Frequently Asked Questions

Below you will find the answer to the questions we receive most often by both consumers as well as website owners.

Questions from Consumers

Who is behind Scamadviser?

Scamadviser is maintained by Ecommerce Operations B.V. in a effort to make online shopping safer for consumers.

I want to report a fraudulent website.

We are always sorry to hear that you got scammed by a website. If you want to report the website, use our search engine at the top of this page to find the website and leave a review. This way you can prevent others from getting scammed too!

You can also Report a Scam if you would like to share your full story. 

I have been scammed, now what?

Please contact the company by which you paid (Paypal, Adyen, Ingenico, etc.) and explain that you have been scammed by an untrustworthy site and ask them to refund the amount you paid.

You may be able to get help and advice from your bank if needed on what to do.

If you paid via credit card - call your bank and ask to start the "chargeback process" as you have been the subject of fraud.

Also, leave a review on Scamadviser about that website, this way you will help others not to get scammed too!

I love Scamadviser, where can I leave a review?

We're really happy to hear that! You can leave us a review on Facebook and on our own Scamadviser page.

Thank you!

If you rate a site very safe - does that mean I am totally safe from problems?

No! Our rating is a guide. We try our best to provide an accurate and measured rating but you also need to know that companies can still change hands, go out of business or use very under-handed techniques to pretend or hide their real identity. We can't catch and report every single site every single time... (not yet anyway!).

What do I do if the website I check is reported as suspicious / High Risk?

It's up to you! We rate sites based on over 40 different criteria. Some of which you may not concerned with. For example, if a website with a ".co.uk" extension is really based in China it could reduce the score - however this may not be an issue for you. The Trust Score rating is really there as a guide.

Why does the check take so long?

Sometimes, checking a website can take a bit of time. Whilst we try our best at making things snappy,  we have to check many factors and contact certain third parties, some of which may be in foreign countries. Providing an accurate rating and this can take time.

FAQ for Website Owners

How is the rating calculated?

We have developed a very complex algorithm that automatically scans a site for its authenticity by analysing various factors such as the technical set up of a site, customer feedback from across the internet (both positive and negative reviews), trying to identify the actual location of the business, quality or absence of the contact details and many more factors. 

I want to have the Scamadviser trust seal on my website, how do I do it?

You can find the instructions on how to add our trust seal on this page.

I am the owner of a website and I do not agree with my Trust Score, how do I report this?

The Trust Score also partly takes into account information whose accuracy cannot be directly verified by us, e.g. user ratings. If you have the feeling we have not given your website the right Trust Score (only a few websites have a perfect score of 100) and/or that certain user reviews submitted on our website are incorrect, please feel free to contact us.

How about GDPR and Scamadviser?

We are often asked if showing information about a domain name is violating the European GDPR (Privacy) legislation. 

We checked with a legal consultant and she gave us the following answer:

"URLs or domain names are publicly available data. The GDPR protects the processing of personal data. Domain names are not considered personal data, so the GDPR doesn't apply."