What Is RiskScope and How Does It Work?
An introduction to RiskScope — a free website scam detection platform that aggregates 14+ threat intelligence sources to give you a clear risk score for any domain.
Why We Built RiskScope
Every day, people encounter unfamiliar websites — online stores running Instagram ads, links shared in group chats, new services they've never heard of. The question is always the same: is this safe?
Most people don't have the tools or knowledge to answer that question quickly. They might Google the website name plus "scam" and scroll through Reddit threads, or check a single blocklist. But no single source tells the full story.
RiskScope was built to solve that. Enter any domain, and get a comprehensive risk assessment in seconds — powered by real threat intelligence data.
How It Works
When you search for a domain on RiskScope, we run it through 14+ threat intelligence sources simultaneously:
- Google Safe Browsing — Google's database of phishing and malware sites
- VirusTotal — Aggregated results from 70+ security scanning engines
- PhishTank — Community-verified phishing URLs
- OpenPhish — Machine learning-based phishing detection
- URLhaus — Malware distribution tracking by abuse.ch
- ThreatFox — Indicators of compromise from the security community
- Feodo Tracker — Botnet command-and-control tracking
- Spamhaus DBL — Domain blocklist for spam and abuse
- AbuseIPDB — IP reputation and abuse history
- StopForumSpam — Known fraud and spam sources
On top of these external sources, we also perform our own analysis:
- WHOIS & DNS — How old is the domain? Where is it hosted? Who registered it?
- SSL/TLS — Is the certificate valid? Self-signed? Expiring?
- Content analysis — Does the site have contact information? A refund policy? Are reviews suspiciously similar?
The Risk Score
All signals are weighted and combined into a risk score from 0 to 100, broken down across five dimensions:
| Dimension | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Identity | Contact info, business registration, real-world presence |
| Technical | SSL, domain age, hosting infrastructure |
| Reputation | Blocklist hits, community reports, review patterns |
| Offer | Pricing realism, refund policies, payment methods |
| Behavior | Patterns associated with fraud (urgency, fake scarcity, etc.) |
A score of 0-30 is low risk, 31-50 is medium, 51-70 is high, and 71-100 is critical.
Free for Everyone
You don't need to sign up or pay anything to check a website. Just go to riskscope.actvli.com, type in a domain, and see the results.
For Developers
We also offer a REST API for integrating scam detection into your own applications. The free tier includes 100 lookups per month — enough to test and prototype. Paid plans start at $29/month for 10,000 lookups.
curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
"https://riskscope.actvli.com/api/v1/lookup?domain=example.com"
Check out the API documentation and pricing for details.
What's Next
We're continuously expanding our data sources and improving our analysis. Coming soon:
- Browser extension for real-time warnings
- Email link scanning
- More community-driven reports and verification
If you have feedback, suggestions, or want to report a website, we'd love to hear from you at reachout@actvli.com.
Check Any Website Yourself
RiskScope is free. No signup required. Enter any domain and get an instant risk assessment.