--- title: "SCARS Institute ScamsNOW.com Reader Rewards System Guide" canonical: https://scamsnow.com/reader-rewards-system-guide/ type: page author: "SCARS Editorial Team" published: 2026-09-18 modified: 2026-09-18 summary: "" organization: "ScamsNOW.com - the Official Magazine of Scams Fraud & Cybercrime" organization_url: https://scamsnow.com/ llms: https://scamsnow.com/llms.txt --- # SCARS Institute ScamsNOW.com Reader Rewards System Guide # SCARS Reader Rewards System Guide How to use your reader account, reading badges, the master article lists, and the weekly newsletter on SCARS Institute websites. This guide is for readers. It explains what each feature does and how to use it. Everything described here is free. ### NOTE: Each of the four main SCARS Institute websites (AgainstScams.org • ScamPsychology.org • ScamsNOW.com • RomanceScamsNOW.com) has separate reader reward systems. To use the full capability of each, you must register on each site. This allows you: - To save articles for future reading on each one - To record the articles that you have read and gain rewards on each site - To receive our Weekly Update Email from each site - To manage your Reader Profile and see your learning progress on each site. Yes, this might seem to be more complex than it needs to be, but we are constrained by a multitude of laws around the world that apply. So we have to do each site separately. We wish it were not this way. Thank you for understanding. ## What you get with a reader account A reader account lets the website remember what you have read. When you finish an article and mark it as read, the site counts it. As your count grows, you earn reader badges. You also get a personal list of articles you want to come back to, a page that shows your full reading history, and master lists of every article, podcast, story, and other item on the site, each marked read or unread for you. You do not need an account to read anything on the site. The account only adds the tracking and the badges. If you prefer to read without an account, nothing changes for you. ## Creating your account You will find the reader box on every article page and on the Reader Dashboard page in the site menu under Your Reading Rewards. If you are not logged in, the box shows two tabs: Log in and Register. ### To register 1. Click the Register tab. 2. Enter your first name, last name, and a nickname. The nickname is the name other readers see if you leave a comment. 3. Enter your email address. This is also your login name. 4. Choose a password of at least 8 characters. 5. Select your country and answer whether you are a scam survivor. We ask this so we can understand who we are helping. 6. Leave the newsletter box checked if you would like our weekly email of new articles. Uncheck it if you would not. 7. Complete the “I am human” check if one appears, then click Create my free account. Your account is ready at once. You are logged in, and a welcome email is sent to your address. There is no confirmation link to click. **A note on email addresses. **To protect the site from automated signups, we do not accept registrations from some email domains. If your address is refused, please use a different one, such as a Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo address. ## Logging in and out On the Log in tab, enter your email address and password. Leave Keep me logged in checked and your browser will remember you, so you will not need to log in again on that device. To log out, open the reader box and click Log out at the bottom. After five wrong password attempts in a row, the login pauses for fifteen minutes. This protects your account from guessing attacks. Wait fifteen minutes and try again, or use the password reset below. ### If you forget your password 1. On the Log in tab, click Forgot your password? 2. Enter your email address and click Send reset link. 3. Open the email we send you and click Choose a New Password. The link works for 24 hours. 4. Enter your new password and click Save. You are logged in immediately. For your security, the reset page always says the same thing whether or not the address is on file. If no email arrives within a few minutes, check your spam folder, then try again with the address you registered with. ## Your reader dashboard Once you are logged in, the reader box becomes your dashboard. It appears on every article and on the Reader Dashboard page. It shows: - Articles read: your total, with a progress bar and the number of articles left until your next badge. - Your badges: every badge you have earned so far. Badges you have not earned yet are not shown, so the row grows as you read. - To read later: the articles you have saved, each linked, with an × to remove one from the list. - Recently read: the last five articles you marked as read, with dates. - My reading history: a link to your full history page. When you earn a new badge, the dashboard shows a notice the next time you open it, and we send you an email with the badge. ## Marking an article as read Reading is counted only when you say so. Nothing is counted automatically, so skimming an article or leaving it open does not add to your total. This keeps the count honest and puts you in control. At the top or bottom of each article you will see a small bar with two buttons. - Mark as read: click it when you have finished the article. The bar changes to show a check mark and “Read.” Marking an article read also removes it from your To read later list. - Read (undo): if you marked something by mistake, click the check mark button to undo it. Your total goes down by one. Badges you have already earned stay with you. - Save for later: adds the article to your To read later list. The button changes to Unsave. You can only save an article from the article itself, so that your list holds things you have actually looked at. Each article counts once, no matter how many times you read it. ## Reader badges Badges are awarded at these totals: 5, 10, 20, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 300, and 500 articles read. Each badge has a name and an image, and each one stays on your dashboard once earned. The badge email includes the badge image and a link back to your dashboard. Badges are a way to see your own progress. Reading about how scams work, and about how recovery works, is part of getting stronger. The count is there to show you how far you have come. --- --- ## Your reading history page The Reading History page, in the site menu under Your Reading Rewards, shows everything in one place: every article you have marked read with the date, whether you commented on it, everything you have saved, and how many badges you hold. ### Managing your data Your reading history is private. Only you and the site administrators can see it. Two controls at the bottom of the history page let you manage it. - Clear my reading history removes every read and saved item. Your account and your badges stay. - Delete my account removes your reader account, your history, and your badges, and removes you from the newsletter. Type DELETE in the box to confirm. This cannot be undone. ## Master lists Master lists are full indexes of everything published on the site: one list for articles, one for podcasts, one for music, one for meditations, one for stories, and so on. You will find them in the site menu next to each content type, labeled Full List. They are available to logged-in readers. Each list shows: - A row of tabs at the top that jump to the other master lists. - A search box that searches the whole site, all content types at once. - A count line: “You have read 12 of 1,842 articles.” - A filter: All, Unread, or Read. Unread shows only what you have not marked yet, which is the quickest way to find something new. - The table: title (click it to open the item), the date it was last updated, whether you have saved it, whether you have read it, and a Mark read or Mark unread button. - Page controls at the bottom, 50 items per page, newest first. Marking an item read from the list does exactly what the button on the article does: it counts toward your badges and removes the item from your saved list. The Saved column shows your saved items but cannot change them; to save something, open it and use Save for later. ## The weekly newsletter Our newsletter is a weekly email listing the articles and other items published that week, each with a link to read it. You can subscribe when you register, or at any time using the subscribe form that appears on article pages and on the newsletter page. ### Subscribing from the form Fill in your name, country, and email address, answer the two questions, and click Subscribe. We then send you a confirmation email. Your subscription starts only after you click the link in that email, so nobody can sign you up without your consent. If the email does not arrive, check your spam folder. If you subscribed while registering your reader account, you are already active and no confirmation email is needed. ### Unsubscribing Every newsletter email has an Unsubscribe link at the bottom. Clicking it removes you at once. You can also use the small Unsubscribe switch under the subscribe form: enter your address and we send you a link to confirm. Either way, you will receive no further newsletters. Once you unsubscribe, the form will not accept that address again. This is deliberate, so that nobody can re-add you without your knowledge. If you change your mind later, write to us and we will restore you. ## Privacy Your reader account stores your name, nickname, email address, country, your answer to the survivor question, and the record of what you have read and saved. We record the date and internet address of your registration as proof of consent. We do not share any of this, and we do not sell it. You can see everything we hold on your Reading History page and remove it there at any time. ## If something does not work If something goes wrong, please email us at [subscribers@AgainstScams.org](mailto:subscribers@AgainstScams.org) - The reader box shows only a spinner. Wait a moment; it loads after the rest of the page. If it stays blank, reload the page. - I marked an article read but the list still says Unread. Reload the list page; it refreshes when it loads. - I did not get the badge email or the welcome email. Check your spam or promotions folder and add our address to your contacts. - The *“I am human”* check will not pass. Reload the page and try again. If it keeps failing, try a different browser. - I cannot log in. Use Forgot your password? on the Log in tab. After five wrong attempts, wait fifteen minutes. - My badge count seems wrong. The count only includes articles you marked yourself. Open your Reading History page to see the full list. For anything else, use the contact address in the site footer and tell us which page you were on and what you saw. ## Thank you Thank you for letting the SCARS Institute help you with your after-scam healing, recovery, and education. Sincerely, **Prof. Emeritus Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. Dfin.** Managing Director of the SCARS Institute Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. September 18, 2026