Terms of Service
Legal
The agreement between you and us: what the service is, what it is not, and the limits on both sides.
DRAFT — NOT LEGALLY REVIEWED. This document must be reviewed and approved by qualified counsel in each operating jurisdiction before publication. See README.md in this folder for the specific questions counsel needs to answer.
Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE] Provider: [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [REGISTERED ADDRESS] ("Trip Scam", "we", "us") Contact: [SUPPORT EMAIL]
Trip Scam is an information service. We show travellers reports of alleged scams and tourist-targeted deception at or near particular locations, so they can make their own decisions about where to go and what to be careful about.
Trip Scam is not:
Reports describe what individual travellers say happened to them, or patterns documented in publicly available sources. They are allegations and impressions, not adjudicated facts. Each report carries a visible label showing how it was verified.
You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your country, if higher) to create an account. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for activity under your account. Notify us promptly at [SUPPORT EMAIL] if you believe your account has been compromised.
We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these Terms, submits reports we reasonably believe to be false or malicious, or is used to harass a person or business.
When you submit a report, you keep ownership of what you wrote. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, translate, publish, and display that content in connection with the service, including in aggregated or anonymised form.
You promise that:
as part of any coordinated campaign;
bystanders who have not consented;
that discloses another person's private information.
You must not name or depict individual private persons. Reports should describe conduct, methods, and locations — not identify individuals by name, photograph, or other identifying detail.
We may edit reports for clarity, length, or compliance with these Terms, or decline to publish them at all. Publication is at our discretion and is never guaranteed.
Every report is labelled with one of the following, and the label is shown to users:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Admin-verified | Reviewed by our moderation team against available evidence and corroborating sources |
| Community-reported (unconfirmed) | Submitted by a user, published, not independently corroborated |
| Detected from reviews (unconfirmed) | Surfaced by automated analysis of public reviews, reviewed by a human before publication |
| Disputed | Contested by a named party; under review |
No report is published solely by automated decision. Automated tools are used to prioritise material for human review; a human being makes every publication decision.
If you own, manage, or represent a business or venue you believe is described unfairly or inaccurately, you may contest it at no cost using the dispute function in the app, or by writing to [LEGAL CONTACT EMAIL].
Our published [Dispute and Takedown Policy](/v1/legal/dispute-policy) sets out the process and our response deadlines. In summary:
decision is made.
We aim to acknowledge disputes within [X] business days and decide within [Y] business days. Where a statutory deadline applies in your jurisdiction, that deadline governs.
You must not:
The service is provided on an "as available" basis. Features may change or be withdrawn. Location-based features require your device's location; you can decline, and the app will still work with reduced functionality. How we handle location data is described in the [Privacy Policy](/v1/legal/privacy).
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law: the service and all content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
We do not warrant that reports are accurate, current, or complete. You are responsible for your own safety decisions.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. If you are a consumer, you keep all mandatory statutory rights in your country of residence, and nothing here overrides them.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the service.
Our aggregate liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) [CAP AMOUNT].
You agree to indemnify us against claims, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from content you submitted in breach of these Terms — in particular, reports you knew to be false. This does not apply where the claim results from our own editing, curation, or publication decisions.
These Terms are governed by the laws of [JURISDICTION], without regard to conflict of law rules. Disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of [JURISDICTION].
If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with mandatory consumer protections, nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of the mandatory laws of your country of residence, or of the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.
Counsel note: whether to include an arbitration clause and class-action waiver is a commercial and legal decision with very different consequences by market — such clauses are generally unenforceable against EU and UK consumers. Left out pending advice.
We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give at least [30] days' notice in the app or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use the service after that means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not, you may close your account.