Every report starts with automated checks that run independently of each other: domain registration (WHOIS/RDAP), DNS records and email authentication, the TLS certificate, threat-intelligence feeds (Google Web Risk and PhishTank), advisory infrastructure-reputation lists (Spamhaus DROP/ASN-DROP and ipinfo), the Tranco popularity ranking, Wayback Machine history, and an AI review of the site's own pages. Deterministic rules we wrote then adjust the AI's score before anything is published. The full explanation is on our Methodology page at /methodology.
It is a 0-100 summary of the evidence we could observe. A score of 70 or above is required for a Safe verdict, and 40 to 69 publishes as Warning. A score below 40 publishes as Scam or Phishing when the evidence is strong; when the evidence is incomplete or still needs human review, the page shows Warning instead of an unproven accusation. Inactive means the domain did not answer, and Unknown means we could not gather enough evidence either way. A score is our opinion from observable signals, not a statement of verified fact: a low score is not an accusation of a crime, and a high score is not a guarantee.
No. An AI content review produces the first score, then deterministic guardrails we wrote cap or lift it (for example a confirmed phishing listing caps the score, and a very new domain limits how high it can go), and a calibration and stability pass follows. A ScamMinder moderator can also publish an expert review that supersedes the automated result. That moderation is editorial and unpaid; it is not for sale.
No. Nothing we sell changes a score or a verdict. Owner Verification buys proof of domain control, Expert Analysis buys a private written report, Get Help buys advice, Premium buys ad-free browsing and larger allowances, and API credits buy API capacity. None of them moves a published result, and payment never buys the removal of a rating or any guaranteed outcome. Correcting a result is free.
Disputes are free. Use the "Was this analysis accurate?" control on the report page, the report link under the score, or the dispute form at /dispute; a dispute goes to a human moderator. If you own the domain, you can prove control by publishing a DNS TXT record we give you, and we then run a fresh full analysis straight away, even inside the usual 24-hour wait. Anyone can also request a fresh automated analysis of a site; a given domain can be re-analysed at most once every 24 hours.
It records that the person behind a domain proved they control it — with a DNS record or a file on the site — and passed an identity check. It is a paid badge that runs for one year. It is provenance only: it never changes the score or the verdict, it is not a safety rating, and it does not buy a place in any listing. The badge is removed if the request is rejected, if the year ends, or if the payment is refunded.
A paid, private written report about one domain, prepared by our staff and sent to the buyer — Standard within 5 days of payment, Express within 48 hours. It is an investigation for you; it does not change the published score or verdict of the site. If you believe a published result is wrong, use the free dispute path instead.
Use Get Expert Help at /gethelp, linked from the footer of every page. It is a paid consultation: you describe what happened and a ScamMinder specialist sends you a written reply within 48 hours of payment, covering how to document the incident, what to ask your bank or payment provider, and which authorities are relevant. ScamMinder is not a money-recovery service and does not provide legal advice. Be careful of any service that guarantees to get your money back — those guarantees are frequently scams themselves.
A pass, not a subscription. You buy 30 or 365 days and nothing renews by itself. It removes ads, raises your daily and monthly allowance of fresh analyses, and lets you watch more domains and be emailed when a verdict changes. Premium never affects any score or verdict. Current prices are on /pricing.
Yes, under the rules on the pricing page. A Premium pass is fully refunded within 14 days, as long as no more than 20 fresh analyses have been run under the pass. A credit pack is fully refunded within 14 days, as long as no credits from the pack have been used. Get Help is refunded if you ask before our staff open your case, or if the reply is more than 24 hours past its 48-hour promise. Expert Analysis is refunded if you ask before work starts, or if the report is late by more than half of the promised time; there is no refund after a report is delivered. Owner Verification is refunded if the request is rejected after payment. Write to support@scamminder.com from the address you bought with; refunds are issued by hand from PayPal, and nothing in these rules limits a right you have under mandatory consumer law.
Anyone can read any published report, for free and without an account, and anyone can run fresh analyses within a daily and monthly allowance. A free account raises that allowance, keeps your scan history, lets you watch domains for verdict changes, and lets you create a developer API key. There are no points and no badges to earn.
Yes. The developer API is priced in prepaid credits: accounts with a verified email address or a Google sign-in receive a free credit grant every month, and credit packs are available for more. API responses contain structured fields only — no AI free text. The reference is at /api-docs.
The analysis is automated and, like any automated system, it is not infallible. Treat a report as one input to your own judgement rather than a final answer, and tell us when we get it wrong — the dispute path is free and it is how genuine errors get corrected.
A published result keeps a freshness clock: Safe pages are re-captured after about 90 days and other verdicts after about 60, and threat-feed listings are rechecked far more often. Anyone can also request a fresh analysis of a site, at most once every 24 hours per domain. A re-analysis replaces the published result and the change is recorded in the page's verdict history.
Not automatically. Reviews, accuracy votes and reports are shown as counts on the page and they prioritise human review, but no reader action moves a score by itself.
Use the Report button on the report page and tell us what is wrong; reports go to a human review queue. For a takedown request about your own site, or a data correction, you can also write to us through /contact.
No. ScamMinder is not a law firm and offers no legal advice or representation. We publish information about potential scams; for advice on your specific circumstances, consult a qualified legal professional.
We collect only what the service needs, and our Privacy Policy sets out exactly what is collected, which processors receive it, and how long each kind of record is kept.
Yes. Every published report has a public URL you can share. Please use it responsibly and in line with our Terms of Service — a report is an opinion from the evidence available, not a verified finding.
Still have questions? Contact us at support@scamminder.com.