ScamAdviser Completes 10 Years as the Global Database for Scams

10 years of History

The year 2022 marks an important milestone for ScamAdviser as we complete 10 years of fighting scams. From humble beginnings in 2012, ScamAdviser has grown tremendously and now serves as the global database of scams. Unfortunately, this also means that scams have grown tremendously.

ScamAdviser.com was founded in 2012 by Marc after he bought golf clubs online and quickly discovered they were fake. Marc tried to get his money back to no avail and out of that frustration, ScamAdviser was born. The site was started with the intention of helping online shoppers make more informed decisions before purchasing. In 2013, ScamAdviser got its first media exposure. Marc was interviewed by an American radio station.

Of course, fighting scammers comes with a price and it should come as no surprise. In the next few years ScamAdviser faced everything from a lawsuit by a company selling fake perfume to personal threats from cybercriminals in the effort to prevent ScamAdviser to report on online scams. 

Accelerating Growth

In 2018, Ecommerce Operations took over ScamAdviser.com from Marc. Both the front-end as well as back-end were modernized to the latest technical standards and made more scalable. We have been tirelessly working on various aspects of ScamAdviser.com, such as making the site more user-friendly and providing more information to help consumers avoid scams as well as get help if they have already been scammed. Behind the scenes, we also keep fine-tuning and adding to the ScamAdviser Algorithm that analyzes 40 different data points about a website to determine the trustworthiness of a website. 

Some milestones we achieved:

• 130,000 Unique Visitors per Day
• 20 million websites scanned
• Adding 1 million sites per month
• 500,000 Scam Reports per Year
• 150,000 newsletter subscribers
• 100,000 Social Media Fans
• 50+ Supporting Partners

We also gather data from numerous countries to understand the reach and impact of online scams and scam fighting efforts undertaken by various organizations. This data is published in our annual Global State of Scams report which gets global press attention (1,300 publications last year).

Scamfighting is a tough job and thankfully we have help. ScamAdviser works with 50+ partners including organizations from the fields of law enforcement, consumer protection, brand protection, cybersecurity, financial services and more. Coming together as a cohesive force to share knowledge and data about scams help us and our partners put up a stronger fight in the global war against scams. Since 2020, we have also been organizing the Global Online Scam Summit (GOSS) which is the only global conference focused on consumer-related scams. Last year 500 participants joined us.

What's Next?

In January 2022, we set up the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), as a non-profit, with a mission to protect consumers worldwide from scams by raising awareness, enabling hand-on tools for consumers and law enforcement, facilitating knowledge sharing, organizing research, supporting the development of (legal) best practices, and offering training and education. 

Apart from setting up GASA, we have a lot of other ambitions for this year:

• Add the option to search for emails, phone numbers, and, crypto addresses;
• Allow consumers to report entire scams (not only websites);
• Launch national (white label) versions of ScamAdviser with local NGOs, law enforcement, and consumer authorities.

The fact that the number of online scams reported to law enforcement grew by 90% last year shows that the fight against scams is far from over. If you like to join our fight, please contact us.