when, and keeps our opinion in a separate box labelled “Our view”.
We do not publish verdicts that a named business is a scam, private phone numbers, invented examples presented as real, or screenshots of other companies' apps. The full rules are on how we check.
How we use AI tools
We use software, including AI tools, to find and cross-check sources. Every fact on a page links to the source it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
AI tools also help us draft and edit text. A draft is published only after each fact in it has been checked against the source cited on the page, and example messages are always labelled as written by us.
How the site is funded
TextCheckUK is free to use and has no paid tier. It is meant to be paid for by advertising from Google AdSense, shown once Google has approved the site. Adverts are chosen and placed by Google, not by us. We do not sell placements, we do not take payment from any organisation or sender named on our pages, and we have no affiliate deals with lenders, claims firms or anyone else.
Corrections and right of reply
If anything on a page is wrong or out of date, or if you run a sender named on a page, email hello@textcheckuk.xyz with the page and what needs to change. Corrections are free: we check them against the sources and change the page, and on request we publish the operator's statement on it. We never charge to change or remove a page. More on the contact page.