Website Scam Checker: Check a Site Before You Pay

How to check a scam website in four steps

Check the site the link actually opens, not the ad or the message that sent you there. The address in your browser bar is what the report is about.

1. 01Copy the full address from the browser bar, including what comes before the first slash (shop-brand-outlet.com is not brand.com).
2. 02Paste it into the Business Check. If the site shows a company name, a registration number or a country, add them: the registry lookup is more precise with them.
3. 03If someone phoned or texted you about the site, add up to three numbers. We check that each number is valid, which country it belongs to and its line type (mobile, landline, VoIP), with abuse reports when our phone data provider has them.
4. 04Read the score, then every check under it. A low score lists what could not be verified; each line links to its source so you can open it yourself.

A check costs 3 credits, and any free account can run one and see the preview: how many checks ran and how many warning signs came up. The full report, with the score, the company, the people and every source, is on the Business plan ($49 a month).

What does our scam site checker look at?

Every report runs the same checks, and says which ones could not run. Here is what each one is and where its answer comes from.

The same engine powers the general Business Check for any website. When you want to know who the company is rather than whether the site is safe to pay, start from the company check.

Scam website signs you can check yourself in two minutes

• The payment method. A shop that only takes bank transfers, crypto, gift cards or payment apps leaves you with no chargeback if nothing arrives. Card payments can be disputed with your bank.
• The address against the brand. Type the brand’s name into a search engine yourself and compare its official domain, letter by letter, with the one you are on.
• The contact page. A company name, a street address and a phone number that answers are cheap for a real shop and costly for a fake one to maintain.
• The returns page. Scam shops often copy a returns policy that names another company or another country.
• The price gap. A discount of 50% or more on a product that is never discounted elsewhere is the reason most people end up on a scam shop.

Situation guides go further for online shopping, ticket resale and trading and investment sites. For sites people often ask about, the trust reports list our dated checks.

What a scam website checker cannot tell you

• We do not log in, fill in forms, add to cart or pay. Pages behind a login and the checkout itself are not read.
• We do not compare the address with a list of brand look-alikes. A copy of a known shop shows up through its gaps (no Wikidata link to the brand, young domain, no registry match), not through a name comparison.
• Regulator warning lists are searched for sites that offer trading, investment or payments, not for every shop.
• Search results only show what was published. A brand-new scam site may have no complaints yet; a large honest company always has some.
• A new or very small honest business can score low because little about it can be verified. Read the reasons, not only the number.

Already paid? Call your bank or card issuer first: card disputes have deadlines. In the US you can report the site to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for internet fraud, to the FBI at ic3.gov. Elsewhere, use your national police fraud reporting service.

Want to know whether the site’s text and images were mass-produced with AI? That is a different question, answered by the AI website checker.