How to spot a fake invitation scam and check any invite link

A guide to the fake invitation scam: how it works, how to tell a real invitation from a fake one, what to do if you were targeted, and a free tool to check any link.

By Francesco Balestra, September 18, 2026

There is a popular scam going around where hackers send fake invitations and greeting cards to steal their victims’ personal and financial information, or even gain access to their computers. The fakes can look exactly like the real thing: the same artwork and layout as a trusted invitation provider, the name of someone the victim knows, and often sent from the real email address of that same trusted person.

Telling a real invitation or greeting card from a fake one is hard, and getting it wrong is costly. To help, we have written this guide to expose the tricks these scammers use, show you how to stay safe, and explain what to do if you or a friend has been targeted.

Ellacard’s quick guide and tools to stay safe from fake invitations

These rules apply to invitations and greeting cards from any legitimate company, so follow them whether or not the card claims to come from Ellacard. A real card or invitation:

1. Never asks you to sign in. It may ask you to RSVP, but it never asks for a password or for you to log in to your email or any other account to view it.
2. Never includes or triggers a download. No .exe, .msi, .zip or .pdf attachments, and no “your card will download in 3 seconds”.
3. Goes to the service’s own website. Any link that does not point to the exact website of the service is fake.

The last rule is the hard one. Scammers cannot use a legitimate provider’s real website, but they have become very good at creating URLs that look like it. For example, an unsuspecting victim might not notice that “ellacard.greetingcards.com” is not the same website as “ellacard.com”. We have built a universal link checker so you don’t have to guess. First choose the service the card claims to come from, then paste any link from the email or text message, and it will tell you whether that link goes to the service’s real website.

Note: Even if you opened a fake invitation, or clicked its link, you should be fine as long as you did not type in any information or open a downloaded file. A downloaded file cannot open itself, so if one appeared, delete it and you are done. If you did type something in or open a file, immediately read our guide on what steps to take.

Fake invitation scams: what this guide covers

Continue reading to understand all the ways you can spot a fake invitation, what to do if you or a friend has received one, and what Ellacard is doing to help. Or jump straight to a section:

• How the scam works and what to look for
• What to do if you or a friend has sent or received a fake invitation
• What Ellacard is doing
• Why scammers use invitations, and why you can still enjoy them
• Frequently asked questions

How the fake invitation scam works and what to look for

A fake invitation can be very hard to tell from a real one. Scammers can create an email that looks identical to the real thing, and they often send it from the address of someone you know. Here is what you can and cannot rely on when deciding whether an invitation is legitimate.

Email artwork and layout

Looking at the contents of an email itself is not enough, because most of what you see in a fake email is real. A scammer will first go to a real invitation provider’s website and send themselves a genuine invitation. They then swap the real links for their own malicious ones and forward the email to their victims. Fake invitations can be oddly vague, missing key event details or even your name, but we do not think you should rely on that alone to judge whether an invitation is real.

One thing you can look for is an email attachment. No legitimate invitation ever includes or asks you to open an attached file. If you receive an invitation with an attachment, do not open it. If you know the sender, contact them by phone or a different email address and ask whether they meant to send it.

Sender email address / phone number

Most of the fake invitations we see are sent from the email address of a real person. The sender is genuine, the name is genuine, and the email may even arrive as a reply to a real conversation you had with that person.

Scammers know that people are far more likely to trust an email from someone they know. They first break into a person’s email account, then send the fake invitation to everyone in that person’s contacts. The FTC’s alert from May 2026 describes the same pattern across Evite and Paperless Post: the invitation looks real because the address it came from is real.

Another trick is using an email address that looks like it belongs to the invitation service itself, just like the fake URLs. A real Ellacard invitation comes from an address ending in “@ellacard.com”, and every other provider has its own address too. The fakes use close spellings, extra words, or the right name with a different ending. For example, here is the real Ellacard invitation delivery email compared to some fake ones:

Scammers can also fake the display name of the email sender. Every email has a display name and an email address, similar to the way a phone number can have a contact name attached so you know who is calling without memorizing the number. A scammer will set the name of their email address to “Ellacard”, “Evite” or the name of someone you know and hope you never look at the email address behind it.

Always check the real email address an invitation was sent from. Most phone mail apps show only the name, so tap it to see the address underneath. Not sure about a sender? Paste the email address it came from, or the number that texted you, and we will check it against the services we know:

Invitation link and website

The link to the invitation website is the only thing a scammer has to fake. The email artwork can be real and the sender’s email address can be real, but the link has to lead to their own malicious website in order for them to steal your information. This makes the link the most reliable thing to check, and our invitation link checker at the top of this page does it for you. Remember that a fake invitation can contain both real and fake links, so only click the links you have checked.

A real Ellacard link always goes to ellacard.com. Anything else is a fake website. The same goes for the other invitation providers. Once again, scammers will try to confuse their victims with websites that look very similar to the real thing but are not. For example, here is a real Ellacard invitation link compared to some fake ones:

The link is usually hidden behind a button or the envelope image. To see where it goes without opening it, hover your mouse over the button or envelope on a computer and the address appears in the bottom corner of the window. On a phone, press and hold the button or envelope and a preview of the address pops up.

The website a fake link takes you to is usually easy to spot. A real invitation opens without asking you to enter a password or download anything. It may ask you to RSVP, but the RSVP form never asks for a password or any other login details. If it does, close it immediately and follow our steps on what to do if you or a friend has sent or received a fake invitation.

If you are ever unsure, do not click any links. If you received an Ellacard invitation or greeting card, you can always sign in to Ellacard with the email address or phone number that received it. If it is legitimate, it will appear in your account and you can open it there. You can also email us at fraud@ellacard.com and ask us to confirm whether a link is genuine, and we will do so promptly.

Below is a list of popular digital invitation services and their real web addresses, email domains and text numbers. The checker at the top of this page knows all of them and more. A fake email can mix real links with fake ones, so check each one before opening it.

What to do if you or a friend has sent or received a fake invitation

If you received a fake invitation or greeting card but did not open it, or you opened it but did not download any files or share any information, you should be fine. Forward the fake email to fraud@ellacard.com, mark it as phishing or spam in your email app, and delete it. If you did provide personal information or download a file, follow the instructions below.

If you typed a password or any other personal information

If you typed a password, change it now, from a device you trust, and turn on two-factor authentication if possible. An email password is the worst one to share because it gives the scammer access to your inbox. From there they can reset the passwords to other websites, including your financial accounts. They can also send the same fake invitation to every person in your address book, from your email address, with your name on it. This is how fake invitations keep getting sent from personal email accounts, and it is why the scam keeps spreading. Each victim’s contact list becomes the next batch of targets.

If you typed in an email password, credit card number, or bank details, call your bank and any other financial institution straight away and ask them to block transactions and watch the account.

If you downloaded a file

If you downloaded a file but did not open it, you are fine. A file cannot run by itself, so delete it and empty your computer’s trash. Then forward the fake email to us, mark it as spam, and delete it.

If you did open the downloaded file, take the computer off the internet immediately and have it checked before you use it for anything that matters. Most malicious downloads give the scammer access to your computer. They can see your screen, open your banking site while you are logged in, and read anything saved in your browser. For more, read our full guide on what to do if you received a fake Ellacard invitation or greeting card.

If a fake invitation was sent from your email address

If people tell you they received an invitation from your address that you never sent, your email account has been broken into. From a device you trust, change your email password and set up two-factor authentication before anything else. Then read our guide on what to do if fake Ellacard invitations or greeting cards were sent from your email address and follow the instructions there.

If a fake invitation was sent to you from a friend

Their email account has been broken into, and they almost certainly do not know. Contact them by phone, text or a different email address. Do not reply to the email the fake invitation came from, because the hacker may still be reading that inbox. Tell them to change their email password and turn on two-factor authentication, and send them the same guide on what to do if fake Ellacard invitations or greeting cards were sent from your email address so they can protect themselves.

Where to report it

Every report helps. It tells the services and the providers which links are live, and live links are the ones that can be taken down. Start with us: forward any fake that uses Ellacard’s name to fraud@ellacard.com, and we will report the link for takedown and remove the account the criminals created.

Then report the email to your email provider using its report function. In Gmail choose “Report phishing” and in Outlook choose “Report junk”. This protects the other people who received it. If you also want to report the scammer to the authorities, the table below shows where to go depending on where you live.

What is Ellacard doing to protect you from fake invitations

It is difficult to stop this type of fraud before it happens, but Ellacard has built tools to help you avoid being scammed, and resources to help if you have been.

If you were sent any invitation

Use our link checker to check that any link you receive by email or text message actually points to the legitimate invitation provider’s real website, and our sender checker to check the address or number it came from. The tools cover most major providers and will tell you if yours is not one of them.

If you were sent an Ellacard invitation

Ellacard automatically adds every legitimate card and invitation sent directly to you to your account, even if you have never signed in before. Just sign in to Ellacard with the email address that received the card. If you received a text message, sign in with an email address first, then add your phone number on your account page. Next, open the “Cards you received” tab.

If the card or invitation is there, it is real. Open it from there instead of from the email. If it is not there, it could be a fake. Forwarded invitations and cards do not show up in your account, so use our link checker if that might be the case.

For an in-depth overview, read our FAQ on how to tell whether an Ellacard greeting card or invitation is real.

If you received a fake invitation

If you received an invitation that you know, or even think, might be fraudulent, forward it to fraud@ellacard.com. We will check if it is fraudulent, find the account the scammer used to create the invitation, delete the invitation and the account, and report the scammer’s fake website so it can be taken down.

If you provided information or downloaded a file

Follow the steps in what to do if you or a friend has sent or received a fake invitation above, and read our FAQ on what to do if you received a fake Ellacard invitation or greeting card.

Why scammers use invitations, and why you can still enjoy them

Scammers use invitations because they use our instincts against us. Being invited to a social event by someone you know is fun and makes you feel excited, not suspicious. That is exactly the moment you click without thinking. However, fake invitations and greeting cards are only one of many methods scammers use to steal people’s information. The same psychological trick works with fake package delivery notices, bank alerts, voicemail notifications, shared documents and unpaid invoices. Any email or text that makes you want to click or download something will be faked. The good news is the same warning signs give a fake email away:

As long as you are careful and follow our guide, you can continue to enjoy receiving greeting cards and invitations without worrying about the fake ones. And you can always reach out to us at fraud@ellacard.com for help verifying an invitation, no matter which service it claims to come from. We will gladly help.

Frequently asked questions about fake invitations

How do I know if an invitation email is real or a scam?

A real card or invitation follows three rules, whatever service it comes from:

1. It never asks you to sign in. It may ask you to RSVP, but never for a password or a login to your email or any other account.
2. It never includes or triggers a download. No attachments, and no “your card will download in 3 seconds”.
3. Its link goes to the service’s own website. A real Ellacard link goes to ellacard.com, and every other provider has its own address.

The third rule is the one scammers work hardest to get around, so paste the link into the link checker at the top of this page rather than reading it yourself. The section on how the fake invitation scam works and what to look for shows real and fake examples side by side. If the invitation claims to be from Ellacard, our FAQ on how to tell whether an Ellacard card or invitation is real walks through it step by step.

I received an Evite, Punchbowl or Paperless Post invitation I was not expecting. Is it a scam?

It might be, and the test is the same for every service. Choose the service in the link checker, paste the link, and see whether it goes to that service’s real website. If you open the invitation and are asked to provide any personal details or download anything, close the website and report it.

What happens if I click the link in a fake invitation?

Usually one of two things. Either a file downloads, or a page opens that looks like a Google or Microsoft sign-in and saves whatever you type. Sometimes nothing seems to happen at all. In that case, check your downloads folder to make sure nothing saved without you noticing. Even if a file did get downloaded, it cannot open itself. Delete it and empty your trash to stay safe. If you are being asked to provide any login or personal information, close the tab and report it. If you typed a password or opened a file, follow what to do if you or a friend has sent or received a fake invitation now.

I already entered my email and password. What should I do?

Change that password immediately, from a device you trust, and turn on two-factor authentication if possible. Next check your email settings for forwarding rules you did not create and sign out of every other device. Call your bank as well, because an email password is enough to reset your online banking login. The full steps are in our FAQ on what to do if you received a fake Ellacard invitation or greeting card.

Can a scammer get into my bank account with just my email address?

Not with the address alone. With your email password they might be able to, because most banks reset a login by sending a link to your email. If you share your email password, immediately change it, turn on two-factor authentication, and then change the passwords to any financial institutions you use and warn them of the breach.

Fake invitations are being sent from my email address. What should I do?

Your email account has been broken into. From a device you trust, change your email password and turn on two-factor authentication before anything else, then follow our FAQ on what to do if fake Ellacard invitations or greeting cards were sent from your email address. Warn your contacts by phone, text or a different email address.

Are e-cards and online invitations safe to open at all?

Yes, when the link goes to the real service. Cards and invitations from Ellacard, Evite, Punchbowl, Paperless Post, Blue Mountain, Jacquie Lawson and the others open in your browser without a download or a login. If you are unsure, check the link in the link checker, or go to the service’s website yourself and open the card from your account there.

Where do I report a fake invitation?

Forward any fake that uses Ellacard’s name to fraud@ellacard.com and we will take it from there. For the others, use “Report phishing” in Gmail or “Report junk” in Outlook, and report it to the authorities where you live. The addresses are in where to report it above.