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jtberry87
jtberry87

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I built a free "Alive or Dead?" checker for 2026 free-money ads. It says "Unknown" instead of guessing

#showdev #security #scam #personalfinance

My feed has been full of "free money" pitches all year: a $2,000 tariff rebate "ready to claim" by text, a 30% solar tax credit "if you sign this week", a new IRS form that supposedly freezes senior property taxes. Most of them look official and most of them are dead.

So I built Ghost Money, a free board that marks each common 2026 rebate / tax-credit / forgiveness pitch as Alive, Dead, or Changed, and links the source it's based on (IRS, Congress.gov, StudentAid, Medicare, FTC, county assessors).

A few "Dead" entries

  • "30% federal solar / heat-pump tax credit if you sign this week." The 25C and 25D credits are closed for property placed in service after Dec 31, 2025. A named state or utility rebate can still be real. The federal credit isn't.
  • "$7,500 off this EV." 30D / 25E / 45W closed for vehicles acquired after Sept 30, 2025 (narrow binding-contract exception).
  • "$2,000 tariff rebate check, click to claim." H.R.7865 was introduced on Mar 9, 2026 and referred to committee. Introduced isn't enacted, and there's no IRS disbursement. The FTC has warned repeatedly that the IRS doesn't text you about refunds or rebates.
  • "File IRS Form 1098-SR to freeze your property taxes." No such form. Property taxes are state/local. Ventura County and LA County assessors both put out warnings in Aug/Sep 2026.
  • "$8,000 first-time homebuyer credit." Dead since 2010.

The design choice I care about: "Unknown" beats a confident guess

The checker is deliberately dumb. It matches your pasted ad against the 13 issues on the board using simple keywords. If the pitch isn't on the board, it says Unknown, not "probably fine" and not "probably a scam." It never makes up a dollar amount, a statute, or a date. If an agency didn't publish the number, the field stays blank.

A few other choices:

  • Static site, no accounts. The check runs in your browser. The text you paste isn't sent to a server.
  • Sources on the page. Every verdict names what it rests on, so you can check me instead of trusting me.
  • The statute wins. If this page and the law disagree, the law is right and I'm wrong. Tell me and I'll fix it.

It's not tax, legal, or financial advice. It's a read of an advertisement against published 2026 rules.

What I'd love feedback on

  1. Which "free money" pitches have you (or your parents) seen lately that aren't on the board?
  2. Is keyword matching plus an honest "Unknown" the right trade-off, or would you rather see a fuzzier match with a confidence score?

Paste something weird into https://ghost-money.surge.sh/check and tell me what it said.

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