Is change.org safe?
http://change.org/
Checked on
How we checked
Coverage: complete · 6 of 6 applicable core capabilities
- Antivirus (61 of 93 engines answered): completed
- Google Safe Browsing: completed
- page reading: completed
- page capture: completed
- domain records: completed
- web research: completed
Change.org is a long-established petition platform with clean technical checks, but its recurring-contribution billing and content-moderation complaints are real, moderate operator risks.
Change.org is a well-known petition and fundraising platform, not a scam site. The domain is over 31 years old, no security engines flagged it, and it uses a valid encrypted connection. The site is operated by Change.org, PBC, a Delaware public benefit corporation owned by a nonprofit foundation, and it solicits recurring monthly contributions and paid 'Promoted Petition' purchases. The main concerns are billing confusion — some users report being charged monthly after believing they made one-time donations — and disputes over how the platform handles petition content. These are moderate operator and customer-service risks, not evidence of fraud, malware, or phishing, so the score sits in the Low Risk band.
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Preparing the saved page preview.
Where this site sits
- Dangerous1–20
- High Risk21–44
- Moderate Risk45–69
- Low Risk70–84
- Safe85–100
The score combines saved evidence strength and analysis quality. Coverage is reported separately.
Why 78/100
Low Risk covers scores 70–84. 2 findings pulled the score down; 2 pushed it up.
What pulled the score down
- Moderate2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "some customers were dissatisfied with payment issues, specifically reporting recurring monthly charges after making what they believed to be one-time donations."
- Moderate2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "I am filing this complaint against Change.org for failure to remove a defamatory and harmful petition that is spreading false information about me."
What pushed the score up
- SupportsThe registrable domain is 11,604 days old, indicating a long-established platform.
- SupportsNo security engines flagged the site and it uses a valid TLS certificate.
No points per finding are stored for this report: our analysis weighed all findings together to set the score. Each finding shows its saved severity instead (Decisive, Strong, Moderate or Minor). Community reviews never change the Safety Score.
01 · Investigation Brief
Investigation Brief
Change.org is a well-known petition and fundraising platform, not a scam site. The domain is over 31 years old, no security engines flagged it, and it uses a valid encrypted connection. The site is operated by Change.org, PBC, a Delaware public benefit corporation owned by a nonprofit foundation, and it solicits recurring monthly contributions and paid 'Promoted Petition' purchases. The main concerns are billing confusion — some users report being charged monthly after believing they made one-time donations — and disputes over how the platform handles petition content. These are moderate operator and customer-service risks, not evidence of fraud, malware, or phishing, so the score sits in the Low Risk band.
Technical checks are clean and the operator is disclosed
The saved security scan found zero malicious and zero suspicious detections across 93 engines, and the connection uses a valid TLS certificate. The registrable domain is 11,604 days old — over 31 years — which is consistent with a long-running, well-known platform rather than a throwaway scam domain.
The site's own terms identify the operator and bind users to a set of platform policies, and the page links to standard legal documents including a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Payment Services Agreement, Bank Agreement, and Terms and Conditions. Payment processing is handled through established third-party providers such as Braintree, Stripe, and dLocal, which is normal for a large platform and not itself a red flag.
Recurring billing and content disputes are the real concerns
The site offers recurring monthly contributions, and its own text states that if you choose this option you will be charged the monthly amount automatically each month on your renewal date. Some users have reported dissatisfaction with payment issues, specifically recurring monthly charges after making what they believed to be one-time donations. That is a billing-clarity problem worth taking seriously, though the site does disclose the automatic renewal in its terms.
A separate complaint concerns the platform's handling of petition content, including a request to remove a petition the complainant described as defamatory. This is a content-moderation dispute rather than a financial scam, and it does not indicate malware, phishing, or payment fraud. On the positive side, the site publishes a refund policy for 'Promoted Petition' purchases, allowing refund requests within 90 days of purchase through its Support Center.
Why the score is 78
The saved checks found no material threat, but the evidence was not strong enough for the highest Safe tier. Coverage remains separate so missing sources cannot be mistaken for clean results.
02 · Security Evidence
Security evidence
Antivirus Engines
0/ 93
No detectionsFresh result
No detections across 61 engines that rated this URL
No antivirus engine that answered raised an adverse result; 32 had no rating for this URL. This is one signal, not a guarantee.
- Malicious
- 0
- Suspicious
- 0
- Total
- 93
All 93 engine results
- 0xSI_f33d - Unrated
- Abusix - Clean
- Acronis - Clean
- ADMINUSLabs - Clean
- AILabs (MONITORAPP) - Clean
- AlienVault - Clean
- alphaMountain.ai - Clean
- AlphaSOC - Unrated
- Antiy-AVL - Clean
- ArcSight Threat Intelligence - Unrated
- AutoShun - Unrated
- Bfore.Ai PreCrime - Unrated
- BitDefender - Clean
- Bkav - Unrated
- BlockList - Clean
- Blueliv - Clean
- Certego - Clean
- ChainPatrol - Clean
- Chong Lua Dao - Clean
- CINS Army - Clean
- CRDF - Clean
- Criminal IP - Unrated
- CSIS Security Group - Unrated
- CTX AI - Clean
- Cyan - Unrated
- Cyble - Clean
- CyRadar - Clean
- desenmascara.me - Clean
- DNS8 - Unrated
- Dr.Web - Clean
- EmergingThreats - Clean
- Emsisoft - Clean
- Ermes - Unrated
- ESET - Clean
- ESTsecurity - Clean
- Forcepoint ThreatSeeker - Clean
- Fortinet - Clean
- Fortra - Unrated
- G-Data - Clean
- GCP Abuse Intelligence - Unrated
- Google Safe Browsing - Clean
- GreenSnow - Clean
- GreyNoise - Unrated
- Gridinsoft - Unrated
- Guardpot - Unrated
- Heimdal Security - Clean
- Hunt.io Intelligence - Unrated
- IPsum - Clean
- Juniper Networks - Clean
- K7AntiVirus - Unrated
- Kaspersky - Clean
- LevelBlue - Clean
- Lionic - Clean
- Lumu - Unrated
- Malwared - Clean
- MalwarePatrol - Clean
- MalwareURL - Unrated
- Mimecast - Unrated
- Netcraft - Unrated
- OpenPhish - Clean
- Orcapot - Unrated
- PhishFort - Unrated
- Phishing Database - Clean
- Phishtank - Clean
- PREBYTES - Clean
- PrecisionSec - Unrated
- Quick Heal - Clean
- Quttera - Clean
- Rising - Clean
- SafeToOpen - Unrated
- Sangfor - Clean
- Sansec eComscan - Unrated
- Scantitan - Clean
- SCUMWARE.org - Clean
- Seclookup - Clean
- Snort IP sample list - Unrated
- SOCRadar - Unrated
- Sophos - Clean
- StopForumSpam - Clean
- Sucuri SiteCheck - Clean
- Synthient - Unrated
- ThreatHive - Clean
- URLhaus - Clean
- URLQuery - Unrated
- Viettel Threat Intelligence - Clean
- VIPRE - Clean
- ViriBack - Clean
- VX Vault - Clean
- Webroot - Clean
- Xcitium Verdict Cloud - Clean
- Yandex Safebrowsing - Clean
- ZeroCERT - Clean
- ZeroFox - Unrated
How security vendors categorise this site
- alphaMountain.aiNon-Profit/Advocacy
- BitDefendereducation
- Forcepoint ThreatSeekeradvocacy groups
- Googlecivil_society_and_npo
- Sophosngos and non profits
Each vendor’s own label for the site, saved with the antivirus result. Labels are separate from the engine verdicts above and can disagree with each other.
Security Scans
Checked against the browser threat feeds available to this scan — no hit.
What we observed
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Visual context from the captured page
Change starts here.
What the captured page showed
1 observation- 01
Change starts here.
What the page says about itself
What the site says about itself, quoted from the pages we read. The site wrote these words; they are not our findings.
- Page title
Change starts here · Change.org
- Meta description
Join over 500,000,000 people creating real change in their communities.
Pages we read
- Main page/Read
- About page/aboutRead
- Terms/policies/terms-of-serviceRead
- Support / FAQ/p/help-bring-k9-axel-homeRead
03 · Investigation Story
Investigation story
What the site claims
Change starts here · Change.org
What we observed
The page content was captured and checked alongside 61 antivirus results.
What independent research found
2 external findings were saved and compared with the page evidence.
What remains unverified
The checks completed, but ownership, business claims, and future site behavior can still change after this snapshot.
What kind of site and risk is this?
Threat category
No threat category confirmed
Service and business model
Content
Observed behavior
Evidence behind this classification
- 01The registrable domain is 11,604 days old, indicating a long-established platform.
- 02No security engines flagged the site and it uses a valid TLS certificate.
- 032 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "some customers were dissatisfied with payment issues, specifically reporting recurring monthly charges after making what they believed to be one-time donations."
Web research findings
Independent findings for change.org, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence. A missing result is shown as unverified, never converted into a clean bill of health.
- Trustpilotopen
"some customers were dissatisfied with payment issues, specifically reporting recurring monthly charges after making what they believed to be one-time donations."
- Better Business Bureauopen
"I am filing this complaint against Change.org for failure to remove a defamatory and harmful petition that is spreading false information about me."
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
04 · Domain & Infrastructure
Domain & infrastructure
The plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too. Use this to corroborate the verdict, not to overturn it.
Infrastructure map
How the saved page connected to the wider web.
- Domainchange.org
- Redirects towww.change.org
- Hosted byAmazon.com, Inc.
- Referencesfonts.gstatic.com · client.px-cloud.net
Domain Timeline
- Jan 18, 1995Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 31 years old when this review was saved.
- Oct 26, 2026Saved security review — Rated Low Risk
This saved scan found no material threat, but the evidence was not strong enough for the highest Safe tier.
change.org has operated for years and this review found no material threat — a long track record, though it is never a guarantee on its own.
Contact Verification
Saved contact details can help identify the operator. Their presence supports traceability; it does not prove the business is trustworthy.
- Contact email on the site's own domain (copyright@change.org).
- Phone number listed (94104-5401).
- Postal address visible on the page.
- Links to 9 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Certificate issued for *.change.org.
A shared content-delivery network address answers for many sites, so it is not the site's own server and says nothing about who runs it.
Analytics and ads
- Google Tag Manager
Scripts, fonts and CDNs
- Google Fonts
Payment providers the page loads
None seen among the outside domains we saved.
Read from the first 20 outside domains the page loads and the shop platform it uses; the web server and platform rows are under Hosting & Technology. A payment script on the page does not prove the shop accepts that method at checkout, or that you are protected.
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://change.org/
- 2301https://change.org/
- 3200https://www.change.org/
Server Reputation
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
05 · Evidence Ledger
Evidence ledger
- Antiviruscomplete
- Browser threat feedcomplete
- Page contentcomplete
- Analysiscomplete
- Visual evidencecomplete
The conclusion is supported by the evidence saved with this report.
Technical threat
unknownMalware, phishing, credential theft and hostile infrastructure.
No confirmed evidence in this dimension.
Operator / customer risk
suspiciousComplaints, withdrawals, business conduct and commercial traps.
2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "some customers were dissatisfied with payment issues, specifically reporting recurring monthly charges after making what they believed to be one-time donations." · 2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "I am filing this complaint against Change.org for failure to remove a defamatory and harmful petition that is spreading false information about me."
Source coverage and freshness
Status shows whether usable evidence was saved; finding shows what that evidence observed.
| Source | Result | Completion | Finding | Freshness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antivirus | 0 of 93 engines flagged | Completed | No adverse finding | fresh · analysed Oct 26, 2026 |
| Browser protection | No browser threat-list match | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Oct 26, 2026 |
| Page content | Page fetched · HTTP 200 | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Oct 26, 2026 |
| Visual evidence | 1 visible observation saved with the page capture | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Oct 26, 2026 |
| Independent research | 2 independent findings were saved | Completed | Adverse | this scan · Oct 26, 2026 |
- Antivirus
- Result0 of 93 engines flagged
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessfresh · analysed Oct 26, 2026
- Browser protection
- ResultNo browser threat-list match
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Oct 26, 2026
- Page content
- ResultPage fetched · HTTP 200
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Oct 26, 2026
- Visual evidence
- Result1 visible observation saved with the page capture
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Oct 26, 2026
- Independent research
- Result2 independent findings were saved
- CompletionCompletedFindingAdverse
- Freshnessthis scan · Oct 26, 2026
07 · Safety FAQ
Safety FAQ
Common questions, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers reflect the saved verdict and evidence in this report.
Is change.org a scam or is it safe?
Is change.org safe to use?
Has change.org been flagged by antivirus engines?
Is change.org on any phishing or malware blacklists?
How old is the change.org domain?
Does change.org have a valid SSL certificate?
Where is change.org hosted?
Is change.org a well-known website?
How often is the change.org report updated?
08 · Final Verdict
Final verdict
Change.org is a long-established petition platform with clean technical checks, but its recurring-contribution billing and content-moderation complaints are real, moderate operator risks.
Change.org is a well-known petition and fundraising platform, not a scam site. The domain is over 31 years old, no security engines flagged it, and it uses a valid encrypted connection. The site is operated by Change.org, PBC, a Delaware public benefit corporation owned by a nonprofit foundation, and it solicits recurring monthly contributions and paid 'Promoted Petition' purchases. The main concerns are billing confusion — some users report being charged monthly after believing they made one-time donations — and disputes over how the platform handles petition content. These are moderate operator and customer-service risks, not evidence of fraud, malware, or phishing, so the score sits in the Low Risk band.
09 · Community
Community
Are you the owner of change.org?Verify and reply