The decision & the receiptHow it works
A second opinion that shows its work.
Squire reads a message you are unsure about and answers in one of three plain ways. Then it shows you how it got there: the words it relied on, what a message alone cannot tell you, and each step it took.
01 · For you
Three steps for you
- 1
Bring the message
Type it or paste it in: the text, email or offer you are unsure about. A screenshot or an email file is read on your own device, and the picture or file is never sent to Squire. If you like, add a line on why it worries you. Squire can quote that too.
- 2
Squire it
Press the button. The page shows each step of the check as it runs, so you can see where it is and what it is doing.
- 3
Read the answer, then the receipt
The answer comes first, in plain words, with the one thing to do. Under it is the receipt: what Squire looked at, the evidence, and how the check was run.
02 · Behind the button
From your message to your answer
Each check follows the same order, and each step has one job. One AI writes the answer. The other steps hold it to your words, double-check it against written rules, and challenge it. A message Squire does not check stops after the first look.
- 1
First look
A quick first read decides whether this is a message Squire can check at all. A document you want reviewed (a contract or a report, say), a request for medical, legal or financial advice, or a request to help write a more convincing message, the kind a scammer might want, is turned away, and Squire says why.
- 2
The answer
An AI model reads your message and writes the answer: one of three, with the reason, the next step and the evidence, quoted from your own words. A second, quicker pass may add one more thing worth knowing.
- 3
Squire's own checks
Squire's own code checks the answer before anyone else sees it. Every quote must be your words, exactly as you gave them, and the answer must keep Squire's rules on what it may claim. An answer that fails is not passed on: it is rewritten, or the check stops.
- 4
Double-check
The same AI is asked again, in a separate request, to compare the answer with your message and with eight of Squire's written rules, and to say for each whether the answer keeps it. It cannot change a word: it accepts the answer or turns it down. An answer turned down here or by Squire's own checks can be rewritten. Each check gets one rewrite in all.
- 5
Challenge
An AI from a different company argues against the accepted answer, point by point. It never decides and cannot change the answer: it is there so that a second company has looked. Whether it ran is on your receipt. What it said is kept with the check, in the file you can download from MySquire.
- 6
Receipt
Squire's own code, not an AI, puts the answer and the record of each step together into your receipt.
03 · The answers
Three answers, in plain words
Squire answers with one of three, never with a score. None of them is a promise: each says what the text shows and what to do next.
Very likely a scam
The text has the usual parts of a scam: a request for money, a code or a login from an address or a link that does not match who the message says it is from, a fee to unlock something you are owed, or bank details that have suddenly changed.
What to doDo not reply, pay or click. If you need to reach the sender, use a way you already trust, not this message.
Verify before acting
Nothing in the text is a clear scam, but the text alone cannot tell you who is really asking.
What to doReach the sender through their own website, app or a number you already have, and check before you pay, sign in or share anything.
No clear fraud warning
The text shows none of the warning signs Squire looks for. That describes the text. It never says a message is harmless.
What to doRead what the message asks of you. If you are unsure, check it through a way you already trust, and Squire it again if something new arrives.
04 · When it will not answer
No answer is better than one Squire cannot stand behind
Not a message to check
If what you bring is a document you want reviewed, a request for medical, legal or financial advice, or a request to help write a more convincing message, Squire says so, says what to do instead, and runs no check.
A check that stops
If a step the answer depends on fails, runs out of time, or the double-check will not accept the answer even after its rewrite, the check stops with no answer, and the receipt says where it stopped. Squire it again starts a fresh check. Squire does not publish an answer its own double-check will not stand behind.
A company that cannot be reached
Squire's AI comes from outside companies. When a backup is set up, the first look and the answer can each go to another company instead: if the company doing that step cannot be reached early in the check, Squire tries the backup once, and your receipt says the backup ran. If the company that challenges the answer cannot be reached, the check goes on without the challenge, and the receipt says so.
05 · Your links
Squire does not open your links. It looks them up, and asks a tracking link where it goes.
Squire sends Google the main part of each web address in your message: it leaves off anything after a question mark or a # sign, and any user name, the extra details some links carry. Google says whether that address is on its lists of sites it warns about: fake sites that try to get your passwords or card details (phishing), and sites with harmful or unwanted software. The receipt shows what Google says. A listed link can make Squire's answer more serious, never less. A link Google has not listed may still be a scam: most scam links are never listed.
Many email links go first through the sending service's own tracking address, which hides where they lead. For a link on Squire's own short list of such services, Squire asks that service, once, where the link points on, and stops there: it does not open the page at the end, it never asks the site the link leads to, and it leaves alone any link that acts when opened, such as an unsubscribe or sign-in link. The name of the site the link leads to goes to the models with the rest of the message and is on the receipt. The full link is used for this and then dropped. When you add an email, Squire checks its links, even in a part you cut from the box, and lists them under the box first; nothing else from the cut part is sent. The name of the site each points to goes to the models and is on the receipt.
06 · The receipt
Read your receipt
The receipt is the part of Squire you can check for yourself. Here is what each part of it says.
- The answer. One of the three, in a sentence you can act on.
- The one thing to do. What to do now, through a way you already trust.
- What stands out. The words the answer rests on, quoted exactly from your message or your note.
- What Squire looked at. Line by line: the sender, the links, what a message alone cannot settle, and what a second AI tested.
- How Squire checked this. The steps that ran, whether an AI from a different company challenged the answer, and the fourteen rules every answer is held to.
- The receipt id. Each receipt has its own. This browser also keeps a private code for each check, called its key; with the id and that key, the receipt opens again.
Some receipts also have a Worth knowing line: one more point Squire noticed, quoted from your own words. Under every answer, Show the evidence opens the quotes the answer rests on, a second AI's words, what this check could not tell, and your message as Squire read it, quotes marked. If you sign in to MySquire, the receipt also shows how the answer did on each rule, and its fingerprints: short codes worked out from your exact message and the answer you got, which would no longer match if either were changed.
07 · Its limits
What Squire will not do
- Open your links or browse the web. It asks a tracking service where a link goes, and stops there.
- Tell you who sent a message. It reads the text, not the sender.
- Check a payment or a bank account.
- Act for you. It cannot pay, reply or click on your behalf.
- Tell you a message is harmless. Its mildest answer, No clear fraud warning, describes the text and promises nothing.
- Show you advertising, or follow you around the web.
08 · The rules
Held to rules anyone can read
Every answer is held to the fourteen rules of the Squire constitution, written by Rick Cotton; the constitution calls them rails. When a check reaches an answer, the double-check must pass eight of the rules, and Squire's own code records the other six.
09 · After the answer
Share it, keep it, or let it go
Share a warning
An answer of Very likely a scam can be shared as a link. Squire hides the details it recognizes as yours, and you see what will be shared and can hide more words first. Any other answer shares an invitation to Squire instead, with nothing of your check.
Keep it on this browser
The On this browser page keeps the key to your ten most recent checks on this browser, so you can open them again. Squire deletes each check thirty days after it finishes.
Keep it in MySquire
Sign in to keep a check for as long as you want, download what Squire holds about it, or delete it.
Have a message you are unsure about?
Squire it before you act.