Ask Silver
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Ask Silver does
Ask Silver is a UK-based AI scam detection company founded in 2020 by Alex Somervell and Jonny after a family member lost £150,000 to a series of scams. The company provides a free consumer-facing scam checker accessible via WhatsApp and a web interface at asksilver.com, where users submit screenshots, photos, phone numbers, or website links and receive a verdict in under 30 seconds. The platform also enables one-tap reporting of detected scams to authorities including the National Cyber Security Centre via [email protected] and to impersonated organisations.
The core technology combines multimodal AI analysis—processing text, images, URLs, and phone numbers—against hundreds of external data sources including scam databases, regulatory warnings, company checks, user reports, online reviews, and language patterns. Ask Silver is built on third-party foundation models including Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, and OpenRouter, with responses shaped by specialists in behavioural psychology, criminology, and behavioural linguistics. The platform has accumulated 40,000+ scam checks and 50,000+ scams detected, creating a proprietary pattern corpus.
The business operates a dual model: a free consumer product generating no direct revenue but building brand and data, alongside a B2B white-label or embedded scam checker offered to UK banks and financial institutions. The company is incorporated as Ask Silver Limited in England and Wales, headquartered in London, and operates with a small team under a hybrid working model. Partnerships with City of London Police, Get Safe Online, Friends Against Scams, and National Trading Standards provide ecosystem distribution, and the company has self-classified as 'limited risk' under UK AI Act assessment while maintaining UK GDPR and PECR compliance.
Ask Silver firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ask Silver
- Legal name
- Ask Silver Limited
- Website
- https://asksilver.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ask Silver industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Fraud Prevention Software
- NAICS
- Investigation and Personal Background Check Services (561611)
- SIC
- Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Fraud Detection & Prevention (payments fraud, account takeover, scams) (FSAGAFAE)
Keywords
Where Ask Silver is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Ask Silver business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Free Consumer Service: Free scam checking service for consumers via WhatsApp and website. No direct revenue from consumers. Supports brand building and data collection for scam pattern detection.
- Banking/Enterprise Licensing: White-label or embedded scam checker offered to banks and financial institutions under their brand. Enterprise B2B licensing model.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free consumer tier |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels5 records
Ask Silver product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ask Silver provides a free AI-powered scam checking service that consumers can access via WhatsApp or the website to verify suspicious messages, emails, phone numbers, and websites. For banks and financial institutions, it offers a white-label or embedded version of the scam checker that integrates into the customer's digital journey under the bank's brand. The underlying engine performs deep analysis across hundreds of data points and reports confirmed scams to authorities such as the National Cyber Security Centre.
Product overview
Ask Silver offers a single unified product—the AI-powered Scam Checker—available in two primary variants: a free consumer version accessible via WhatsApp and web, and a white-label banking/enterprise version for financial institutions. The core engine performs deep analysis across scam databases, website checks, company verification, regulatory warnings, and language patterns. Consumer access is free with scam reporting capabilities to authorities. The enterprise offering provides banks with branded scam protection integrated into customer journeys. Supporting resources include an educational blog, annual UK APP Scam Survey research, and partnerships with fraud prevention organizations including City of London Police, Get Safe Online, and Friends Against Scams.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Ask Silver Scam Checker (Consumer) Free AI-powered scam detection tool available to individual consumers via WhatsApp and the Asksilver.com website. Users submit screenshots, photos, phone numbers, or website links and receive a clear verdict within 30 seconds, with explanations of why content is suspicious and one-tap reporting to authorities such as the National Cyber Security Centre.
- Ask Silver Scam Checker (Banking/Enterprise) White-label or embedded scam checker offered to UK banks and financial institutions under their own brand. Provides self-service scam protection within the bank's digital journey, fills the protection gap for low-value high-volume cases, and reduces manual fraud intervention calls.
Quantifiable outcome
- Delivers scam verdict in under 30 seconds
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Ask Silver
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Ask Silver technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability8 records
Feature3 records
Ask Silver partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- City of London PolicecorePartnership with City of London Police to help protect people wherever scams reach them. Committed to supporting the wider fraud prevention ecosystem, sharing insight, driving behaviour change, and helping people feel more confident in the face of scams.
- Get Safe OnlinecoreAsk Silver is accessible via the Get Safe Online website. Tony Neate, CEO at Get Safe Online, endorses Ask Silver as a fantastic tool for checking emails, texts, or messages for scams.
- Friends Against ScamsminorPartnership with Friends Against Scams to help protect people wherever scams reach them and support the wider fraud prevention ecosystem.
- UK's Biggest Financial InstitutionscoreWorks with the UK's biggest financial institutions to make scam detection faster, smarter, and easier for everyone. Offering white-label scam checker under their brand.
- National Trading StandardsminorUsers discover Ask Silver through local National Trading Standards referrals. Community-based fraud prevention organization.
- YouGovminorCommissioned YouGov to survey 2,100 UK consumers for annual APP Scam Survey research on consumer awareness of new fraud regulations.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Ask Silver competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Action Fraud: UK's national fraud and cyber-crime reporting center run by the City of London Police. Not a competitor but a direct ecosystem counterpart that Ask Silver works alongside, and represents the authoritative public-sector alternative for consumers seeking to report scams.
Emerging players
- Sardine: US-based fraud and compliance platform combining device intelligence, behavior analytics, and identity for digital banks and fintechs. Comparable as a rapidly scaling fraud-prevention vendor serving next-generation financial institutions with similar AI-driven scam and account-takeover detection.
- SentiLink: US fraud-detection startup specializing in synthetic identity and account-opening fraud for banks and fintechs. Comparable as an emerging AI-driven fraud vendor with overlapping risk-scoring capabilities and similar target buyer profile (financial institutions).
- Hiya: Caller-ID and phone-spam/scam detection app with consumer and carrier distribution. Comparable as a consumer-facing scam-detection product focused on phone calls, overlapping with Ask Silver's phone-number analysis capability on the WhatsApp channel.
Direct peers
- Featurespace: UK-based AI fraud detection platform serving major banks and payments providers with adaptive behavioral analytics. Closest direct competitor to Ask Silver's B2B bank offering, competing for the same UK financial institution fraud-prevention budget with overlapping detection capabilities.
- BioCatch: Behavioral biometrics fraud detection platform used by major banks to spot scams and account takeover. Comparable as a specialized AI-driven fraud-detection vendor selling into the same UK and global bank fraud prevention category.
- Callsign: UK-founded identity and authentication platform serving banks and financial institutions. Comparable as a London-based fraud/identity vendor selling to enterprise financial services with overlapping AI-driven risk detection capabilities.
- Cifas: UK's leading fraud prevention service operating the National Fraud Database, used by banks, insurers, and government. Directly comparable as a fraud-prevention infrastructure layer serving the same UK bank customer base that Ask Silver targets.
Broad incumbents
- NatWest (in-house scam tool): NatWest has built and launched its own scam-detection feature within its banking app. Represents the in-house competitive threat: a tier-one UK bank opting to build rather than license Ask Silver's white-label product for its own customers.
- Visa (Risk Manager / Decision Intelligence): Visa's network-level fraud detection products serve issuing and acquiring banks globally. Represents the broad-incumbent competitive alternative: a much larger incumbent offering fraud detection as part of a wider payments portfolio rather than as a specialized scam-focused product.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Ask Silver social profiles
Digital presenceAsk Silver compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Ask Silver financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ask Silver leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Ask Silver funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ask Silver M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ask Silver
What does Ask Silver do?
Ask Silver provides a free AI-powered scam checking service that consumers can access via WhatsApp or the website to verify suspicious messages, emails, phone numbers, and websites. For banks and financial institutions, it offers a white-label or embedded version of the scam checker that integrates into the customer's digital journey under the bank's brand. The underlying engine performs deep analysis across hundreds of data points and reports confirmed scams to authorities such as the National Cyber Security Centre.
Is Ask Silver a public or private company?
Ask Silver is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Ask Silver founded?
Ask Silver was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Ask Silver based?
Ask Silver is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Ask Silver make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Free Consumer Service is the primary driver. The others are banking/Enterprise Licensing.
Who are Ask Silver's main competitors?
Action Fraud is listed as an others. Emerging players are Sardine, SentiLink and Hiya. Direct peers are Featurespace, BioCatch, Callsign and Cifas. Broad incumbents are NatWest (in-house scam tool) and Visa (Risk Manager / Decision Intelligence).
Does Ask Silver have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ask Silver.
What industry is Ask Silver in?
Ask Silver's product category is Fraud Prevention Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAGAFAE, Fraud Detection & Prevention (payments fraud, account takeover, scams). Its NAICS code is 561611 and its SIC code is 7381.