How to check if a website is a scam (UK)
Before you buy from a website you do not know, paste its address into Get Safe Online’s free Check a Website tool, look for a real company name and address, and search the shop’s name with the word “scam”. Be wary of prices far below everywhere else and of payment by bank transfer only. It takes two minutes.
By Archie Crossland, Head of Product and Growth at BLOKK. Updated 10 November 2026.
Step 1. Run it through a free checker
Get Safe Online describes its Check a Website tool as “an easy-to-use online tool which helps you to determine whether a website is likely to be legitimate or a scam … before you visit it”. It is provided “in conjunction with Cifas, ScamAdviser and our other partners”, and gives “a trust score based on more than 40 data sources” plus reports of malicious websites from law enforcement, regulators and consumer brands.
You will find it at getsafeonline.org/checkawebsite. A good score is not a guarantee, and a brand new scam site may not be known yet. Treat it as the first check, not the only one.
Step 2. Look at the address itself
- Read it letter by letter. Scam sites copy real names with one character changed, an extra word added, or a different ending.
- Did you arrive from a link? If it came in a text, an email or an advert, close it and type the real shop’s address yourself.
- A padlock does not mean the shop is honest. It only means the connection is encrypted. Scam sites have padlocks too.
Step 3. Look for a real business
| Check | A good sign | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Company name and address | Given in full, and the company can be found on Companies House | None, or an address that does not exist |
| Contact details | A phone number or email that answers | A web form only |
| Returns and delivery pages | Specific, in plain English | Missing, vague or badly copied |
| Reviews | Spread over months, on independent sites, some of them critical | A burst of five star reviews in a few days, or none anywhere |
| How long it has existed | Years | Weeks |
Step 4. Look at the offer
- Prices far below every other shop.
- A countdown clock or “only 2 left” on everything.
- Payment by bank transfer, gift card or cryptocurrency only. A card or PayPal gives you a route to get money back. A bank transfer usually does not.
What to do if you have already paid
- Ring your bank straight away, using the number on the back of your card.
- Change your passwords, starting with any account that shares the password you used on that site.
- Report it. The National Cyber Security Centre says that if you have lost money you should tell Report Fraud: “visit https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/ or call 0300 123 2040”. In Scotland, contact Police Scotland on 101.
How to report a scam website in the UK
You can report a site even if you lost nothing. The National Cyber Security Centre’s page on reporting a scam website says “it’s free to report a suspicious website to us and it only takes a minute”, and asks people to “send us websites that feel suspicious, even if you’re not certain they’re a scam”. It says it “will analyse the suspect email and any websites it links to” and may work with hosting companies to remove malicious links.
Scam texts can be forwarded to 7726, which the Centre says is free on most phone providers.
Can anything block scam websites automatically?
A checker only helps when you stop to use it. Most scam links are tapped in a hurry, inside a text or a chat app.
BLOKK is not a checker. It is a blocker. Its free Privacy Shield stops known scam and phishing websites loading in every browser and every app on your phone, using a list of more than 7 million scam and tracking domains on Android. It needs no account. It cannot know about a site created minutes ago, which is why the steps above still matter.
Download BLOKK on Google Play or download BLOKK on the App Store.
