Trust Impairment and Social Reconnection Self-Assessment for Scam Victims
Rebuilding Trust and Connection · 20 Questions across 5 Areas
Your Privacy Is Protected
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 in trust and social connection following a scam, and to decide whether extra support would help. You can save it to share the results with your therapist or mental health professional.
About This Assessment
This self-assessment helps you notice how much a scam has affected your ability to trust, both in other people and in your own judgment, and how connected or withdrawn you feel from others. A scam is a betrayal by someone you trusted, and it is natural for trust and closeness to feel risky afterward. Some guarding is protective. This tool is here to help you see when broken trust and withdrawal have grown large enough to keep you isolated or to slow your recovery.
The questions look at five areas: trusting other people, trusting your own judgment, letting people close, withdrawing from others, and reaching out and reconnecting. It is informed by research on interpersonal trust, on epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity, on betrayal trauma, and on social connectedness after adversity. The items are original and adapted for scam recovery, and this is not a copy of any clinical instrument.
Reflect on the past month as you answer each statement. A pattern across areas matters more than any single answer.
- 1 Strongly Disagree
- 2 Disagree
- 3 Neutral
- 4 Agree
- 5 Strongly Agree
Do not refresh or reload this page. Your answers are held only in this browser session, and reloading will erase your progress.
Your Result
By area
A word to hold onto
A scam is a betrayal, and losing trust afterward, in other people and in your own judgment, is a real injury, not a flaw. Guarding yourself and pulling back are natural ways the mind tries to stay safe. This tool cannot diagnose anything. It is a mirror to help you see a pattern. Trust can be rebuilt, slowly and carefully, and reconnecting with people who are safe is one of the strongest parts of recovery. You do not have to open every door at once, and you do not have to do it alone.
Save your results before leaving this page. Reloading or closing this page will erase them. Use the button below to keep a copy.
Trust and Reconnection Self-Assessment | Educational use only. Not a clinical diagnosis. | www.ScamPsychology.org
