# Scam Detective

> Spot the scam before it spots you. Scam Detective is a pay-per-use scam-intelligence service. Two one-time products and no subscription: a $2 instant URL check (0-100 scam risk score, plain-English verdict, up to five red flags, a three-step "what to do now" list) and a $29 Brand Impersonation Audit (lookalike and typosquat domains impersonating your own brand, each with dated evidence and a risk rating, plus a takedown-request template). Beside the products we publish a free, dated research corpus: 60 lookalike storefront hostnames across 56 brands, re-verified in rounds, most recently on 6 October 2026.

Everything below is free to read, quote and cite with attribution to Scam Detective (https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai). Corrections: scam-detective8@mail.acoco.ai.

## Primary sources

- [Lookalike domain dataset (registry read-back)](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/lookalike-domain-dataset): The citable dataset, round of 6 October 2026: 60 documented lookalike storefront hostnames with every dated observation kept, 31 recorded "live, HTTP 200" and 19 "does not resolve" at that round, plus the TLD registries' own RDAP records read back for the hostnames that did not resolve — including registry-hold status codes, which are reported as a separate dated observation and NEVER as a state. On 22 September 2026, 29 September 2026 and 6 October 2026 we read the TLD registries’ own RDAP records for the 19 hostnames on this index that did not resolve. Every one carried the status code “client hold”, none is deleted, and no registration has expired. Each row’s observed state is unchanged and still reads “does not resolve”: a registry read-back is a separate, dated observation, not a state. clientTransferProhibited on its own is the routine lock carried by nearly every registered domain and shows nothing by itself. What we record here is the combination, read together: a hold on the registry record, no answer in the DNS on our own checks, and a registration that has neither expired nor been deleted — the name is still registered, it is simply not in the zone. We hold no filing, no correspondence and no reference number for this domain. We do not know who asked for this, or why. A registrar or registry acting after we published is not a registrar or registry acting because we published, and we claim no part in it. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): re-publishable with a text credit and a crawlable link to https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/lookalike-domain-dataset, and the date of the round carried with any figure. Machine-readable copies: https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/lookalike-domain-dataset.csv (CSV), https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/lookalike-domain-dataset.json (JSON) and https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/lookalike-domain-dataset.txt (plain text).
- [One complete $29 audit, published in full](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/published-audit): The paid deliverable with nothing removed: subject SABO Skirt (saboskirt.com), run 20 Sep 2026, 134 candidates generated, 7 confirmed resolving and listed, 3 rated high risk, 51 dated exhibits, exposure score 97 ("high exposure"), and the takedown request in full. SABO Skirt did not commission or pay for it.
- [Documented fake stores — the index](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/documented-fake-stores): Every documented lookalike storefront listed under the brand it copies: 60 hostnames across 56 brands, each with the date it was checked and the evidence class published for it. Each row links to that hostname's own dated record.
- [Clone-report corpus (one page per documented brand)](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/clone-report/): 56 per-brand reports, each consolidating every hostname we hold for that brand with its dated readings. Full list below / in https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/llms-full.txt.

## Products

- [$2 instant URL check](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/is-this-website-a-scam#check): paste any website URL and get a 0-100 scam risk score, a plain-English verdict, the top five red flags found by weight (fewer if fewer exist) and a three-step "what to do now" list. The score, the verdict and the two most serious flags are free; $2 unlocks the rest with the evidence behind each. One-time, no subscription, no account.
- [$29 Brand Impersonation Audit](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/brand-audit): enter your company name and domain. Lookalike and typosquat candidates are generated from your own domain, every one is resolved, everything that resolves is fetched live, and only confirmed-resolving hostnames are listed — each with dated readings, a risk rating derived in code from what was observed, and a ready-to-send takedown request. The candidate and confirmed counts for your own domain are free before you buy.

## Guides

- [Is this website a scam?](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/is-this-website-a-scam): the shopper's entry point and the free check.
- [Free scanner vs our check](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/free-scanner-vs-our-check): one dated pair of readings of the same hostname, quoted as the finding of whoever made it.
- [Clone decay report](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/clone-decay-report): what happened to the documented hostnames over time, counted from the same records. Decay is not one-way.
- [Refund and dispute guide](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/refund): what to do after paying a lookalike storefront. No outcome is promised; the decision belongs to your bank or card issuer.
- [Who we are, and how we verify](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/about): the method, step by step, with a worked example.
- [Free check widget for publishers](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/embed): the free URL check, embeddable.

## Limits on every claim here

- Point-in-time only. Every record and every report states the date it was read; nothing here is continuous monitoring, and we do not sell monitoring.
- We do not execute takedowns, do not contact registrants, hosts or registrars on a customer's behalf on these two products, and promise no outcome or timeline.
- We do not recover funds and give no legal advice.
- State vocabulary is fixed and never editorialised: a hostname is recorded as "live, HTTP 200" or "does not resolve" on a given date, and nothing else.
- We describe what each page serves; we make no assertion about any registrant’s intent or criminality, and nothing here is legal advice.
- clientTransferProhibited on its own is the routine lock carried by nearly every registered domain and shows nothing by itself. What we record here is the combination, read together: a hold on the registry record, no answer in the DNS on our own checks, and a registration that has neither expired nor been deleted — the name is still registered, it is simply not in the zone.
- We hold no filing, no correspondence and no reference number for this domain. We do not know who asked for this, or why. A registrar or registry acting after we published is not a registrar or registry acting because we published, and we claim no part in it.
- Every finding here is an assessment of publicly available information at the time of the check, and is not legal advice. We produce the evidence and the correctly addressed request; on a Takedown Engagement we submit it to the abuse desks as the customer’s authorized agent, which is an administrative act and not legal representation. We do not monitor continuously and never contact the registrant on a customer’s behalf, and no outcome or timeline is guaranteed. Confirm your own trademark position before sending anything adversarial.
- No registrar, hosting provider, name server or IP address is published on any free page, by policy.

## Optional

- [Full corpus map](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/llms-full.txt): every published URL, grouped, with the same caveats.
- [Sitemap](https://scam-detective8.acoco.ai/sitemap.xml)
- Contact: scam-detective8@mail.acoco.ai