SAFE

No threats detected

All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.

Security Review

Is faa.gov legit or a scam?

Our verdict:Safe· 97/100

Official 28-year-old U.S. government site with clean scans and no scam reports against the legitimate domain.

faa.govScanned 1h ago
0
Trust score
SAFE
Score breakdown
Heuristics 100·MT 95
Positive signals (5)
Antivirus clearNot on major blacklistsDomain is 29 years oldEncrypted connectionClean server reputation
View density

Analysis Summary

Threat Intelligence
0/92
All engines report clean
Domain Age
29 years old
Registered Oct 1, 1997
Intelligence
Safe
Low likelihood · 95% confidence

Website Preview

Live view unavailable

The site returned a server error when we tried to load it in our sandbox, so there was no page to capture. A working business almost always renders — treat this site as unverified.

faa.gov

We attempt a live render of every scanned site in a safe sandbox. This one couldn’t be reached — the failure itself is a signal, noted in the analysis below.

Visual analysis

We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.

50
/ 100
Visual inspection

Visual similarities noted — cleared by the overall checks

Our vision model noted some visual similarity to a known brand, but the domain, security records, and reputation checks confirm this is the legitimate site — so this is shown for transparency, not as a red flag.

Visual similarity50/100

What our vision model saw

1 signal

Live capture returned a server/proxy error — the page could not be rendered

Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence
Analysis
Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust95/100
MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection
0%
Confidence
The domain faa.gov belongs to the Federal Aviation Administration, a U.S. federal agency. It was registered in 1997 and shows a clean record across our antivirus network and browser blocklists. The hosting IP carries zero abuse reports and the SSL certificate is valid. Evidence shows multiple scam sites impersonate the FAA for drone registrations, but none target the real faa.gov itself. The page content matches an official government site with proper .gov indicators and navigation to legitimate subdomains. Visual capture failed due to a server error, but this does not affect the strong legitimacy signals from domain age, ownership, and infrastructure data.
Full dossier
Analysis complete

Page Content

The page displays the official Federal Aviation Administration branding and navigation structure. It includes standard U.S. government banners confirming it is an official .gov site. Contact information includes eight phone numbers and one physical address, consistent with a large federal agency. No login forms or suspicious data collection elements appear on the captured content.

Infrastructure

The site resolves to IP 155.178.201.85 with an abuse score of zero and no reported incidents. SSL is issued by DigiCert with 138 days remaining before expiry. Two redirects occur but stay within the same domain family. External resources load from trusted government and public service domains such as transportation.gov and search.usa.gov.

Domain History

The domain was registered on 1997-10-02 through get.gov, giving it an age of 28.8 years. This places it among the oldest active government domains. Privacy protection is enabled, which is standard for federal sites. No recent ownership changes or suspicious registration patterns exist.

Web Reputation

Four scam reports reference fake FAA-related domains and phishing emails, but none involve the legitimate faa.gov. Media outlets document third-party scam sites charging unauthorized drone registration fees. The real FAA maintains official drone services on subdomains such as faadronezone-access.faa.gov. No complaints or negative reviews target the primary domain itself.

What this means for you

This is the authentic government website. Always confirm the address bar shows faa.gov before providing any personal information. Be wary of emails or links claiming to be from the FAA that direct to non-.gov domains.

Risk Factors
2
  • No contact email address appears anywhere on the page.
  • Visual capture failed with a server error, preventing direct screenshot review.
Positive Signals
5
  • Domain registered 28.8 years ago through the official .gov registrar.
  • Zero detections across 92 antivirus engines and clean browser blocklist status.
  • Hosting IP shows zero abuse reports and a perfect reputation score.
  • Business registration confirms active U.S. federal government agency status.
  • Page content matches official FAA navigation and government .gov indicators.
AI Recommendation
Use the official faa.gov address directly. Never click links in unsolicited emails claiming to be from the FAA.
Next-gen fraud intelligence
Evidence-backedCross-checked

Web Research Findings

Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for faa.gov, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Business registration
Active · United States
Site traces back to an actively registered business.
Clone check
Not a clone
No well-known site's layout or branding detected here.
Typosquat check
No look-alike match
The domain doesn't resemble any well-known brand's spelling.
Web mentions
4 scam reports
Key findings
7 headline facts from open-web research
  • Domain faa.gov is the official website of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, an agency of the Department of Transportation.
  • Registered 1997-10-02; age 28.8 years as of current date.
  • Multiple warnings from FAA and media about third-party scam sites impersonating FAA for drone registrations, charging unauthorized fees.
  • Reddit users report suspicious emails claiming to be from FAA (e.g., surveys via SurveyMonkey) and fake domains like faa-gov.us.
  • Official subdomains include faadronezone-access.faa.gov for legitimate drone registration services.
  • FAA maintains a hotline and complaint processes for reporting fraud, waste, abuse, or misconduct.
  • No scam reports, complaints, or negative reviews found directly targeting the legitimate faa.gov domain itself.
Scam reports (4)
Direct quotes from public scam databases, forums, and news.
  • Reddit r/dronesopen

    "I receieved an email from supposedly the FAA asking for me to complete a survey via SurveyMonkey. Is this a scam?"

  • Reddit r/Scamsopen

    "FAA was FAA-gov.us. I got both of those domains shut down quick by the registrars."

  • The Driveopen

    "FAA Warns of Scammers Charging for Fake Drone Registrations... Malicious websites are posing as FAA approved sites and charging fees of up to $150."

  • AirSightopen

    "The FAA wants drone owners to beware of drone registrations scams. Malicious websites are posing as FAA approved sites and charging fees of up to $150."

Business registration
Status: active · United States

Official U.S. federal government agency under Department of Transportation; .gov domain

Research summary
Narrative write-up from our AI analyst, grounded on the facts above

Our research found four mentions of FAA-related scams on Reddit and in aviation media. These reports describe fake domains such as faa-gov.us and unauthorized drone registration sites charging fees. None of the reports involve the real faa.gov. The evidence confirms the FAA actively warns the public about impersonation attempts while maintaining official services on verified subdomains.

Domain Timeline

  1. Oct 1, 1997
    Domain registered

    First appeared in WHOIS records — 29 years old today.

  2. Jul 9, 2026
    Latest security review — Reviewed as safe

    This scan re-ran every check and found no active threat signals.

faa.gov has operated for years with no threat signals in this review — a long, stable track record, though it is never a guarantee on its own.

Threat Detection

Antivirus Engines

Clean pass · verified
Clean across 92 engines

We cross-check every URL against our antivirus network of 92 malware and blacklist engines. None of them flagged this URL in the last scan.

0Malicious0Suspicious59Harmless92Engines
Clean
Kaspersky
Clean
Bitdefender
Clean
Microsoft
Not in pass
ESET-NOD32
Not in pass
Avira
Not in pass
Sophos
Clean
Fortinet
Clean
Google Safebrowsing
Clean
Emsisoft
Clean

No engine detections. The URL passed every antivirus and blacklist engine we queried in this scan. Stay vigilant — AV coverage is only one signal among many.

Security Scans

Blacklist Check
Not flagged on major threat lists

Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.

Reputation Sources

How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.

Google Safe Browsing
Not listedCheck ↗
VirusTotal
Not listedCheck ↗
AbuseIPDB
Not listedCheck ↗

Technical Details

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.

What We Found
No clear contact details on the page
Emails on site's domainNone
Phone numbers2608150945
Postal addressPresent
Linked social profiles5
Signal Summary
Contact details look reasonable
  • No contact email found anywhere on the page.
  • Phone number listed (2608150945).
  • Postal address visible on the page.
  • Links to 5 social profiles.

Domain & Encryption

Domain History
Age29 years old
Registrarget.gov
RegisteredOct 1, 1997
ExpiresSep 3, 2026
Owner privacyHidden
Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.2
IssuerDigiCert Inc · DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1
ExpiresNov 25, 2026 (138d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingFederal Aviation Administration
Server locationUS
Web servernginx
Platform / CMSDrupal
PopularityTop 100k worldwide

Redirect Chain

Hops
2
Cross-domain
No
Lookalike
No
Punycode
No
  • 1302http://faa.gov/
  • 2302https://faa.gov/
  • 3403http://www.faa.gov/

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file0
ISPFederal Aviation Administration
Usage typeGovernment

Referenced Domains

Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.

What to do

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 faa.gov and not a lookalike like f-aa.gov.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.

  • Discuss this site on the forum

    If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.

    Open

Final Verdict

0
Trust / 100
Final Verdict·faa.gov
SAFE

faa.gov is the official website of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The domain is 28.8 years old, hosted on clean infrastructure, and carries no malicious detections. Users should verify they are on the real .gov address before entering any information.

Use the official faa.gov address directly. Never click links in unsolicited emails claiming to be from the FAA.

AV engines
92
Domain age
29 yrs
Flagged
0
Scan another URL
Security review completemalwaretips.com/url-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 faa.gov. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
  • faa.gov passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 97/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
  • Yes. faa.gov presents a valid TLSv1.2 certificate issued by DigiCert Inc · DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1, expiring in 138 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
  • faa.gov is 28.8 years old, registered on 10/1/1997 through get.gov. 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 faa.gov as clean.
  • No. faa.gov is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
  • faa.gov resolves to an IP operated by Federal Aviation Administration in US (usage type: Government). 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. faa.gov 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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This report is generated automatically by combining threat intelligence, domain signals, and an AI security analyst. It is informational, not legal advice. Always use your own judgement before sharing personal information or money online.