SCARS Institute Post-Scam Obsession and Hypervigilance Inventory

For Scam Victims and Survivors · 46 Questions · About 12 Minutes

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We never see your identityYour answers are scored in your own browser. Nothing that identifies you is collected.

De-identified answers support researchWith your permission, your answers are sent to the SCARS Institute without any identifying information, for scientific research only. They are never shared with third parties.

Keep a copy for your therapistWhen you finish, save or copy your results so you are able to share them with your therapist or counselor.

About This Assessment

Some scam survivors develop obsessive patterns weeks or months after the scam is discovered, often one to three months later. Thoughts about the scam will not stop. Checking, searching, and investigating take over hours of the day. Some survivors become fixed on the person they believed they knew, or on the real person whose photos were stolen. Others feel watched, targeted, or unable to trust anyone.

These patterns are a recognized response to trauma, and they respond well to treatment. This assessment measures them across seven areas, so you and your therapist see clearly what is happening and where to focus.

Read each statement and choose how often it has been true for you over the past two weeks. Answer honestly. There are no right or wrong answers, and no one sees your answers unless you share them.

Please share your results with your therapist. The information this assessment gathers is essential for the professional treating you. Obsessive patterns, fixation, and suspicion are often hidden out of embarrassment, and your therapist needs to know about them to help. When you finish, save or copy your results and bring them to your next session. If you do not have a therapist yet, these results are a strong reason to find one.

Please note. This is an educational self-assessment, not a diagnosis. It was developed by the SCARS Institute for scam survivors and draws on the structure of established measures of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and paranoid thinking, using original questions.

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Why we ask this

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