Honest comparison · Updated June 2026
GACS vs Scamalytics
GACS and Scamalytics solve different problems: Scamalytics is a B2B IP fraud-scoring API for businesses, while GACS is a free consumer tool that checks whether a specific website, crypto wallet, or social account is a scam.
Written by GACS Research Team · Global Anti-Crime & SafetyReviewed by GACS Editorial Review and the GACS Research TeamLast reviewed September 8, 2026 · first published June 22, 20267 min read
free and ad-free
No signup
No wallet connection
No ad-tracking
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 to an address, or want to check if a freelancer or vendor is legit. GACS gives you a verdict in 2 seconds, free, no signup, no wallet prompt.
Pick Scamalytics if you're a business
You run a dating site, ad network, sportsbook, or e-commerce platform and need to score the IP behind every signup or transaction. Scamalytics returns a 0–100 fraud risk for an IP using proxy/VPN/Tor and historical-abuse signals.
They overlap on exactly one thing: both are free to run a single lookup on their website. Beyond that, they answer completely different questions.
What Scamalytics actually does
Scamalytics is one of the older players in the IP-reputation space. Their core product is a fraud-scoring API: you POST an IP address, you get back a risk score (0–100), a fraud classification, and signals indicating whether the IP belongs to a known proxy, VPN, Tor exit node, or commercial datacenter. The score is built from a mix of in-house abuse data, partner feeds, and behavioural patterns observed across their customer base (dating sites are the canonical use case).
The free lookup page at scamalytics.com is essentially a sales demo for the API. It's genuinely useful if you want to check why a user is being flagged, debug a payment failure, or confirm a VPN is being detected — but it's not designed to answer “is this website a scam?” or “is this wallet stealing money?” The IP score can't see any of that.
That's where the confusion comes from. The brand contains the word scam, so people Googling “is X a scam” or “scam checker” land on the Scamalytics page and assume it's a consumer tool. It isn't.
What GACS actually does
GACS — Global Anti-Crime & Safety — is a free, ad-free, donation-funded scam registry built for individuals. You paste an entity (a website, a crypto wallet address, a social handle, a phone number, an email), and GACS returns:
- A traffic-light verdict (safe / caution / scam) backed by a transparent score.
- The specific signals that drove the score — registration age, blacklist hits, reported scam patterns, mirror-site cluster, on-chain links.
- Any community reports tied to the entity — including conversation excerpts from victims of the same scam.
- A one-click path to report it yourself if you spot a new scam.
GACS covers websites, crypto wallets (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Tron, BSC), social accounts on X / Instagram / TikTok / Telegram, phone numbers, and email addresses. It's entity-centric, not IP-centric — which is what you actually want when you're trying to figure out if something is a scam.
Full feature comparison
| Feature | GACS | Scamalytics |
|---|---|---|
Primary use case | Consumer scam check (is this site / wallet / handle a scam?) | B2B IP fraud scoring (is this visitor's IP risky?) |
Who it's for | Anyone — victims, families, journalists, investigators | Fraud teams at dating sites, ad networks, e-commerce |
Pricing for an individual | free and ad-free, no signup | Free web lookup; API is paid |
Funding model | Donation-funded public-safety project | Commercial SaaS |
Checks a domain / website | 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 |
Scores an IP address | No | Yes — that's the core product |
Proxy / VPN / Tor detection | No | Yes — proprietary signal |
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 |
Ads / sponsored placements on result pages | None | None on the free lookup |
Free embeddable trust badge for vendors | Yes — live SVG that flips red if your domain is reported | No |
Time to first answer | ≈ 2 seconds, no signup | ≈ 2 seconds for the free lookup; minutes to integrate API |
Based on publicly documented features as of June 2026. If anything is 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.
→ GACS
Scamalytics scores IP addresses, not domains. GACS analyses the domain itself — age, blacklist, mirror clusters, reports.
A stranger asked me to send crypto to this wallet — is it safe?
→ GACS
Paste the address into the GACS wallet checker. Scamalytics has no on-chain coverage.
Someone DMed me on Instagram / TikTok / X — is the account real?
→ GACS
GACS social-scanner returns a free shareable verdict page. Scamalytics doesn't analyse social accounts.
I run a dating site and need a fraud score for every signup IP.
This is exactly what Scamalytics was built for. Add their API to your signup pipeline.
I need to detect VPNs / proxies / Tor on a high-volume web app.
Or alternatives like IPQualityScore or MaxMind. GACS doesn't do IP-level scoring.
My parent / partner is talking to someone online and I'm worried it's a scam.
→ GACS
Use the social-scanner and share the verdict page — designed to be sent in a chat without an accusation.
I'm a vendor / store and want a public 'verified, no scam reports' badge on my site.
→ GACS
Free live trust badge that flips red automatically if your domain ever gets reported. Scamalytics 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:
- Scamalytics (or IPQS/MaxMind) on every signup to score the connection.
- GACS lookup on the entities the user mentions or links — wallets, social handles, sites they cross-promote — to catch known scam actors before they convert other users.
- Report back to GACS when you confirm a fraudster so the next platform sees the warning.
Where GACS wins outright
- free and ad-free 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 Scamalytics wins outright
- IP-level fraud scoring — the entire core product.
- Production-grade paid API with predictable SLAs.
- Proxy / VPN / Tor / datacenter classification.
- Decade-plus history of IP fraud data.
- Established integrations with dating-site fraud 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.
Frequently asked questions
Is GACS a free Scamalytics alternative?
Only partially. Scamalytics scores IP addresses for B2B fraud teams; GACS checks websites, crypto wallets, social accounts, and phone numbers for consumers. If you're a person trying to figure out whether a site or wallet is a scam, GACS is the free alternative you want. If you're a business that needs to score the IP behind a signup, GACS doesn't replace Scamalytics.
Is Scamalytics free?
The web lookup at scamalytics.com is free for occasional IP checks. The actual product — the fraud-scoring API used by businesses — is a paid commercial service with tiered pricing based on lookup volume.
Is GACS really free, or is there a paid tier?
All public scam checks on GACS are free and ad-free, with no signup: website checker, wallet checker, social-account scanner, link checker, scam-report database. GACS is funded by donations and an optional fraud-investigator certifications program — not by gating consumer safety tools.
Can GACS check an IP address?
No. GACS is built for entity-level checks (a domain, a wallet, a social handle, a phone number), not IP-level scoring. If you need an IP risk score for a business workflow, Scamalytics, IPQualityScore, or MaxMind are the right tools.
Which is better for checking if a website is a scam?
GACS. Scamalytics scores IPs, not domains — it won't tell you whether the site is a scam, only whether the visitor's connection looks risky. GACS analyses the actual domain: registration age, blacklist history, scam reports, mirror-site clustering, and on-chain wallet links if crypto is involved.
Does GACS connect to my crypto wallet?
Never. You can paste a wallet address to check it, but GACS never requests a wallet connection. We can't sign or move funds, ever.
What about Scamadviser, Trustpilot, BBB, or Chainabuse?
Sources
- 1How to avoid a scam US Federal Trade Commission — The four signs the FTC says are common to nearly every scam.
- 2ReportFraud.ftc.gov US Federal Trade Commission — Where US consumers file a fraud report.
- 3Report an internet crime FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — The official US reporting route for online fraud.
- 4Where to report a scam USA.gov — Directory of the correct US agency for each scam type.
Related
Authoritative sources
Independent primary sources used to check and corroborate the guidance on this page.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)Official US channel for reporting internet-enabled fraud and cybercrime.
US Federal Trade Commission — ReportFraudConsumer fraud reporting and published enforcement data.
UK Report FraudUK national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.
Canadian Anti-Fraud CentreCanada's central repository for fraud reports and scam alerts.