SCARS Institute: Mental Health - Anxiety Self-Assessment Test for Scam Victims

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We never see your identity

Your responses are processed in your browser and your email. Only you see any identifying information about you.

De-identified data supports research

With your permission and your identity removed, your de-identified answers are sent to the SCARS Institute for scientific research only. Data is never shared with third parties.

Keep your own copy

When you finish, you can save, email, or print your results on your own device — to keep, or to share with your therapist or mental health professional.

The SCARS Institute provides this tool to help you notice patterns consistent with anxiety following a scam experience, and to decide whether extra support would help. You can save it to share the results with your therapist or mental health professional.

I give my consent for my fully de-identified assessment data to be used for research purposes only. I understand that all personal identifiers have been removed from my responses, this information will not be shared with any third parties, and my participation is completely voluntary.

About This Assessment

This assessment is adapted from the GAD-7 clinical framework — one of the most widely validated anxiety screening tools in clinical practice — and extended with trauma-specific items that are particularly relevant to scam victims, including hypervigilance, trust disruption, and panic-level responses.

Reflect on the past two weeks as you answer each question. A pattern across sections matters more than any single score. This assessment covers seven areas: core anxiety symptoms, physiological arousal, cognitive impact, emotional and behavioural effects, trauma-specific amplifiers, sleep and regulation disruption, and panic-level indicators.

0 — Not at all

1 — Several days

2 — More than half the days

3 — Nearly every day

Please Note. This assessment is adapted from the GAD-7 clinical framework for educational purposes. It does not diagnose anxiety disorders — clinical diagnosis requires professional evaluation that may also consider medical causes such as thyroid or cardiac conditions. We strongly recommend sharing these results with a mental health professional.