Every second wasted on a scammer is a potential victim saved.

The library installs a MutationObserver the moment the page loads. The observer is captured inside a function’s closure — meaning nothing in the browser’s developer tools can reach it to switch it off. There is no global handle, no exposed reference, no toggle in the DOM. Removing the script tag after the page has loaded changes nothing: the observer already exists in memory.

The two ways an attacker could neutralize it both fail in practice:

1. Disable JavaScript entirely. But the page they’re trying to spoof depends on JavaScript to render — it would collapse in front of the victim, defeating the scam.
2. Intercept before page load. They’d need to monkey-patch MutationObserver before any page code runs. Doable on their own machine; not doable inside a Zoom screen-share session with a panicking elder on the line.

The relevant code is roughly this:

export function freeze(targetNode) {
  const original = new Map();
  const originalHTML = targetNode.innerHTML;
  const observer = new MutationObserver((muts) => {
    for (const m of muts) {
      if (m.type === 'characterData') {
        m.target.textContent = original.get(m.target);
      } else if (m.type === 'childList') {
        targetNode.innerHTML = originalHTML;
      }
    }
  });
  observer.observe(targetNode, {
    characterData: true, childList: true, subtree: true,
  });
}

Once freeze() returns, observer is unreachable from outside. That is the whole trick.

A determined attacker on their own machine — with a custom browser extension, a userscript, or a pre-launch flag — can defeat almost any client-side defense, this one included. That is not the threat model.

The threat model is the standard refund-scam playbook: the scammer is on a Zoom or AnyDesk screen-share inside a victim’s browser, in real time, with a panicked target on the line. They reach for DevTools, type into the HTML, and need the change to stay visible long enough for the lie to land. That window is the one this library closes.