Honest comparison · Updated June 2026
GACS vs MaxMind
They’re different categories of tool that sometimes show up in the same searches. MaxMind sells GeoIP2 (IP-to-location databases) and minFraud (transaction-risk scoring) to businesses. GACS is a free consumer tool for checking whether a website, wallet, or social account is a scam. Here’s how to pick the right one in 30 seconds.
The 30-second answer
Pick GACS if you’re a person
You got a suspicious DM, found a too-good investment site, were asked to send crypto, or want to check if a vendor or freelancer is legit. GACS returns a verdict in 2 seconds — free, no signup.
Pick MaxMind if you’re a business
You need to geo-route traffic, localize content, score payment risk at checkout, or feed an analytics pipeline with country/ISP/ASN. MaxMind’s GeoIP2 and minFraud are the category standards for that work.
They don’t really overlap — different category of tool entirely. People only land on both because “is this a scam” queries sometimes surface fraud-API vendors alongside consumer tools.
What MaxMind actually does
MaxMind is one of the original IP-intelligence companies. Their two flagship products:
- GeoIP2 — IP-to-location databases mapping an IP to country, city, ISP, ASN, connection type, and anonymizer signals. Sold as a hosted API or a downloadable binary database with daily/weekly updates.
- minFraud — transaction-risk API for checkout pipelines. Takes order details (email, billing/shipping, payment metadata, IP) and returns a risk score with itemized signals (IP risk, email risk, BIN-mismatch, velocity).
Free GeoLite2 databases exist for testing, and minFraud has a small free trial, but the real product is the paid subscription used by e-commerce platforms, fintech, ad-tech, and content companies. None of it is designed to answer the question a regular person has: “is this specific website or wallet trying to scam me?”
What GACS actually does
GACS — Global Anti-Crime Shield — is a free, ad-free, donation-funded scam registry built for individuals. Paste an entity (website, crypto wallet, social handle, phone, email) and GACS returns a traffic-light verdict, the signals that drove it (registration age, blacklist hits, mirror cluster, on-chain links, community reports), and a one-click path to report a new scam.
GACS is entity-centric, not IP-centric — which is what you actually want when you’re trying to figure out whether something is a scam. Coverage spans domains, crypto wallets (ETH, BTC, SOL, TRON, BSC), social accounts on X / Instagram / TikTok / Telegram, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Full feature comparison
| Feature | GACS | MaxMind |
|---|---|---|
Primary use case | Consumer scam check (is this site / wallet / handle a scam?) | B2B IP intelligence + transaction risk (where is this IP, is this payment risky?) |
Who it's for | Anyone — victims, families, journalists, investigators | Fraud, payments, ad-tech, and geo-routing engineering teams |
Pricing for an individual | Free forever, no signup | Free GeoLite2 + limited minFraud trial; production is paid |
Funding model | Donation-funded public-safety project | Commercial SaaS + data subscriptions |
Checks a domain / website for scam signals | Yes — registration age, blacklist, scam reports, mirror clusters | No — IP-only |
Checks a crypto wallet | Yes — ETH, BTC, SOL, TRON, BSC; on-chain + report graph | No |
Checks a social account (X, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram) | Yes — free, with shareable verdict pages | No |
IP geolocation (country, city, ISP, ASN) | No | Yes — GeoIP2 is the category standard |
Transaction / payment risk scoring | No | Yes — minFraud is purpose-built for this |
Downloadable database for self-hosting | No — service is hosted | Yes — GeoIP2 binary database + monthly updates |
Public scam-report database | Yes — crowdsourced + verified, public per-entity pages | No public registry |
Real-time API for production apps | Free public lookup + lightweight read API | Yes — paid, designed for production scale |
Free embeddable trust badge for vendors | Yes — live SVG that flips red if your domain is reported | No |
Ads / sponsored placements on result pages | None | None on the free demo |
Time to first answer | ≈ 2 seconds, no signup | ≈ 2 seconds for the free demo; days to integrate minFraud properly |
Based on publicly documented features as of June 2026. Anything out of date? Email hello@gacs.app and we’ll correct it within 24 hours.
Which one do you actually need?
I want to check if a website is a scam before I buy / invest / send money.
MaxMind doesn't classify websites at all — it maps the IP behind a site to a location. GACS analyses the domain itself.
A stranger asked me to send crypto to this wallet — is it safe?
Paste the address into the GACS wallet checker. MaxMind has no on-chain coverage.
Someone DMed me on Instagram / TikTok / X — is the account real?
GACS social-scanner returns a free shareable verdict page. MaxMind doesn't analyse social accounts.
I run an e-commerce store and need to score every checkout for fraud.
minFraud was built exactly for this. GACS doesn't score payment transactions.
I need to localize content by country or block traffic from certain regions.
GeoIP2 is the category standard. GACS doesn't do IP geolocation.
I'm worried a family member is being scammed online.
Use the social-scanner and share the verdict page — designed to be sent in a chat without an accusation.
I'm a vendor and want a public 'verified, no scam reports' badge on my site.
Free live trust badge that flips red automatically if your domain is ever reported. MaxMind doesn't offer this.
When to use both together
If you’re running a fraud team at a marketplace or financial platform, the stack actually looks like this:
- 1MaxMind minFraud (or IPQS/Scamalytics) at checkout — score the IP, the email, the payment.
- 2GACS lookup on every entity the user mentions or links to — wallets, social handles, sites — to catch known scam actors before they convert other users.
- 3Report back to GACS when you confirm a fraudster so the next platform sees the warning.
Where GACS wins outright
- Free forever for consumers — no paywall on any check.
- Covers domains, wallets, social, phone, email — not just IPs.
- Public scam-report registry with per-entity pages indexed by Google.
- Multi-chain crypto coverage with on-chain link tracing.
- Free embeddable trust badge for honest vendors.
- Donation-funded — no incentive to upsell a paid tier.
Where MaxMind wins outright
- IP-to-location accuracy at country, city, ISP, ASN.
- Downloadable binary database for self-hosted lookups.
- minFraud transaction-risk scoring tuned for checkout.
- Two decades of IP intelligence data.
- Established integrations with e-commerce + payment stacks.
Try GACS in 10 seconds
Paste any URL, wallet address, social handle, or phone number. Get a verdict in two seconds — free, no signup, no wallet prompt, no ad tracking.