The Safety Record
One test that works on anything that reaches you — a call, an email, a text, a knock at the door — and a record of what you have already done about it.
Not a list of scams to memorize. Lists like that are out of date before they are printed. Underneath, every one of them is the same shape, and this book teaches you the shape.
One purchase. Print PDF and fillable PDF, together — write it out by hand, type into it, or both.
All sales are final. This is a digital download — once payment is received, no refunds are given.
- Instant download
- Fillable PDF
- Print PDF
- Nothing stored online
The whole idea
The information is free.
The record is the product.
So here is the test, in full, on this page. If you take nothing else, take this.
What you cannot get from a web page is the other half — your bank's real number copied off your own card, the date you froze your credit, the name of the person you would actually call. That is what the book is for.
Before you do anything
- 1.Did I start this?
- 2.Is it pushing me to hurry — or to keep it quiet?
- 3.Does it want money, codes, or access?
One yes is enough. You are not trying to work out whether it is genuine — you will not out-argue someone who has had this conversation four hundred times. You are trying to leave.
“I don't do this on the phone. I'll call the number on my card.”
Why this exists
Nobody finds out how it works until it has already happened to them.
The people who do this are professionals. They do nothing else, they test the script on thousands of others before it reaches you, and they aim it deliberately at the moments when you are busy, tired, or worried about someone.
Prosecutors, accountants and computer engineers get caught by them. The belief that only foolish people get taken in is not just wrong — it is the thing that keeps victims quiet, and quiet is exactly what the next one is counting on.
Most of this book is not about being suspicious. It is about half an afternoon of dull, one-time jobs — a freeze here, a setting there — that quietly take the whole thing off the table. And then a few pages to write down what you did, so that in three years you still know.
What's inside
Five parts. One working record.
It runs in the order you would actually need it: recognize it, hear it, shut the doors, and — if you came here because something already happened — go straight to Part Four.
The Three Questions
The test itself, the callback rule, and what it looks like running on three ordinary examples. Short enough to work when you are not at your best.
What they actually sound like
The computer call. The grandchild in trouble. The bank's fraud department, calling you. The refund that overpaid. Each one with the sentence that ends it.
Making it harder in the first place
The most valuable part of the book. Freeze your credit, lock the email, two-step, alerts, recovery details, passwords, security questions, your own credit report, and the conversation at home — in order of what protects you most.
If it already happened
The first hour, why the same day matters so much, what you are entitled to, the second wave — and what to say to the person telling you.
The Record
Thirteen pages you fill in. A book you have read protects you for about a week. A book you have written in is still working for you in two years.
Three standalone pieces
The email that looks right — how to read a real one. What is already out there about you. And the conversation to have at home, with the one household rule that stops nearly everything in Part Two.
Actual pages
Every image here is a real page of the book.
The Record
Thirteen pages that keep working after you have put the book down.
This is the half that is not on any web page: your details, in your handwriting or typed in, in one place your household can find.
How to keep this book
Pointers, not secrets — and where it lives
My people
The person you would actually call
My real numbers
Copied from a card in your hand, never from a caller
The accounts that matter most
And which email and phone are attached
What I have done
The checklist from Part Three, with room to date each line
The credit freeze
All three bureaus, and how to lift it
Security questions
The answers you chose instead of the true ones
Where things are kept
So somebody else can find them
The devices in this house
The approach log
What arrived, and what you did about it
If something happened
Who you called, when, and what they said
The once-a-year look
Ten minutes, five years of columns
The two cards
Cut out — fridge and wallet
The rule the book is built on
This book holds pointers, not secrets.
A book with your bank's fraud number and a list of your accounts in it is useful to you. It would also be useful to somebody else. So the record is built on one division, and the book says so on its first record page.
What goes in
Phone numbers you copied from a card or statement. The names of your accounts and which email and phone are attached to them. Dates you did things. The people you would call. Where other things are kept.
What never goes in
A password. A PIN. A full account or card number. Your Social Security number. The answer to anything a bank would use to prove you are you over the phone. If a page seems to be asking for one of those, it isn't — read it again.
And nothing of yours reaches us
There is no account to make and no app to install. You download two files. What you write in them stays on your machine or in your handwriting, and Resilient Edge Group never sees a line of it.
If you are buying it for someone else
Page two is written to them, not to you.
“They did not give it to you because they think you would fall for something. They gave it to you because the people who do this are professionals, and because almost nobody finds out how any of it works until it has already happened to them.”
There is a For / From / Date line under it. Most people who buy this are buying it for a parent, and the awkward part is the handing-over — so the book does that part for you, and says the thing you would want said: the person who gave you this would rather have the conversation now than the other one later.
You may print as many copies as you need for your own household, and hand it to the people who would need it.
Not today? Take the free card.
The Three Questions, emailed to you now so they're on your phone when you need them, and a short note now and then after that. Unsubscribe any time.
Nothing here can make you safe.
The Safety Record is general information and a personal record, not advice. It is not legal, financial or tax advice, and reading it does not create a professional relationship of any kind. Consumer protections and reporting procedures differ between states and are amended over time — check anything you are relying on. Everything in the book makes you a harder target and a faster responder; anyone promising more than that is selling something.
Read the full terms →FAQ
Before you buy
What is actually in the download?+
Two PDFs of the same 69-page book. The print edition is laid out to be printed and written on by hand. The fillable edition has every line, box and tick set up as a form field — 519 of them — so you can type straight into it, save it, and come back to it. Use one, or both.
Do I need to be good with computers?+
No. Part Three is the most technical part of the book and it is nine switches that already exist, sitting in the off position because nobody ever mentioned them. There is no jargon in here you have to keep, and the steps run in order from what protects you most to what protects you least — so if you only ever do the first two, you have done the two that matter.
Is this only for older people?+
No. It is written so that it can be handed to a parent without being patronizing, which turns out to be the right register for everybody. The approaches in Part Two arrive by text and email as often as by phone, and the account work in Part Three is the same work at any age.
Something has already happened. Is it too late to be worth it?+
No — and the book tells you that on page three, before anything else: go straight to Part Four, and if money has moved, phone your bank first on the number on the back of your card. What you can get back is measured in days, and the clock started when it happened, not when you finished reading.
How often do I have to do this?+
Once, properly — then ten minutes a year. R12 is a single page with five years of columns on it: pick a date you will remember, check the freezes are still on, check the numbers still match a real statement, and put the book away again.
Will it make me safe?+
No, and the book says so in its own notes. Nothing can. Everything in here makes you a harder target and a faster responder. Anyone promising more than that is selling something.
Half an afternoon, once
Take the whole thing off the table.
Someone who has done the work in Part Three can make a bad decision on the phone and still lose very little, because the doors were already shut. Someone who hasn't can do everything right for years and lose a great deal on one tired afternoon.
Also from Resilient Edge Group
The Household Record
A guided workbook for organizing your digital accounts, passwords, and monthly budget — in fillable and print formats.
