Help & FAQ

Jacana is anti-scam protection for everyday people. It offers always-on protection that watches for scams on your device and notifies you the moment it finds one.

Here is what you can do with Jacana. The first two are free.

• Manual scanFree Check any link, message, or screenshot on the spot.
• Trust CheckFree Ask someone you know “is this really you?” to catch an impostor.
• AutoscanIndividual or Family Plan Always-on protection that watches for scams and alerts you when it finds one.
• Family DashboardFamily Plan Keep an eye on the people you protect and step in when a scam targets them.

Open Jacana and tap Scan. Paste a link or message, or share a screenshot. Jacana tells you whether it looks like a scam, what the red flags are, and what to do. A manual scan like this is free, on every device.

Scam  Jacana identified this as a likely scam. Stop, don’t interact, and review the red flags.

Suspicious  Something looked off. Not definitely a scam, but worth a closer look before you act.

Safe  No signs of a scam detected. You’re good to keep going.

You can run a manual scan any time, on any device, for free. For ongoing protection, turn on Autoscan.

When you turn on Autoscan, Jacana monitors activity on your device for scams. If it spots one, it stops, alerts you, and explains what it found and what to do. Autoscan works a little differently on each platform, because Apple, Google, and your computer each give apps different abilities. The sections below cover the specifics.

Jacana also has Smart Nudges. When you open the kind of app or site where scams are common, Jacana can recommend turning on Autoscan right then, at the moment it matters most.

Autoscan

Turn on Autoscan and Jacana watches what’s on your screen for scams while you use your phone. You start it with a tap, and it stops the moment you turn it off or lock your phone. It is never watching in the background without you.

Message filtering

Jacana can route suspected scam texts away from your main Messages inbox into a separate folder. You switch this on in your iPhone’s Settings, under Messages → Unknown & Spam, and Jacana shows you the steps.

Safari protection

A Safari extension checks web pages as you browse and flags scam sites. You enable it once in Settings, and after that it works quietly in Safari.

Smart Nudges

Jacana can notice when you open the kind of app or site where scams commonly land, like messaging, payments, or marketplaces, and nudge you to turn on Autoscan. It sees the type of service you’re connecting to, not the content of what you do there.

Autoscan protects you across all your apps, including messages, email, browsers, and social DMs. It reads the text on your screen and the previews of incoming notifications and checks them for scams. To do this, Android asks you to grant Jacana two permissions in your phone’s settings, Accessibility access and Notification access. Jacana walks you through exactly what to tap and why.

Once it’s on, Autoscan runs continuously in the background, so Android shows a permanent “Jacana is protecting you” notification. That notification is your sign protection is active. If Jacana catches a clear scam, it can wake your screen and show a full-screen warning, even over the lock screen, so you see it before you act.

On the desktop app, turn on Autoscan and Jacana keeps an eye on what’s on your screen, checking every few seconds for scams while you work. It runs quietly from your menu bar on Mac, or your system tray on Windows, and it can start automatically when you log in, so you’re protected without thinking about it.

When Jacana finds a scam, it shows an alert inside the app and a desktop notification telling you what it found and what to do.

Got a message that claims to be from someone you know, but feels off? Send them a Trust Check, a one-tap “is this really you?” The person you’re checking with gets a notification and can confirm it’s really them, or flag that it isn’t. Either way you instantly know whether you’re dealing with an impostor, and you get the answer back the same way.

Trust Check works between people in your circle, and it is always free, on every device. Your circle is the family and the wider community you choose to connect with so you can look out for each other.

The Family Plan is for protecting the people you care about. It includes everything in an individual plan, plus the Family Dashboard. It is built for looking after parents, kids, or anyone who needs a hand staying safe.

The Family Dashboard lets you watch over the people you protect. On the Family Plan, you can sponsor your family members’ protection, see their status, and get alerted when Jacana catches a scam aimed at them, so you can step in and help.

You always control your own circle. People you add are invited by email and join only when they accept.

A scan is when Jacana checks something for scams, such as a screenshot of your screen, a web page, or a message. Every scan has two parts:

• The content. This is what was checked, plus the result Jacana gives back (the verdict, the red flags, and what to do).
• The record that a scan happened. This is a small note, like which device it was on and whether it was a scam. It holds no screenshot, no page text, and no web address. Jacana always keeps this record, even when you choose “Keep nothing,” so it can keep the service safe from abuse. The record never includes the content.

To check a scan, Jacana sends the content to our AI provider, Google, for that one purpose. Google does not keep it or train on it. We never sell or rent your data, and nothing else about your scans is shared.

You decide what Jacana keeps from your scans, and you choose it for each device:

• Keep nothing. Jacana checks each scan in the moment and keeps none of the content. It still keeps the small record that a scan happened, described above, never the content.
• Keep only detected scams (the default). Jacana keeps the content only for scans it flags as a scam.
• Keep everything. Jacana keeps the content of every scan.

When you let Jacana keep scan content, we use it only to improve our detection engine, so Jacana gets better at protecting everyone. Any content we keep has your personal information redacted.

This setting is per device. The choice you make on one device is separate from your other devices, so set it on each one the way you want. You can change it any time in Settings, under “Data sharing” or “Help improve Jacana.”

Every scan is still checked the moment it happens, no matter which setting you pick. The setting controls what Jacana stores afterward, not whether it looks for scams.

You can delete your saved scans any time, and you can set them to delete automatically on a timer.

Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

• Free. Manual scan and Trust Check, on every device.
• Individual plan. Adds Autoscan, the always-on protection.
• Family Plan. Adds the Family Dashboard on top of Autoscan, so you can protect the people you care about.

You can see current prices and manage your subscription any time in Settings, or on our website.