GratisAIfamily · field guide · local-first · no account
recovery ladder

Start Scam Recovery for a Parent in Date Order — Free

Paste what happened with its dates — the transfer, the gift cards, the bank call — and get the recovery steps ordered by date with a running total of what left the account.

The proof surface

Recovery is sequencing under a clock: recall windows and report confirmations hang off the transaction dates; ordering the reader's own events turns panic into the next dated call.

Inputthe incident's own dated events with amounts, pasted from the family's notes
Rare deviceorders the reader's own incident into a dated recovery sequence with the loss total carried on every rung, instead of a 'watch out for scams' warning list written after the fact
Output artifacta dated ladder of recovery steps with the running loss printed beside every rung
Cost$0 · local-first · one free run · samples labelled
Sample, not your facts: Sample: the 2026-09-21 call, $500 in Target gift cards the same day, a $2,400 Cornerstone wire on 2026-09-22, the bank notified 2026-09-23 with claim opened and card frozen — five rungs, four dates, $2,900 running.

Why the flat version breaks

Waiting to be sure it was a scam

Recall windows run in days from the transactions, and certainty arrives slower than the clock.

Reporting only to the gift-card store

The card brand and the bank move the money; the store can only hand over what corporate approves.

Splitting the work unevenly

One sibling calls the bank, nobody files the reports, and the claim later lacks the paperwork that unlocks it.

How to work the recovery ladder

Paste the incident

Every dated event with its amount, from first contact to the last call you made.

Read the ladder

The rungs sit in date order with the running loss beside each one.

Work the top rung

The next call is the newest unreported step — bank, card issuer, then the reports.

Keep the receipts

Claim numbers go back on the ladder so the file shows what was done when.

What the ladder replaces

QuestionBeforeOn the ladder
Who do we call firstan argument between siblingsthe top rung, dated, with the loss beside it
How much is gonea shrinking guessa running total on every rung
What did we already doeveryone remembers differentlyreported steps stamped below the top rung

The ladder orders what you paste; your bank's fraud team and the police report are the authorities on what can still be reversed.

Run it on the samples, right here

FIRST-LOAD

Data note: Everything runs in this browser tab on the recovery ladder: your the incident's dates, amounts and the calls already made stays on this device, nothing is uploaded, and the reading is rebuilt only when you press run.

Go deeper: the companion app files the same reading as a climbing rung ladder

The article demo above runs without limits. The companion app keeps a local history, exports the rows as CSV, prints the ready-to-mail packet, and holds your drafts on this device — one free run, then $ 7 one-time for the layer that keeps filing.

The ladder and the loss total are free. The paid layer keeps the incident file, prints the bank and report scripts, and tracks which rung is due a follow-up.

Open the recovery step ladder companion

Boundary

This recovery ladder works only on the incident events you paste you paste. It does not recover the funds for you, does not identify the scammer, and does not advise on criminal or civil claims. The figures describe what you supplied, not what is true in the world. Confirm anything you plan to act on with your bank's fraud department, and Adult Protective Services if a caregiver or new 'friend' is involved before you rely on it.

What this is built on

Before: the family froze after the phone call and argued about who should do what. After: four dated steps sit in order with the loss total in hand, because the ladder filed the incident from their own dates.