What Is ScamAdviser?
So what is ScamAdviser?
The number of scams both on and off the Internet seems to increase almost daily, so when you are checking out any business you may well come across ScamAdviser and wonder:
“What is ScamAdviser and can they help me?”
“Is it a good site to check for Online scams?”
“Can I trust it?” 
NO! NO! NO!
- ScamAdviser is nothing more nor less than a devious and dangerous Scam in itself!
- It has the facility to check on any site you choose.
- It has been clever in that it gives some very accurate reviews, for example, Amazon gets 100% safe rating!!
- It also exposes a very few sites that are blatantly scams, and that anyone would recognise as such!
- That is just to make themselves seem credible and to make the visitor trust them!
So How Is It A Scam?
- ScamAdviser promotes itself as an authority and a mover in exposing scams.
- It targets new young sites like mine.
- It adds fake reviews to their Google index questioning their credibility, and when someone searching for that site clicks on that link, they will be taken to the ScamAdviser site. There they will see references to “fake”, “phishing” and malware. This is obviously designed to put fear into the website owner concerned.
- It often states that the website in question is much older or younger than it actually is.
- It also states that information on the owner, administrator and country of origin of the website is hidden, and claims that that is a sure sign that it is an untrustworthy site.
- It writes bad reviews of them on the ScamAdviser website.
- All this false information can be fatal to genuine new, young sites trying to make their way in the world of Online Marketing.
Who is ScamAdviser?
Interesting question!
If you check out ScamAdviser on their own site, they give themselves a 100% Trust Rating! What a surprise!!!
But if you scroll further down you will see that they too have the owner’s and administrator’s name and country of origin hidden – the very things which, according to them, make the other websites which they “check” untrustworthy! How very ironic!!
What Made Me Check It Out
I was doing a routine check of the Google Index of my Website posts.
Imagine my horror when I came across the following entry:
I could not understand why anyone should put that there. Of course I clicked on the link, and this is what I found:
Notes:
- The owner of the website is using a service to hide their identity.
- This website is 281 days old
- The website expected life {365 days) is relatively short
Analysis details
Although this website appears to be based in the United States there are other countries involved and you should review this information carefully and decide if it is as you expect. Although being a new website does not make it un-trustworthy, as with any new business you should be extra vigilant and do your own research before placing an order or making an investment.This site is using an anonymous service – which prevents us from identifying the site owner, This can sometimes be just so that the owner does not receive spam, but be aware that many scam sites use this as a method to hidetheir identity. If this is am commence site – we would suggest you confirm the business address with the website owners.
The website has been newly registered with a short life expectancy, which follow the pattern used by many fraudulent and fake selling websites. Please be vigilant and take extra care before providing any payment information.
Apart from the fact that this site is comparatively new, nothing else that I saw there is true!!
I am not trying to hide anything!! This site is a WordPress site, which I believe is based in the US, but I myself live in the UK.
I am not trying to hide my identity in any way!
They gave my site a Trust Rating of 61%!
Very strange, as Google rate my site at 90%, and I know that it will 100% in two weeks’ time!
But it was the last paragraph which disturbed me most – it casts doubt on my credibility and trustworthiness which is totally unwarranted! And that could seriously damage my business!
So I Searched for more Information on ScamAdviser!
When I was trying to find out what is ScamAdviser, I did a Google search.
What I saw disturbed me even more!
I saw entry after entry saying that it was a scam. This is just an example:
And here is a random selection of comments on http://scamvictimsunited.com/:
There are complaints about ScamAdviser on so many sites.
Here are links to some more if you would like to check them out.
This first report is very revealing, showing nine different ways in which they are suspected of scamming:
There are similar reviews on https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.scamadviser.c… Trust Pilot is also a trusted site.
And on http://scamtester.com/scamadviser-com-reviews-legit-scam-reliable-safe/
There is also a number of reviews on Quora.com, another trustworthy site:
https://www.quora.com/Is-scamadviser-com-legit.
A rating of ScamAdviser can be found on Web of Trust:
https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/scamadviser.com
All these sites agree, and it is most unlikely that they are all wrong!!!
What Is Even Worse….
The way they work is to target new and comparatively young websites like mine with the motive of destroying the credibility of those sites which frequently leads to them having to close down.
This is completely unacceptable!
I have seen it stated, although I must state myself that I have not had personal experience of this, that after a time they will contact the owner of the website that they have defamed and ask for a considerable amount of money in order to remove the bad reviews which are on their own website. What else could that be but a SCAM?
There are also at least two other websites who appear to be jumping on the back of ScamAdviser and offering to remove the bad reviews etc in return for an unspecified payment!
My Best Advice
Now that you know what is ScamAdviser, steer very clear of them, and don’t believe a word they say!
If you too have a website which is targeted by them, please do not give them any money!! Instead, report them to Google and to a legitimate scam-busting site such as http://scamsexposer.com/how-to-report-an-online-scam
It is unbelievable that such a scurrilous website should still be allowed to exist.
If you are an Online Marketer and would like to belong to a Community where scamming and spamming are non-existent, and where all levels of the most excellent training in Online and Internet Marketing is available, check out my #1 Recommendation
To see the reason why I have no reservations about recommending this, click here
Many thanks for dropping by, and I would love to hear any comments or questions you may have. Please leave them in the Comments box below, and I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can 🙂
OK! Chrissie, I just registered with SCAM ADVISER on went on their website and I was trying to find where I could contact them but I couldn’t find anything so I went to my Yahoo Account the email address I gave them I have sent them a question but it came right back to me, and now you’re telling me its itself a SCAM ……well….. how do I know that YOUR’E not one …it is nice to know which company is a scam and which one is not how did I found SCAM ADVISER I wanted to find out if Spidermetrix.com (survey) was a scam because for me it didn’t look like the real thing so I wanted to find out on GOOGLE.
Like I said Chrissie, how do I know you’re not one!!!!! that is so confusing!!!
Thank you
Hi Monique
I can promise you that I am not a scam – I really hate scams and in any case
I do not have anything to scam anyone with!!!
My main object is to make as many people as possible aware of such scams.
If you look at the other comments on this site, you will find a number of
owners of websites who have had their chances of success ruined by
ScamAdviser just because they are fairly new to the Online world.
Did you really read the evidence of so many people that are in my post?
Why would they all say the same thing if it is not true?
If you look on Google, the only positive reviews on ScamAdviser are
written by themselves!
Of course, you are welcome to your own opinion, and as it appears that
you do not yourself have a website, then you are unlikely to be damaged by them. Lucky you!!
Thank you for your comment.
I know the owner of scamadviser.com,he is a rapist, and web-traffic thief,may all bad luck happen to him,otherwise,he will not ruin other honest person’s business.
That is appalling, but I cannot say I am surprised! Someone who treats legitimate website owners with complete disregard is obviously capable of anything! Thank you for that info.
Hi Chrissie 🙂
Thank you for this article you wrote, it helped me a lot, but I still don’t know which side I should trust, I have used scam adviser for 2 years now and I still really don’t think the website itself is a scam. All the websites they rated are true and I don’t really think they’ve been scamming me. Feel free to comment what you think.
Thank you so much for this information
Kerry
Hi Kerry
I am happy that you have had no bad experiences with this site.
My main objection to them is that they appear to target new sites with poor reviews, and this has put a full stop to many young websites, ruining their chances of success. This is really not fair!
Also I have read reports from people who have been asked for money in order that the bad reviews may be removed – do you really think that is good practice? I certainly do not. Although I am happy to say that that has not happened to me as yet.
Many thanks for your comment.
Chrissie 🙂
https://www.scamadviser.com is a dirty shame website,the site-owner is a big blood-sucker. i wish him die from all possible accident,all possible illness. He is stealing our store traffic,making us lost a lot of customers. I hate him.
Hi Kerry
I would not wish anyone to die, but I can completely understand how you feel.
Scamadviser, like many other “website analytics tools” is a semi-automated tool. It’s designed to scan newly bought domains and create an automated report about each of them. They use a set of predefined phrases replacing only some keywords. Perhaps they read some details from your domain registrar and interpret them as they like.
They also use auto generated meta descriptions and titles to sound like click baiting.
IMHO, their so called analysis are inoffensive. The only thing that really counts are human reviews that are being posted.
Hi Marius
The site may be semi-automated, but I really can’t agree with you that they are inoffensive when there is evidence that they are harming the viability of new young sites which definitely are in no way scams. And they are obviously totally aware of the damage they are doing.
Many thanks for your comment
Chrissie.
Hi Chrissie,
Stumbled across your article about scamadviser.com
being a scam.
I have been heavily relying on them
to check out websites and especially new products
that are released for a long time.
Wow! Your still getting free traffic from your
article being highly ranked on Google.
You have done an “impressive” job of proving that
this website should not be relied upon for determining
the value of a website or product.
Thanks for the info,
Roy
Hi Roy
Thank you so much for your comments.
I had not realised that my post was ranked high in Google!! But that is all to the good if more people are aware that not everything they read in ScamAdvisor is true.
All the best to you
Chrissie 🙂
Scamadviser is a scam that’s killing my business!
I use a 1and1 server. Because that server is out of Germany. They say business is suspicious, compromised server. I contacted them a few weeks ago. Told them I am a USA based company, My site has big name advertisers that I am an affiliate to. They would not be doing business with me if I was a scam. And I have no personal info. on visitors, Not even a shopping cart. No payments are made on my site. They emailed me back saying it’s a new business started in Dec 2017. And they don’t personally look at sites. In time it may get a better rating. They show up on the top of most searches putting doubt in peoples minds that I’m not legit. There should be a way to sue them for slander!
http://www.merchandisehut.net
Hi Mark
I completely agree with you, it is a scandal the way they target new businesses, making it so much more difficult, if not impossible, for them to get off the ground. It is completely unfair, and is the reason why I wrote this review.
The only thing that we can do is to make as many people as possible aware of this scam, and you are most welcome to share the review with anyone you wish.
I do hope that you manage to make a success of your business in spite of them!
Every good wish
Chrissie
Thank You for your kind words Chrissie.
It’s very frustrating. In almost all the major search engines (except Google) They show up above my site when I run searches.
Best wishes for you and your business too.
Mark
I completely understand your frustration Mark, they show up above my site too.
But I am very happy to say that this post now appears on Page 1 of Google, so hopefully that may go some way to showing people what they really are!!
All the very best to you
Chrissie 🙂
Scamadviser is a scam that’s killing my business!
I use a 1and1 server. Because that server is out of Germany. They say business is suspicious, compromised server. I contacted them a few weeks ago. Told them I am a USA based company, My site has big name advertisers that I am an affiliate to. They would not be doing business with me if I was a scam. And I have no personal info. on visitors, Not even a shopping cart. No payments are made on my site. They emailed me back saying it’s a new business started in Dec 2017. And they don’t personally look at sites. In time it may get a better rating. They show up on the top of most searches putting doubt in peoples minds that I’m legit. There should be a way to sue them for slander!
http://www.merchandisehut.net
I do so agree that there should be a way to sue them, I can’t believe that Google is still allowing them to appear.
We need to continue to spread the word about them, the more people who know about them the better – their credibility needs rot be destroyed!
Many thanks for your comment.
Is it possible to run a petition online to have this scam advisor shut down.
Its crazy. I came across your blog cause i could not understand how my domain sitting there for 5 years.
I’ve not been sending any traffic and no one has left a single bad review about me or my services yet scam advisor has the gut to give me a 0% rate and saying my website is a high risk.
Hi Ian
I must confess that I have not even bothered to go near ScamAdvisor since I wrote the review, so I have no idea where they rate me now!!!
Maybe I should check, but I did ask a number of people for advice, and was told to ignore them.
Having said that, it is very obvious from the comments on this site that they are still spreading their poison.
I don’t know about making a petition – I have no doubt that they would penalise anyone who signed it even more, but maybe if there were enough people…..
My best suggestion is that maybe everyone affected should contact Google and ask if they can do something about it – perhaps if they got a flood of such communications they might think twice about putting ScamAdvisor’s comments towards the top of their searches!
I find it very hard to understand how they have managed to get away with this for so long.
All the best to you
Chrissie
Hi Chrissie,
My son’s website has also been affected by their scam. When he retaliated via social media, they made it personal and created fake reviews about his business and posted them on their own web site! Apparently they are a small bit firm based in India who send an email to new businesses about the poor rating and then suspiciously, another firm contacts you a few days later and charges a hefty fee to correct the listing. CON, CON CON!
Hi Shaina
Your son’s experience is typical of what ScamAdvisor do. They always retaliate if anyone criticises them, and most of what they say is downright lies!
I have been suggesting that maybe if large numbers of people contact Google about them, then perhaps Google will get the message and something about them – the have been allowed to get away with this for far too long.
You are so right, they are a complete Con!!
All the best
Chrissie
Chrissie,
I just accessed scamadvisor.com after viewing comments about an entity, technosoft.us that I had earlier today come to believe was itself a scam. Prior to checking out Scamadvisor, I posted a review relating to my own incident as follows:
“This morning I sought to access the Hewlett Packard website to get tech support.for my Printer. I now see that I had clicked on “http://hpprinterhelps.com.” The screen that appeared displayed a chat button so I began to explain problem. After a long delay without response, I called the phone number listed and while speaking to a person with heavy accent, a call came in purportedly from the chat agent who likewise had a different accent.
After my explanation of the problem, I was told of the need to access my computer [similar to past legitimate
experience] and I was directed to “LogMeIn123.com” and then directed to: “secure.logmeinrescue.com/InstantChat”
and thereafter authorized the download of “Support-LogMeInRescue.exe which program gave the agent control of my desktop computer.
Because of my inability to understand him by voice, he thereafter used notepad to write his words. After being shown screens depicting various technical data, I was told my problem was corrupted driver files and that the cause was a defective network wall. I was then told there was a solution from “tecknosoft services LLC” at a cost of $499.99 (1 incident) and $1999.99 (5 incidents) and asked how many internet-connecting devices did I have.
He then mentioned a 50% senior discount available and after my consent, said he would send me an invoice by e-mail and that I would make payment by check to be e-mailed back after which he would install
software that would protect all of my devices. As he asked me to provide name, e-address, billing address and phone # on the form displayed, I became suspicious so I sought to “copy & paste” the entirety of his written chat. While zi was told his location was in Wisconsin, I noticed that there was a time reference to 8 pm when my time was 10 am.
My only working e-mail program is on my laptop so while I waited on his e-mails, I searched on-line [with that computer] for the telephone # and company given me “1-844-551-4056” and “tecknosoft services LLC and found references to a check writing scam. Now convinced that this whole experience was indeed a SCAM, I shut off both computers and hung up. Happily, I was not TAKEN, but I still have concerns for what data may have been taken or malware installed for when I later turned my desktop computer back on, their appeared the same connect box on my screen which I closed.”
Am I at any risk for having visited Scamadvisor.com and my posting of the review.
Hi Jack
Your experience sounds really scary, but well done for realising that it was a scam.
I would imagine that your only risk would be that ScamAdvisor are now aware of your existence, and they do tend to penalise anyone who criticises them. I wonder why?!?!?
My best advice would be to ignore ScamAdvisor. Really the most important statistic is Google trust. Although ScamAdvisor, I have just discovered, gives my site 46% trust, Google gives it 100%!
All the best to you
Chrissie
Thank you for this article. I, too, am a victim of this nefarious scamadviser.com outfit. They have changed my rating from 86% down to 36% in just the last few weeks. It enrages me that there is no defense against this practice. I am doing my best to ignore it. My site is 100% legitimate. How do we protect ourselves against such reputation thieves?
Thank you for this expose of a dangerous website that has my website on its hit list. First, they gave me an 86%. Now it’s down to a 36%. I am assuming that as it gets even lower, they will be asking me for money. My site is 100% legitimate. I have alerted my blog friends about this scam. I would like to also alert people on Facebook, but don’t think the site will accept it. Scamadviser.com should be drummed out of the corps. However, there doesn’t seem to be any way to get rid of it. I’ll try to ignore it.
Hi Patricia
Everything you say about ScamAdvisor is true.
As you say, the best way to deal with them is to publicise what they are doing as much and as
frequently as possible, as you are doing.
There is a way that you can use Facebook or any other social media to publicise it, which I have used before.
You could write a post about it on your blog, or you are most welcome to direct people to mine if you wish.
Take care not to actually mention Scamadvisor on Facebook, but you could describe what they are doing and send people to the post for more information.It would probably be better to mask your link using Prettylink or Google.
I would be most interested to hear how this goes for you.
Very many thanks for your comment, and the best of luck in your business.
Chrissie 🙂
ScamAdviser itself is a scam site!
Absolutely Andreas.
Hello Chrissie (and above):
I just received a spooky spam e-mail this morning, purporting to be from PayPal, acknowledging my payment for an eBay purchase I had not made. The usual ‘transaction disclaimer’ paragraph provided, said that if I did not make this purchase, to cancel it HERE – and the ‘Here’ displayed a website (dikeydecis.org), to which ‘Scamadvisor’ has given a 100% rating.
Not that it was a sophisticated scam, though they’ve done some homework, nor is Scamadvisor’s rating probative evidence that the two sites are connected, but it is an index of their incompetence, to say the least, and certainly the signature of extreme unreliability.
Caveat (though not in this case) emptor.
Hi Terry
That is a good example of ScamAdvisor’s unreliability at the very least, as you say.
So they can’t even recognise a scam hen they see one, but would prefer to accuse
perfectly innocent sites of being scams!
Very many thanks for your comment
Chrissie 🙂
Hello Chrissie
I came across your website while i was searching about scam advisor. I might say that you totally exposed them. They gave a very low trust rating for my website (59) because my website is hosted in Lithuania. Although I am from India i choose Lithuanian webhost when i got a great deal on VPS. Looks like these guys have their own list of high risk countries.
As you mentioned, these guys are targeting new websites. We work hard to grow our new websites by spending much time and money but these guys ruin it all.
An average internet user will surely trust these guys and their rating and will most likely avoid purchasing or visiting websites
We can do something to avoid these
1. Promote legit scam checkers like Norton, McAfee, sucuri et
2. Expose them whenever we can
3. Teach readers whom to trust.
I think I don’t need to write another post about them as you accurately compiled all the info and exposed them with clear evidences. All I have to do is to link to this post
Hi Timix
You are more than welcome to link to my post, the more adverse publicity we can
get for this site, the better.
I think I may add to this post recommendations to use legitimate scam checkers,
many thanks for pointing that out.
Thank you for your comment
Chrissie
Hi Chrissie,
It is really informative article, so, what I have to do to know if the website is legit or not, like this one ” freeseetv.com ” ( it is low trust as a result of scamadviser.com search ) !!!
Thank you in advance
Ramadan
Hi Ramadan
I think that you can mainly trust websites which have an https:// prefix and display
a padlock next to the site name in the bar at the top.
I say mainly because I’m afraid that scamadvisor does have that padlock, unfortunately.
I would refer rather to sites with a known good reputation, such as Trustpilot, Quora or
Sitejabber to check on sites.
Many thanks for your comment, and I hope this reply helps you.
Chrissie 🙂
Hi Chrissie,
Excellent Article and I cam across it as I too have been a victim of their Scam. How do I make my site secure from them and remove their link when people search my brand?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Catherine
I am sorry to say that as yet I have not been able to find a way to remove their link,
although I have tried!
I have taken advice from a number of people, and they all say that it is best to ignore it,
which is a little hard to take.
We could possibly contact Google and ask them to remove that link, and I wondered if they
might do something if enough people did in fact contact them.
In the meantime I think the only thing to do is to make as many people as possible aware of
what they do, in as many ways as possible, which is the reason I wrote this post.
Very many thanks for your comment, and I’m sorry I can’t be of more help
Chrissie 🙂
Not sure I understand why something is fraudulent if it’s not using the https protocol. Https is just offering encryption and is usually used when a site will take address or credit card information. It is not needed for information only sites.
Like the previous comment, I also use them from time to time… not sure I agree with you. It sounds a bit like sour grapes?
Hi Grant
It is not sour grapes at all I assure you.
I did a good deal of research on this, so it is by no means just my own opinion I am expressing.
If you look at some of the comments on other sites you will see that the people running this site tend to target new young sites and give them a very poor rating. There are some people who have been sent demands for money in order that the adverse comments about them will be removed!
These same people also said that they have left comments protesting about that on the ScamAdviser website, but those comments had been removed very soon. They obviously will not have any comments which criticise them in any way.
Many of those small sites which receive these bad comments do not survive if they do not pay what is asked.
Do you truly think that is good practice?
Of course they do have some legitimate ratings for some sites, but those sites tend to be well established.
Many thanks for your comments
Chrissie
Hey, Chrissie!
Thank you so much for this informative post! I must say that I have used this site “scam advisor” before and believed them. Boy, I’m naive 🙂
This is a shock to me, i really thought they’re a legit site. It’s horrible what they do. Is there anyway they can be held liable? Does google allow them to still exist in the SERPS? How do you protect your business from them?
Thank you so much for the informative article.
Emrah.Y
Hi Emrah
Yes, they do seem to be legit at first sight, until they decide to target your own site!!
I have asked around to see if anything can be done about them, but it seems not, and Google
has not done anything about them so far.
I just wanted to make people aware of them, so that they do not believe everything they say!
However, I am hoping that now my site is secure with HTTPS, they will not be able to
affect me – we shall see!! Interestingly, I notice that their site is NOT secure – no HTTPS there!! Make of that what you will, I know what I make of it!!!
Very many thanks for dropping by.
All the best
Chrissie 🙂
UPDATE MARCH 2018
I have just checked again and it seems that now Scamadvisor does have the https:// prefix – interesting!! But sadly it does not make it any more legitimate in my eyes.