Malwarebytes Scam Link Check analyzes URLs and explains potential risks

Malwarebytes has launched the Malwarebytes Scam Link Check, a free web tool that lets anyone check whether a website link is safe or dangerous before clicking it. Users paste any suspicious URL, the kind that arrives by text, email, chat, or social media, and the tool returns a safety result, along with the reasons behind it and recommended next steps.

Scams have overtaken many traditional crimes in scale, with an estimated $442 billion lost to scams globally and roughly $21 billion lost by Americans alone in 2025. At the 2026 UN Fraud Summit, governments reported that cyber-enabled fraud run by organized crime now outweighs the global trade in weapons, drugs, and human trafficking combined.

Fake websites are the front door to much of that fraud. Malwarebytes research found that malicious websites such as phishing pages, counterfeit stores, and malicious ads, outnumber every other scam delivery method, ahead of email and text messages. Malwarebytes research also found that 85% of people say they can no longer reliably tell a scam from the real thing, up from 66% a year earlier.

“The thing most likely to drain your bank account today isn’t a virus. It is a link that looks like it came from your bank, a delivery service, or a friend,” said Mark Beare, Head of Consumer, Malwarebytes. “We’ve spent years asking people to become scam experts, and it hasn’t worked, because scams evolve faster than anyone can track. Instead, we flipped the model. Rather than asking people to spot the scam, we give them an expert. Paste the link, get a straight answer, and know what to do next—free, in seconds.”

How the Malwarebytes Scam Link Check works

The Malwarebytes Scam Link Check analyzes a submitted URL using the Malwarebytes threat intelligence ecosystem. It works like this:

• The user pastes or types the website URL into the tool.
• Malwarebytes scans the link and runs a deep analysis using its threat intelligence ecosystem, checking for malicious sites, phishing pages, freshly registered domains, and redirect chains that hide where a link really leads.
• Users receive a safety verdict such as safe, dangerous, or unknown, in seconds.
• Alongside the “Is this link safe” verdict, the tool shows:
• A screenshot of the website, so users can see the page without visiting it.
• The reasons behind the verdict, in plain language, so people learn why a link is considered safe or unsafe.
• Recommended next steps, including what to do if they’ve already clicked.
• An option to report a website, feeding new intelligence back to Malwarebytes to protect the next person and overall online community.
• A direct entry point into Malwarebytes Scam Guard for deeper help.

The Malwarebytes anti-scam ecosystem

The Scam Link Check is one entry point into a broader Malwarebytes anti-scam ecosystem that follows a simple arc, see what’s exposed, shrink the attack surface, and get a result in the moment.

• Malwarebytes Digital Footprint: A free scan that reveals what personal information is already exposed from breaches and the dark web, using just an email address.
• Malwarebytes Personal Data Remover: Finds personal data being sold across a network of data-broker and people-search sites and automates its removal.
• Malwarebytes Scam Number Check: Quickly identifies whether a phone number is safe or potentially harmful with this free tool. People also can report suspicious or scam numbers to help make their community safer.
• Malwarebytes Scam Guard: Scam detector embedded within the Windows, Mac, web and mobile solutions, making it quick and easy to check if something is a scam and get cybersecurity guidance. It pairs the ease of an AI chat bot with the deep Malwarebytes threat intelligence expertise for 24/7 help. Free on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS; in the Browser Guard extension; on the web; and inside ChatGPT and Claude, just ask “@Malwarebytes, is this a scam?”