Is runimdb.com legit or a scam?
A piracy-linked clone site that imitates IMDb to provide illegal movie streams, currently subject to high-court legal actions for copyright infringement.
These checks passed — but they don't clear the site. A clean antivirus result, valid SSL, and a calm server only mean it isn't hosting malware; they say nothing about whether the business is real. This verdict is based on the site's conduct and content, not a malware detection.
Analysis Summary
Brand impersonation — not the real site
Domain is only 51 days old. This page is styled as a brand but is not the brand's real site. Go to the official site directly, and treat any download, login, or payment request here as unsafe.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.
MT Intelligence
The site is part of a known piracy network that uses the 'PlayIMDb' branding to trick users into thinking it is an official extension of the legitimate IMDb service. Our analysis confirms it clones the URL structure and visual identity of the real IMDb to redirect users to unauthorized streaming players. Legal records show that major film studios have already obtained court injunctions against this specific network for copyright theft. Furthermore, security researchers have flagged these domains for exposing users to potential data theft and malicious advertising. The domain is only 51 days old and lacks any legitimate business registration or contact information.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for runimdb.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- runimdb.com is part of the PlayIMDb network of unofficial streaming sites that allow users to watch movies/TV by modifying IMDb URLs (e.g. replacing imdb.com with runimdb.com).
- playimdb.domains explicitly lists runimdb.com as one of its 'official' alternative domains and warns users to only use its curated list to avoid copycats.
- In May 2026, Universal City Studios obtained a Delhi High Court ex-parte interim injunction against playimdb.com, streamimdb.ru and related sites for unauthorized streaming of copyrighted films including Fast X and F9.
- The network is widely described in media and social posts as a piracy operation that redirects to pirate video players (e.g. via streamimdb.ru or vidapi.ru).
- Domain is only 51 days old; no legitimate business registration or operator details found.
- Security scanners give mixed/neutral scores for playimdb.com (65-92/100) with no active malware flags at time of scans, but multiple cybersecurity warnings label the sites as risky for malware, adware, or data theft.
- Reddit and social media users promote it for free streaming but others explicitly call it unsafe, a scam, or advise against use due to piracy and security risks.
- TorrentFreakopen
"Universal Wins Indian Court Order Against IMDb-Themed Pirate Streaming Site... Playimdb points visitors to pirated movies that are streamed through streamimdb.ru"
- LiveLawopen
"Delhi HC Grants Temporary Relief To Universal City Studios Against PlayIMDb, StreamIMDb Pirate Sites... playimdb.com and streamimdb.ru, which were accused of facilitating unauthorized streaming of copyrighted films"
- Instagram (cyber_grow_h)open
"Playimdb.com ! Dont use this! ... #cybersecurity #cyberawareness"
- Facebook (AswinUnfiltered)open
"IMDb.com is official PlayIMDB.com is NOT These fake third-party sites can expose your device to malware, scams, and data theft"
The site and its network (playimdb.domains, runimdb.com, streamimdb.com etc.) instruct users to prepend 'run', 'play' or similar to any imdb.com/title/tt... URL to load pirated streams, directly cloning IMDb's URL structure and branding.
Scam Network Intelligence
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 phone number listed on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://runimdb.com/
- 2200https://playimdb.domains/cross-domain
Server Reputation
Scam-Type Likelihood
1 scam-type patterns detected
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- AI analyst tagged this as a brand / clone-site impersonation.
- Clustered with known brand-impersonation infrastructure.
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- AI analyst tagged this as a brand / clone-site impersonation.
- Clustered with known brand-impersonation infrastructure.
Brand impersonation detected
This page is styled as a known brand but is not the brand's real site.
- Do not interact with runimdb.com
Do not enter credentials, deposit money, download files, or install browser extensions from this site.
- Go to the brand's real site directly
Type the brand name into a search engine or open it from your bookmarks — don't use links from emails, SMS, ads, or social posts, which are the delivery vectors for impersonation.
- Never download or sign in here
Even if the page "just" offers a download or a giveaway, impersonation pages frequently deliver malware or set up follow-up phishing. Assume anything accepted from this site is hostile.
- OpenReport the impersonation to the brand
Most major brands have a dedicated abuse or anti-phishing reporting channel — reporting helps them take the site down and protects other users.
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 flags runimdb.com as dangerous. Multiple threat indicators were detected — treat the site as a scam until proven otherwise.
- No — runimdb.com scored 22/100 on our trust scale. We detected active threat indicators, so we recommend avoiding the site entirely.
- Yes. runimdb.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · E8, expiring in 51 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- runimdb.com is 1 month old, registered on 4/28/2026 through Tucows Domains Inc.. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- 1 out of 92 antivirus engines in our malware network flagged runimdb.com as malicious or suspicious. Even one detection is a meaningful signal.
- No. runimdb.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
- runimdb.com resolves to an IP operated by Cloudflare, Inc. in US (usage type: Content Delivery Network). 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.
- This is a permanent record of the scan run on June 19, 2026. The verdict and evidence above reflect that scan and do not change on their own. If circumstances around runimdb.com have changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan, which re-runs every check from scratch and publishes an updated report.
User reviews & comments(0)
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