Is cancer.org legit or a scam?
The official American Cancer Society website is a highly trusted, long-established nonprofit with top-tier ratings from independent charity watchdogs.
Analysis Summary
No threats detected
All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.
MT Intelligence
Our analysis confirms this domain belongs to the American Cancer Society, which has been operating for over 110 years. The domain itself was registered over 31 years ago, a strong indicator of permanent legitimacy. It holds the highest possible ratings from major independent charity aggregators, including a 4-star rating for accountability and transparency. Technical scans show a clean history with no malware or phishing detections across our entire antivirus network. While we found reports of scammers impersonating this organization, the cancer.org domain itself is the genuine, secure platform.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for cancer.org, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- cancer.org is the official website of the American Cancer Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1913 (over 110 years old), with EIN 13-1788491.
- Holds top ratings: 4/4 stars on Charity Navigator (Great/Beacon Report, high accountability scores including 100% on most metrics and 95% website disclosures), BBB Wise Giving Alliance National Charity Seal, and Candid Platinum Seal of Tran
- Organization states 81% of resources go directly to mission programs (advocacy, research, patient support); publishes annual IRS Form 990s and maintains a fraud/abuse reporting hotline.
- No direct scam reports or complaints against cancer.org itself; search results primarily discuss unrelated cancer charity frauds by other organizations or imposters pretending to represent ACS.
- ACS actively warns about scams, including fake emails, phishing, and phony charities with similar names (e.g., “American Cancer Association”).
- Domain age of ~31.7 years (11581 days) aligns with long-established legitimate nonprofit; referenced positively across government, medical, and charity watchdog sites.
- Reddit and Quora discussions show mixed public opinions on spending/CEO pay but affirm it is a legitimate organization, not a scam.
- Facebook Groupopen
"If you receive this email from me it is a scam. Yes, I’m looking for vendors, however American Cancer Society will never ask for donations via an app."
- WIBW.com (BBB warning)open
"The American Cancer Society in Wichita is reporting a scam from a phony charity called the “American Cancer Association.”"
- Charity Navigatoropen
"American Cancer Society has earned a 4/4 Star rating on Charity Navigator. ... Great (from Beacon Report)"
- cancer.org (Give with Confidence page)open
"The American Cancer Society holds a Four-Star rating from Charity Navigator, the highest possible rating an organization can achieve. This rating designates ACS as an official “Give with Confidence” charity"
- cancer.org (Give with Confidence page)open
"The American Cancer Society holds the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance National Charity Seal, which certifies the American Cancer Society adheres to the Alliance's strong and comprehensive standards"
501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, EIN 13-1788491, founded 1913, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Files Form 990s publicly.
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No contact email found anywhere on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Phone number listed (800.227.2345).
- Links to 3 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://cancer.org/
- 2301https://cancer.org/
- 3200https://www.cancer.org/cross-domain
Server Reputation
Still, stay alert
No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.
- Double-check the exact URL in your address bar
Confirm you are actually on cancer.org and not a lookalike like c-ancer.org.com or an IDN homoglyph.
- Use a password manager
Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.
- OpenDiscuss this site on the forum
If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
Safety FAQ
Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- Our automated security review found no threat indicators on cancer.org. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
- cancer.org passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 96/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
- Yes. cancer.org presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Sectigo Limited · Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA EV R36, expiring in 12 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- cancer.org is 31.7 years old, registered on 10/6/1994 through Network Solutions, LLC. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report cancer.org as clean.
- No. cancer.org is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
- cancer.org resolves to an IP operated by Microsoft Corporation in US (usage type: Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
- Yes. cancer.org sits in the global top-100k on Cloudflare Radar, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. That does not automatically make it safe, but established brands almost always rank here and throwaway scam domains almost never do.
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