Spotter

Banks ask the person paying. Spotter asks the person the text pretends to be.

A text says it's Tom and asks Gran for £250. PayPal holds it, Spotter asks the real Tom, and when he taps Not me, PayPal cancels the hold and Gran keeps her £250.

Log in with PayPal

No sign up. You get a family with Gran, Leo and a shopping agent on the PayPal sandbox, with one payment already waiting for you, so nothing real is spent.

Example, Gran's phone and Tom's phone. Gran forwards the text and PayPal holds her £250. Tom's phone gets the question, and one tap on Not me cancels the hold. Gran keeps her £250.

Nobody installs anything new. Gran forwards from her email or Telegram, Leo right clicks a message in Discord, and your AI agent calls Spotter's tool. How each person connects

Nobody hacked Gran. She was asked. So was the AI agent. To the bank, both are normal payments.

Show what happens

Gran pays. It looks like any other payment, and it can't be pulled back.

Gran, asked by a "new number". Example chat.
Agent's basketPulse wireless earbuds × 1£19.99

The agent did what the page said: 10 pairs, no budget, nobody asked.

An AI agent, asked by a line no person sees. Example shop.

Gran's £250, start to finish

Follow the "it's Tom, new number" text from Gran's forward to Tom's Not me. Every payment takes these stops.

  1. Forwarded

    Gran forwards the text instead of paying it.

    A new number says it's Tom and wants £250 sent to his mate's account today. Gran forwards it to Spotter in the chat app she already uses and asks if it's really him.

  2. Checked

    The AI has to quote the words that worried it.

    Her rules first: £250 is over the £50 she asked you to check, and she has never paid jamie.k1994@mail.example. Then an AI reads the text and quotes it word for word, and Spotter asks whether other families said no to that address.

    When there's a link or a shop, Spotter checks more

    Some scam pages show scanners a harmless page and Gran's phone a card form. Spotter opens it both ways.

    Example

    Two faces: what scanners see and what Gran's phone sees

    This page shows something different to phones in the UK than to security scanners: only the phone was asked for card details.

    Track a parcel

    Tracking numberTrack

    Most parcels arrive in 1 to 3 working days.

    Desktop, the way security scanners see it: a harmless tracking page

    Confirm your card

    Card numberMM / YYCVVPay £1.99

    Gran's phone, on a UK mobile network

    Where the money goes

    On the phone version, card details would go to collect-x.example, not to the shop (parcel-redelivery.example).

    Runs in a cloud browser that is thrown away after each visit, so nothing on the page reaches Gran's phone or your laptop. KERNEL

  3. Held at PayPal

    PayPal holds the £250. Nothing has left.

    Spotter asks PayPal to authorise the payment, not take it. The money is set aside on Gran's account. If nobody says yes, nothing is ever paid.

  4. Tom is asked

    The text says it's Tom, so Spotter asks Tom.

    Tom gets one question: did you message Gran from a new number asking for £250? A scammer can talk Gran past a warning. They can't answer on Tom's phone. Sam, Gran's spotter, gets the case too.

  5. Cancelled

    Tom taps Not me. PayPal cancels the hold. Gran keeps her £250.

    Saying no needs no PIN. PayPal confirms the cancelled hold back to Spotter, Gran is told to ring Tom on the number she already has, and Watchtower keeps the record.

The demo family has Gran, Leo and a shopping agent ready to try this on fake money.

Watchtower, built on AG Studio. Ask about the month in plain words. The AI can't move money.

  • The receipt is the AG Studio record, not the AI's word. Spotter reads the run telemetry AG Studio keeps: which tools ran, how often, and whether any of them could move money. None can.
  • Undo puts the board back. Every change one answer made comes off in one click, using the board history AG Studio keeps.

Spotter

Your money is safe

Spotter kept £452.98 away from scammers this month.

£400.00 to New number (Hi Mum) SampleThey pretended to be someone you trust.

How Spotter got this answer

It looked at your month once. It took 3 seconds.

It can't move money, and it didn't.

Gran's view: big type, plain words, nothing to approve. Sample month.

Questions people ask

Does Gran need an account?

No. Only you, the spotter, sign in (with PayPal). You add Gran on your dashboard, set her limits, and she connects her email, Telegram or Discord once with a code or a link. She never sees a dashboard or a password.

What stops Gran just paying in the PayPal app?

Nothing, and I'd rather say so. For people, Spotter is a habit, like ringing a sensible friend before paying: it only helps when Gran forwards the ask. For AI agents it's enforced, because the agent only gets Spotter's tools and a Spotter key, never your PayPal login.

What if the AI gets it wrong?

It has to quote the words that worried it, so you can judge for yourself, and code throws out any warning it can't find in the message. When the check can't run, the payment waits for you instead of going through.

What about Friends and Family payments?

PayPal Friends and Family has no buyer protection. If it's a scam there's no refund and no way to get it back, which is why scammers ask for it. Spotter doesn't send those. If the seller looks genuine, it says pay with Goods and Services. If the ask looks like a scam, it holds it for you and says don't pay at all.

Can an AI agent approve its own payment?

No. An agent can find products, ask to pay, check a payment and check its allowance. There's no approve tool, and approving on the dashboard needs your PIN.

How Spotter works, step by step, with every channel

Runs a business? The same Spotter holds a supplier invoice whose bank details suddenly changed, and an AI agent that orders over budget. Log in with PayPal to set up a business

Try it on fake money.

The demo family has Gran, Leo and a shopping agent ready. Or log in with a PayPal sandbox account and set up your own.

Log in with PayPal