Scams are getting harder to spot. This shield watches for you.
Neighbors, I'm Gideon. I help people with their computers in their homes around Bellevue, and I kept meeting good, careful people who'd been tricked by a pop-up, a text, or an email that lied to them. So I built this — and it's free.
Free forever. Works in Chrome and Edge. Nothing you do is ever sent anywhere — it all stays on your own computer.
📞 Or call Gideon: 531-212-0799It used to be easy to tell. It isn't anymore.
Scams used to have spelling mistakes and strange addresses. Now the pop-ups look perfect, the emails read like your real bank wrote them, and a phone call can even sound like your own family.
It doesn't mean you need to worry. It just means the old tests aren't the tests they used to be — so the shield does the checking for you.
What the shield does, in plain words
Checks your email and links first
Before you open them, the shield looks them over and tells you what it found — in words anyone can understand.
Breaks the fake lock
If a page tries to freeze your screen and scream about a virus, the shield silences it, breaks the lock, and closes the page itself.
Stops the download they beg for
If someone on the phone talks you into downloading a program that lets them into your computer, the shield stops it and says, in big letters: hang up now.
Reads warnings out loud
Every warning can speak, for folks who'd rather listen than read small print.
Asks one question
Set a family code word. Real family knows it. A trick never does.
If one of these tricks has ever fooled you — or almost did — please hear this: it is not your fault. These scams are built by professionals to panic careful people. I've sat at kitchen tables with smart, cautious folks after it happened, and the blame belongs to the people who built the trick. Never to you.
Worried about Mom or Dad?
You are probably the one who gets the call — "my computer says I have a virus, and a man on the phone says…" This is the thing you can do about it before that call ever comes.
- Add Inbox Shield to their computer in one click. There is nothing for them to learn and nothing to keep up with — it watches quietly and steps in at the dangerous moment.
- Set the family code word together while you are at it — it is built right in, for the “grandma, it is me, I am in trouble” calls.
- Print the three rules below and put them on their fridge.
If they would rather a person handled it, I will set it up on a house call — or walk you through it over the phone. There is no charge for the call.
Put it on their computer — freeThree rules worth putting on the fridge
- 1If it shouts, call Gideon.
- 2Nobody will ever ask you to turn the shield off — if a caller does, that IS the scam.
- 3If someone on the phone told you to download something, hang up now.
How to put it on
- Step 1: Click the download button — a folder lands in your Downloads.
- Step 2: Unzip it (right-click, then choose “Extract All”).
- Step 3: In Chrome or Edge, open the extensions page, turn on Developer mode, choose “Load unpacked”, and pick the folder.
Soon it will also be in the Chrome Web Store and the Edge store, where it installs in one click.
Free means free.
Inbox Shield costs nothing and it never will — no trial, no premium version, no catch. If it helps you and you'd like to help me build more tools like it — plain-words checkers for phones, printed guides for senior centers, talks at churches and libraries — you can chip in below. Only if you want to. The shield works exactly the same either way.
Chip in $10Donations go to Gideon Nickerson and fund the next scam-prevention projects.
You can call me whenever — before you click, after you click, even if you're just not sure. There's no charge for the call, and there's no such thing as a silly question.
I'm Gideon — my dad owns Affordable Computer Repair here in Bellevue, and I make the house calls.
531-212-0799Feel free to share this page with anyone it might help — a parent, a neighbor, a friend from church.