Product Scam Risk Checker

Product Scam Risk Checker helps buyers inspect shopping pages before they purchase. Paste one or more store homepages, product pages, deal pages, category pages, or ad landing pages and the Actor checks each page plus a few same-domain trust pages for visible scam-risk and seller-trust signals.

It does not guarantee that a purchase is safe or fraudulent. It gives a practical buyer-facing verdict from observable evidence: payment wording, page language, visible price, HTTPS, contact evidence, return/refund policies, privacy/terms pages, page quality, and recognizable commerce-platform hints.

What it checks

• Page type, page title, and visible price when available
• HTTPS and unusual domain patterns
• Suspicious product wording such as replica, fake, 1:1, or mirror quality
• High-risk payment wording such as wire transfer, crypto-only, Western Union, or friends-and-family payment
• Recognized payment wording such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay
• Contact or customer-support evidence
• Return, refund, privacy, terms, shipping, and support pages linked from the checked page
• Business identity evidence such as about pages, email, phone, social links, and commerce-platform hints
• Store maturity, business identity completeness, catalog depth, policy quality, and store-specific content
• Payment safety, social proof, external trust/account surfaces, and red-flag density
• Technical trust evidence such as HTTPS and structured product data
• Thin or incomplete pages that expose little buyer-protection evidence

Input

Field	Description
urls	Shopping, store, product, deal, category, or landing page URLs to check. Each URL produces one output row.

That is the only required input. The Actor automatically checks a small number of same-domain trust pages such as Contact, Returns, Shipping, Privacy, Terms, FAQ, and Support when those links are visible.

Output

Each submitted URL produces one dataset row with the buyer-facing assessment.

Field	Meaning
verdict	safe_to_consider, caution, avoid, or unknown.
riskScore	0 to 100 visible scam-risk score.
trustScore	0 to 100 visible trust score.
trustLevel	Strong, moderate, weak, or very weak visible trust profile.
storeMaturityScore	0 to 100 score for how established the store appears.
businessIdentityCompleteness	Complete, partial, weak, or missing business identity evidence.
catalogDepthStatus	Very small, small, normal, or unknown catalog evidence. Product pages are marked unknown unless they expose links to other products.
policyQualityStatus	Store-specific, standard, generic/boilerplate, thin, or missing policies.
contactQualityStatus	Complete, usable, basic, or missing contact evidence.
paymentSafetyStatus	Protected visible, unclear, missing, or high-risk payment evidence.
socialProofStatus	Social links found or missing; social links are not verified.
storeSpecificityScore	0 to 100 score for store-specific content versus generic boilerplate.
externalTrustSurface	External trust/account redirects found while checking the store.
redFlagDensity	Serious risk or missing-trust signals per checked same-domain page.
confidence	Confidence based on page access and evidence coverage.
checkedUrl	Submitted URL being assessed.
pageType	Homepage, product, category/collection, checkout/cart, trust page, or generic page.
pageTitle	Best available page title.
httpsStatus	Whether the checked page uses HTTPS.
contactStatus	Whether contact or support evidence was found.
returnPolicyStatus	Whether return or refund policy wording was found.
privacyPolicyStatus	Whether privacy policy wording was found.
termsStatus	Whether terms wording was found.
paymentProtectionStatus	Trusted, risky, or missing payment evidence.
businessIdentityStatus	Clear, partial, or weak visible store identity.
technicalTrustStatus	Technical trust status from HTTPS, platform, and structured data signals.
pageQualityStatus	Structured, standard, thin, or not loaded.
summary	Short explanation of the assessment.
recommendedAction	Suggested next step before buying.
riskSignals	Signals that increased the risk score.
trustSignals	Signals that reduced risk or improved confidence.
missingTrustSignals	Important trust evidence that was not found.
pageFacts	Extracted facts from the submitted page and trust pages.
checkedPages	Submitted and same-domain trust pages inspected.

Example output

{
  "checkedUrl": "https://webscraper.io/test-sites/e-commerce/static/product/31",
  "domain": "webscraper.io",
  "pageType": "product",
  "verdict": "caution",
  "riskScore": 19,
  "trustScore": 50,
  "trustLevel": "moderate",
  "storeMaturityScore": 39,
  "businessIdentityCompleteness": "partial",
  "catalogDepthStatus": "unknown",
  "policyQualityStatus": "generic_or_boilerplate",
  "contactQualityStatus": "usable",
  "paymentSafetyStatus": "missing",
  "socialProofStatus": "multi_channel_unverified",
  "storeSpecificityScore": 65,
  "redFlagDensity": 0.2,
  "confidence": "high",
  "contactStatus": "found",
  "returnPolicyStatus": "missing",
  "privacyPolicyStatus": "found",
  "paymentProtectionStatus": "not_found",
  "businessIdentityStatus": "clear",
  "pageTitle": "Packard 255 G2",
  "price": 416.99,
  "currency": "USD",
  "summary": "\"Packard 255 G2\" scored 19/100 and needs manual caution before buying. No protected payment wording such as PayPal, card, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay was found in the fetched pages.",
  "recommendedAction": "Do not rush. Check independent reviews, seller identity, refund policy, and payment protection before purchasing."
}

API example

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/trovevault~product-scam-risk-checker/runs?waitForFinish=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "urls": [
      { "url": "https://webscraper.io/test-sites/e-commerce/static" },
      { "url": "https://webscraper.io/test-sites/e-commerce/static/product/31" },
      { "url": "https://webscraper.io/test-sites/e-commerce/static/computers/laptops" }
    ]
  }'

Use cases

• Check a store homepage, product page, category page, or deal landing page before buying
• Spot obvious warning signs before entering payment details
• Generate a compact record of why a page looks safe, risky, or unclear

Limitations

• The Actor checks visible page evidence only. It cannot verify inventory, order fulfillment, chargeback outcomes, or whether reviews are real.
• Some stores render important details with JavaScript or block direct HTTP requests. Those pages may need proxy settings or future browser-backed checks.
• Absence of a warning sign is not a safety guarantee. Use protected payment methods and independent reviews before buying.