How to Report a Website

Co-authored by Scott Nelson, JD

Last Updated: November 2, 2024

If you find a phishing website, scam website, or a website distributing viruses, then you might want to report it. Reporting websites helps take them down and it protects other users on the internet from getting scammed or downloading viruses. Fortunately, there are multiple ways and places that you can report a website.

Things You Should Know

Report a site to Google via the SafeBrowsing Report page.
Report a site to your antivirus company using their specified webpage, ticketing system, or portal.
Report fraudulent and phishing sites to the FTC and CISA, and report sites with illegal content to IC3.
Submit a report to a website's DNS service or hosting provider.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Reporting to Google and Microsoft

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1
Report the site to Google. Reporting a website to Google will block it from loading in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and many other browsers. It will also remove the site from Google search, and it will block and emails that contain the site's URL from arriving in Gmail. It will also prevent the website from being linked to on other Google products, such as reviews on Google Maps, or on YouTube and Blogger. To report a site to Google, follow these steps:
- Go to the SafeBrowsing Report page.
- Type in the site’s URL.
- Complete the CAPTCHA.
- Write a reason for your report (optional).
- Click Submit Report.
2
Report the site to Microsoft. Reporting a website to Microsoft will block it in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. It will also block emails containing the link in Outlook.com, and it will remove links to the site in Bing, Yahoo search, and other search engines that use Bing as a backend. To report a website to Microsoft, follow these steps:
- Go to the Microsoft SmartScreen report page.
- Type the URL into the "which site do you want to report box".
- Specify which threat you found on the site. If the site is a phishing site, then select that button. For all other malicious sites, select the "Malware or other threats" button.
- Specify what language the site is in.
- Complete the CAPTCHA.
- Click Submit.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Report the Site to Antivirus Companies

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1
Report the website to Norton. Reporting a website to Norton will block the site from loading if a user has Norton antivirus on their computer. To report a website to Norton, follow these steps:
- Go to this page.
- Enter the URL into the "URL" box.
- Solve the CAPTCHA.
- Click Submit.
- Specify the classification of the site, then add details to the text box.
- Solve the CAPTCHA.
- Click Submit.
2
Report a website to McAfee. Reporting a website to McAfee will block the site from loading for users who use McAfee. To report a website to McAfee, follow these steps:
- Go to the Customer URL Ticketing System.
- Select "McAfee Real-Time Database".
- Type the URL into the text box.
- Click Check URL.
- Select the suggested categories to recategorize the site. You can select options like "Spam URLs", "Malicious Sites", and Phishing".
- Type your reason for why you believe the URL should be re-categorized.
- Click Submit URL for Review.

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Report a Website to the Government

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1
Report the website to the FTC. The FTC is very interested in website reports, especially if the site is promoting a scam. To report a site to the FTC, go the reportfraud.ftc.gov. Then, click Report Now and follow the on-screen instructions.
- Alternatively, you can contact local law enforcement agencies.^{[1]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Scott Nelson, JD
  Police Sergeant, Mountain View Police Department
  
  Expert Interview. 2 April 2020.}
- They have up-to-date information about whether or not it is a federal crime or a state crime.^{[2]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Scott Nelson, JD
  Police Sergeant, Mountain View Police Department
  
  Expert Interview. 2 April 2020.}
- They can either take the report themselves or tell you which state or federal agency you can contact.^{[3]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Scott Nelson, JD
  Police Sergeant, Mountain View Police Department
  
  Expert Interview. 2 April 2020.}
2
Report phishing sites to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). To report a phishing website to CISA, email phishing-report@us-cert.gov.^{[4]
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Research source}
3
Report a site to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 is run by the FBI, and it's a great website to report websites that promote terrorism or other illegal content. To report a site to the IC3, go to the File a Complaint page, read and agree to the terms, and then fill out the report form.^{[5]
X
Trustworthy Source

Internet Crime Complaint Center
Online reporting system for individuals to inform the FBI about Internet-related criminal activity

Go to source}

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Report a Website to the Hosting Providers

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1
Report a website to the DNS service. DNS stands for Domain Name Service, and it is what allows the computer to translate the website URL into an IP address. To report a website to the DNS service, follow these steps.
- Visit a Who is Lookup Site.
- Type the Site URL into the text box. Then click search.
- In the "Registrar" section, look for the email address of the service. It's usually abuse@service name.
- Email that email address to report the site URL. Make sure to include the URL along with the reason why you believe it is malicious.
2
Report the site to the hosting provider. The hosting provider is the service that provides the servers that the site is hosted on. To report a site to the hosting provider, go to whoishostingthis.com, enter the site URL, and then click Search. After getting the hosting provider's name, search the internet for "(hosting provider) report abuse". Then follow the steps that you find.

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How do I report a website for illegal activity?

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This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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If you live in the U.S., you can report most illegal activities online via your local FBI office, the U.S. Secret Service website, or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). If you’re outside the U.S., contact your local police or government office in charge of cybercrime.

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Who investigates cybercrime?

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In the U.S., the FBI is the main federal agency in charge of investigating cybercrime. Internationally, it may be handled by Interpol or by local agencies, depending on the extent of the crime.

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What do you do if someone copies your website?

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Start by gathering evidence, such as screenshots of the material they copied and archived versions of both pages that can help prove your version is older. Then, contact the copycat and ask them to take down the duplicate content. If that doesn’t work, try getting in touch with their website’s host company or even filing a legal complaint. You can also file a DMCA complaint with Google to get their pages removed from search results.

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Tips

Most websites have links to social media providers. You may want to report those social media profiles to the appropriate services as well.

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Hosting and DNS providers don't like to ban their customers, so make sure to include a lot of evidence in reports to these companies.
- If a Hosting or DNS provider won't accept your report, then report the site to the government.
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Warnings

Make a dedicated email address to report sites with. This will make sure that you don't share your email with the sites that you reported.

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When reporting sites, you may want to use an alias. You don't want hackers and scammers to find out what your name is.

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Some services will forward your complaint to the site that you reported, so be sure not to include personal information.

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