SCARS Institute Websites Terms of Use
These Terms of Use apply to the following websites: AgainstScams.org, ScamsNOW.com, RomanceScamsNOW.com, ScamPsychology.org, and ScammerPhotos.com (“Sites”)
1. Publisher and Scope
AgainstScams.org is published by Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc., operating as SCARS and SCARS Institute (“SCARS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). These Terms govern the public website, its publications, downloadable resources, and interactive features. They also govern a SCARS mobile application or other SCARS website only where that application or website expressly identifies these Terms as its governing agreement. Collectively, those properties are the “Sites.”
SCARS provides education, advocacy, psychological recovery support, counseling, and coaching within the lawful scope of its services. Admission to and participation in victim-support services, recovery programs, communities, or individualized services are governed by separate service agreements, informed-consent documents, and participation policies presented for those services. These website Terms do not enroll a visitor in those services or replace those agreements.
These Terms govern general website use. A separately accepted service or transaction agreement controls the specific service or transaction if it conflicts with these Terms. Applicable privacy notices govern personal-data handling, subject to mandatory law. Nothing in any SCARS document overrides rights or obligations that applicable law does not permit the parties to waive.
2. Acceptance and Eligibility
Please read these Terms before using the Sites. Where SCARS asks you to accept them through a checkbox, button, or another affirmative action accompanied by conspicuous notice, that action signifies your agreement. An acceptance requirement for one feature does not by itself enroll you in a separate support service.
For public browsing, these Terms provide notice of permitted uses and restrictions. Contractual obligations apply to the extent a valid agreement has been formed under applicable law; SCARS does not claim that an inconspicuous link alone creates agreement to every provision.
Unless a feature expressly provides an approved process for younger users, account registration and submission features are for persons aged 18 or older who have legal capacity to agree. Public educational content is not intended for children under 13. Do not submit personal information about a child through an ordinary website form. Contact SCARS before requesting services for a minor; eligibility and any required parent or guardian involvement will be addressed through the applicable service process.
If you use a feature for an organization, you must have authority to accept its applicable terms for that organization.
3. Educational Content and Separate Disclaimers
Public articles, videos, music, stories, exercises, and other publications provide general education and information. Their availability does not constitute individualized medical, psychological, legal, financial, or tax advice, and does not establish a professional treatment or advisory relationship.
SCARS’s psychological recovery support, counseling, and coaching must be distinguished from clinical diagnosis, licensed psychotherapy, medical treatment, or other regulated services. A service description does not represent that SCARS or a particular team member is licensed to perform a regulated activity. Any separately arranged regulated service must identify the responsible professional, scope, credentials, and applicable terms.
The SCARS Institute Disclaimers & Advisories supplement these Terms for the relevant subject matter, including professional boundaries, editorial practices, artificial intelligence, third-party material, and public-interest reporting. The applicable version is the version made available when you accept these Terms, subject to the changes procedure below. These Terms control in the event of a conflict, and mandatory law controls both documents.
Self-assessments and scam-identification tools provide informational indicators based on the inputs and methods described for the tool. They do not establish a clinical diagnosis, prove that a person committed a crime, replace independent verification, or guarantee safety. A numerical result is not a validated statistical probability unless the tool expressly identifies its validation and limitations. No particular recovery, financial, reporting, or legal outcome is guaranteed.
4. Emergencies and Communications
The Sites, contact forms, email addresses, and ordinary community communications are not emergency-response channels. Do not assume that a message will be seen immediately or that a response will arrive within a particular period unless a separate service expressly promises one.
For an immediate emergency, contact local emergency services. In the United States, call 911 for immediate danger, or call or text 988 for suicide and crisis support. Outside the United States, use the appropriate emergency or crisis service in your location. Website communications are not a substitute for those services.
5. Ownership and Permitted Use
SCARS or the applicable rights holders own the protected content, trademarks, designs, and other intellectual property displayed on the Sites. Rights in third-party materials remain with their owners. SCARS claims rights only to the extent those rights exist under applicable law.
Subject to these Terms, you may access public content, save or print reasonable copies for your personal, noncommercial education, noncompetitive use, not for inflammatory and disparagement, libel or slanderous purposes, and download resources expressly offered for that purpose. Preserve attribution and rights notices in all cases. You may share ordinary links and use sharing features as intended. A resource carrying a separate license is governed by that license.
Except with permission, under an applicable license, or as permitted by law, you must not republish substantial portions (more than one page or post), redistribute entire publications, sell our content, create misleading modified copies, or use SCARS branding to imply affiliation, certification, sponsorship, or endorsement. Public presentation, organizational distribution, and commercial reuse require permission unless otherwise authorized.
Nothing in these Terms prohibits honest reviews, lawful complaints, reports to authorities, or uses protected by applicable law, including qualifying fair use. Criticism alone does not establish infringement or misconduct.
See SCARS Trademarks, Service Marks, and Indicia for information about SCARS’s claimed marks. That list does not transfer rights or determine the legal status of every listed mark.
6. Automated Access and Reuse
Do not bypass access controls, circumvent restrictions, overload the Sites, harvest personal information, or collect private submissions through automated means. Ordinary search indexing of publicly accessible pages is permitted subject to published crawler instructions and reasonable technical limits.
Bulk reproduction, commercial dataset creation, or use of protected SCARS content to train or fine-tune artificial-intelligence systems requires written permission unless an applicable license or law authorizes that use. This provision does not claim ownership of facts or eliminate lawful exceptions. Do not use SCARS materials to impersonate SCARS or present an automated system as an authorized SCARS counselor or representative.
7. Accounts and Security
Provide accurate information where requested and keep necessary account information current. Pseudonyms are permitted where a feature allows them; do not impersonate another person or misrepresent yourself, authority, credentials, or eligibility.
Protect your credentials, use available security controls, and notify contact@AgainstScams.org promptly if you suspect unauthorized access. Do not access another person’s account, probe systems without authorization, upload malicious code, or interfere with Site security. Report a suspected vulnerability without exploiting it or obtaining other users’ information.
SCARS may investigate suspected misuse and take proportionate security measures. Responsibility for losses depends on applicable law and the parties’ conduct; these account duties do not waive SCARS’s own legal obligations.
8. Conduct and Moderation
Do not use the Sites for fraud, threats, harassment, unlawful discrimination, impersonation, unauthorized solicitation, or misleading offers of money recovery, financial assistance, or professional services. Do not publish private contact details, credentials, financial information, or identifying information about another survivor without lawful authority.
Do not post unlawful material or nonconsensual intimate imagery. Do not recruit users into outside support groups or services through SCARS interaction features without permission. Respectful questions, disagreement, criticism, and good-faith complaints are permitted.
SCARS may review, decline, edit, redact, restrict, or remove submissions and suspend or terminate access for violations, safety concerns, security needs, or legal compliance. Where appropriate, SCARS will provide an explanation or an opportunity to address a concern; urgent protective action does not require advance notice. Moderation does not guarantee that every submission has been reviewed or that every user is trustworthy.
Separate recovery-community standards govern participation in those communities. Restrictions must not be used to punish a person merely for exercising protected privacy or consumer rights.
9. Public Submissions and Publication Permission
You retain the rights you have in your submissions. By deliberately submitting material to a feature clearly identified as public, you grant SCARS a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, format, moderate, and make technically necessary copies of that material for the feature’s stated purpose. This license does not authorize unrelated advertising, sale of your story, or unrestricted reuse of sensitive information.
You must have the necessary rights or lawful authority to submit the material. Do not knowingly submit false allegations. Accurately distinguish your experience, opinion, and verified information. An innocent person’s photograph used by a scammer does not establish that the person depicted committed the crime.
Public submissions may be visible to search engines and copied by others. Removing a submission from SCARS’s Sites does not guarantee removal of independent copies. The publication license ends when the material is removed, except for lawful retention and necessary backup or evidentiary copies; their continued storage does not authorize continued public display.
Private contact forms, service applications, and confidential support communications do not carry this public-publication license. Identifiable testimonials, promotional use, and identifiable research publication require a separate lawful basis and, where necessary, specific permission. Submission does not transfer ownership of your personal data to SCARS.
10. Privacy, Cookies, and Sensitive Information
The privacy notice linked on the relevant Site or collection form explains the personal information collected, purposes, recipients, retention, safeguards, and available rights. SCARS will make that notice available before or at collection where required. Contact privacy@AgainstScams.org to request a copy or raise a concern.
Agreement to these Terms is not blanket consent to every processing activity. When consent is required, SCARS must obtain it through an appropriate separate process. Where applicable law requires consent for nonessential cookies, analytics, session recording, or similar tracking, those technologies must remain inactive until valid consent is obtained. Withdrawing that consent must be reasonably accessible.
Use designated private channels for service-related information. Do not include passwords, full payment-card details, bank login credentials, or unnecessary intimate or identifying material. SCARS must minimize collection and protect information in accordance with applicable law; a user warning does not transfer that responsibility to the user.
11. Recovery, Counseling, Coaching, and Clinical Records
Information supplied for an application or participation in SCARS psychological recovery, counseling, or coaching services may be incorporated into the relevant service or case record. This may include intake information, submitted accounts, communications, participation information, assessments, and service documentation, as explained in the service-specific privacy notice.
Where a service is lawfully provided in a clinical capacity and applicable law recognizes its documentation as a clinical record, qualifying information may form part of that clinical record. Ordinary browsing data, newsletter subscriptions, and unrelated public comments do not become clinical records merely because SCARS receives them. Neither the record’s name nor its inclusion in a service file determines the legal status of the provider or the applicable privacy regime.
SCARS may retain relevant records when supported by an applicable legal obligation or another lawful, documented basis, including necessary legal-claims preservation. Deletion requests are assessed against the rules that actually apply to the record. Closing an account or withdrawing from a program does not automatically require destruction of every associated record.
Health-record laws and specific statutory exemptions may govern qualifying records. No blanket exemption from privacy, security, transparency, access, correction, or deletion laws is claimed. HIPAA applicability depends on covered-entity or business-associate status, not merely on whether information concerns health. GDPR requirements, where applicable, continue to apply to health information subject to their specific conditions and exceptions.
The applicable service notice must explain confidentiality, permitted disclosures, retention criteria, and available record rights. No therapist-client, attorney-client, or other legal privilege is promised unless the actual relationship and applicable law establish it.
12. GDPR and Other Applicable Data-Protection Rights
Where the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, SCARS will comply with its applicable requirements. United States hosting, nonprofit status, or the selection of United States law does not by itself exclude GDPR applicability. The corresponding UK framework and other jurisdictions’ laws are addressed where legally applicable.
For processing whose purposes and means SCARS determines, the controller is Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc., at the address below. Privacy inquiries and rights requests should be sent to privacy@AgainstScams.org. Any required representative or data-protection officer and their contact information must be identified in the applicable privacy notice.
The privacy notice must identify the actual purposes and corresponding lawful bases, rather than presenting consent, contract, legal obligation, and legitimate interests as interchangeable permissions. Special-category data, including qualifying health information, requires an additional applicable condition. Criminal-offence data requires its own applicable authorization and safeguards. A support or counseling label does not automatically establish the conditions for healthcare processing.
Subject to applicable conditions, individuals have rights to access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, withdrawal of consent, and protections relating to solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Requests will ordinarily receive a response within one month. A permitted extension of up to two further months requires notice and reasons within the first month. Necessary identity checks must be proportionate.
Consent withdrawal does not affect processing lawfully carried out before withdrawal. Objections to direct marketing will be honored. Exercising privacy rights will not itself result in punishment, although a feature may be unavailable if information genuinely necessary to provide it can no longer lawfully be processed.
Erasure is not absolute. Where SCARS relies on a legally available exception, such as necessary legal-claims preservation or a qualifying retention obligation, it will explain the basis and restrict retained information to the lawful purpose. Research, public-interest activity, or designation as a clinical record does not automatically establish an exception.
Individuals may complain to a competent supervisory authority and seek available judicial remedies. These Terms do not waive those rights or require exclusive use of SCARS’s complaint process.
Where Chapter V GDPR applies to a transfer outside the European Economic Area, SCARS must use an applicable lawful mechanism and necessary safeguards, with details available in the privacy notice. Ordinary Site use is not blanket consent to unrestricted transfers. Any UK transfer requires the corresponding applicable mechanism.
13. Security and Breach Response
SCARS must implement safeguards appropriate to the information, services, and risks, and require appropriate protections from relevant service providers. No internet service can guarantee absolute security, but that limitation does not excuse failure to meet applicable duties.
SCARS will assess, document, and respond to personal-data incidents and make required notifications under applicable law. Where GDPR applies, reportable breaches must be notified to the competent authority without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of awareness, unless unlikely to create a risk to individuals’ rights and freedoms. High-risk breaches require notice to affected individuals without undue delay unless a lawful exception applies. Other applicable breach laws impose their own requirements.
14. Legal Requests and Permitted Disclosures
SCARS may preserve and disclose information when required by valid legal process or otherwise permitted by applicable law for a specified legitimate purpose, such as addressing an immediate safety threat or reporting suspected crime. Requests and voluntary disclosures must be evaluated against the applicable privacy rules, service confidentiality commitments, and restrictions on international disclosures.
An allegation or informal request does not automatically authorize release of an entire service file. Disclosures should be limited to what is lawfully required or justified. Where lawful and appropriate, SCARS will notify the affected person. Nothing promises notice where prohibited or where notice would create a legally recognized safety or investigative risk.
15. Copyright, Privacy, and Image Complaints
Send copyright, impersonation, privacy, or content complaints to legal@AgainstScams.org. Identify the material and its URL, explain your rights or authority and the concern, and provide reliable contact information. Do not send sensitive evidence through a public comment.
Copyright complaints should identify the copyrighted work, the material claimed to infringe, and the complainant’s authority, with the statements and signature required for a formal DMCA notice where that process applies. If SCARS publishes a designated-agent procedure, use its specified contact and instructions. This general complaint address does not by itself represent registration of a DMCA agent or establish safe-harbor eligibility.
Where the TAKE IT DOWN Act applies to an interactive feature, SCARS must provide its required request process and remove qualifying nonconsensual intimate imagery and known identical copies within 48 hours of a valid request. Other legal removal duties also apply where relevant. Public-interest or evidentiary use does not automatically override copyright, privacy, or intimate-image protections.
16. External Resources and Artificial Intelligence
Links, embedded media, and references to outside organizations do not imply endorsement unless expressly stated. Outside services have their own agreements and privacy practices. SCARS remains responsible for its own decisions to disclose data to third parties; describing a vendor as independent does not eliminate that responsibility.
SCARS’s use of artificial intelligence in publishing is described in its separate Disclaimers & Advisories. Editorial use does not authorize uploading private service records to an AI provider. Any processing of personal information through AI must have an appropriate lawful basis, notice, safeguards, and contractual arrangements. An automated educational tool must not be represented as a human counselor or a licensed professional.
17. Purchases, Donations, and Optional Services
Prices, delivery, refunds, cancellations, and any recurring-payment terms must be disclosed before a transaction and are governed by the applicable transaction terms and mandatory law. Recurring charges require appropriate authorization. These Terms do not create a blanket no-refund policy or waive statutory cancellation rights.
A donation does not purchase admission to a support program, certification, or a promised recovery result. Any tax-deductibility statement must accurately reflect the organization, payment, and applicable law. Third-party sellers are responsible for their transactions except to the extent SCARS itself undertakes a role or duty.
18. Availability and Termination
SCARS may change public content, discontinue features, or restrict access for legitimate operational, security, safety, or legal reasons. Material changes to a paid service remain subject to the applicable service agreement and mandatory consumer rights.
Termination does not cancel an existing legal obligation or eliminate applicable privacy rights. Record retention and deletion will follow the applicable notice and law. Provisions concerning intellectual property, accrued obligations, permissible retained records, and dispute resolution survive only to the extent their nature and applicable law require.
19. Warranty Disclaimer
TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITES AND GENERAL PUBLIC CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” SCARS DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT TO THE EXTENT THOSE WARRANTIES MAY LAWFULLY BE DISCLAIMED.
SCARS DOES NOT GUARANTEE UNINTERRUPTED ACCESS, ERROR-FREE CONTENT, COMPATIBILITY WITH EVERY DEVICE, OR ANY PARTICULAR RESULT FROM PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL. THESE DISCLAIMERS DO NOT OVERRIDE EXPRESS OBLIGATIONS IN A SEPARATELY ACCEPTED SERVICE AGREEMENT OR WARRANTIES AND RIGHTS THAT LAW DOES NOT PERMIT SCARS TO EXCLUDE.
20. Limitation of Liability
TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, SCARS IS NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSSES ARISING FROM GENERAL WEBSITE USE, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, WHERE SUCH EXCLUSION IS LAWFUL.
THIS EXCLUSION DOES NOT APPLY TO LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED, INCLUDING LIABILITY FOR FRAUD, WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO THE EXTENT APPLICABLE LAW PROHIBITS ITS EXCLUSION. IT DOES NOT WAIVE NONWAIVABLE PRIVACY, DATA-PROTECTION, OR CONSUMER REMEDIES.
There is no blanket exclusion of all direct damages and no automatic zero-dollar liability cap for free content. Any separate cap for a specific service must be stated in that service’s agreement and comply with applicable law.
SCARS is not responsible for failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control to the extent the law permits that allocation of risk. This does not excuse required security measures, incident response, refunds, or other duties that remain applicable despite the event.
21. Limited Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify SCARS and its directors, officers, employees, and volunteers against reasonable third-party losses and defense costs directly caused by your unlawful use of the Sites, infringement of another person’s rights in material you submit, or material breach of these Terms. This does not require indemnification for SCARS’s own negligence, unlawful conduct, or breach of its obligations.
SCARS will give reasonably prompt notice of the claim and reasonable cooperation. You may control a covered defense through competent counsel acceptable to SCARS acting reasonably. SCARS may participate at its own expense or take control where necessary to protect its interests, without automatically shifting additional costs to you. A settlement imposing an admission, payment, or ongoing obligation on either party requires that party’s written consent, not unreasonably withheld. No expense is recoverable twice.
22. Changes to These Terms
SCARS will display an effective date and provide conspicuous notice of material changes. Account users will receive an appropriate additional notice where practicable or legally required. Changes operate prospectively and do not retrospectively alter accrued claims or permissions for previously submitted sensitive information.
SCARS will obtain renewed agreement or separate consent where required by law or the nature of the change. Continued use signifies acceptance only where legally effective after adequate notice. Privacy purposes cannot be expanded merely by changing these Terms.
23. Governing Law and Disputes
Subject to mandatory applicable law, these Terms are governed by Florida law and applicable United States federal law, excluding conflict-of-law rules to the extent legally permissible. Unless mandatory law or a separately accepted agreement provides otherwise, contractual disputes concerning these Terms will be brought in state courts in Miami-Dade County, Florida, or the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida where federal jurisdiction exists.
This provision does not deprive a consumer or data subject of nonwaivable protections, a legally available local forum, supervisory-authority complaints, or statutory judicial remedies. It does not create subject-matter jurisdiction where none exists. These Terms contain no mandatory arbitration agreement or class-action waiver.
24. General Provisions and Contact
If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to the extent legally permissible. Failure to enforce a provision does not waive later enforcement. These Terms and specifically applicable accepted agreements constitute the agreement concerning their subject matter; privacy notices describe processing and do not create blanket consent. No assignment may reduce nonwaivable user protections or bypass required privacy notice or consent.
Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
SCARS / SCARS Institute
9561 Fontainebleau Bl., Suite 602, Miami, Florida 33172, United States
General and account inquiries: contact@AgainstScams.org
Privacy and records requests: privacy@AgainstScams.org
Legal and content complaints: legal@AgainstScams.org
Corporate Website: AgainstScams.org
