Is studio718hair.com legit or a scam?
Studio 718 is a legitimate, long-established hair salon in LaSalle, Illinois, with a 40-year history and excellent reputation across multiple review platforms.
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
Malware distribution risk
Flagged on major browser safety blocklists as unwanted software. The page may deliver malicious files or exploit the browser. Don't download anything or run any installer prompted by this page.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.
MT Intelligence
The domain has been registered for nearly 20 years, which is a strong indicator of stability. Our research confirms this is a physical business operating out of a historical building in downtown LaSalle since 1980. We found over 400 positive reviews across independent platforms like Birdeye, Yelp, and Facebook, with an average rating of 4.9 stars. The site is also listed on official local government business directories. While a few antivirus engines flagged the site, these appear to be false positives given the overwhelming evidence of legitimate, decades-long operation.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for studio718hair.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- Domain studio718hair.com belongs to a physical hair salon operating since 1980 at 718 First Street, downtown LaSalle, IL (historical Queen Anne building); Redken 5th Avenue Elite salon offering full hair, nail, skin, and makeup services.
- Owner Lynn Cawley has been a stylist since 1976; salon rebranded in 2015; also associated with co-owner Tom Ptak (local alderman and funeral home partner).
- Strong online presence with active Facebook (2.8k likes, 100% recommend from 69 reviews), Instagram (@stu718), and listed on city of LaSalle business directory.
- Review aggregators show high ratings: 4.9/5 from 416 reviews on Birdeye (mix of positive like "sweet and attentive" and isolated negative like "Worst cut I ever had"); positive mentions on Yelp and The Knot for weddings/bridal.
- No scam reports, fraud complaints, or negative Reddit discussions found across multiple searches for scam/fraud/complaint terms.
- Page claims of being "voted the number one hair salon" could not be independently verified in local searches (other salons claim similar local votes); however, this does not appear to be a scam site.
- Business has operated for over 45 years with long-term staff (some 30+ years), listed in local directories, maps, and review platforms with hundreds of customer reviews.
- Birdeyeopen
"4.9 rating, 416 reviews; "She was so sweet and attentive! Will definitely go back" (Sierra Sheedy, Google); "Very friendly experience at the salon, and a lot of flexibility for my bride trial for any changes I wanted to try!" (Kristen Axon,"
- Yelpopen
"The nail tech, Latisha, is friendly and did a wonderful job on my acrylic fill. She offers all the options for a mani/pedi. The business is clean and has great..."
- The Knotopen
"We all LOVED getting pampered and pretty at Studio 718. I only knew vaguely what I wanted for my bridal updo, and my stylist created exactly the look I wanted"
- Facebookopen
"100% recommend (69 Reviews)"
Long-established local business (opened 1980) at 718 First St, LaSalle, IL; listed on official city business directory; owner Lynn Cawley (since 1976); also co-owned by Tom Ptak per LinkedIn; listed on local government site lasalle-il.gov
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Detected threat categories: UNWANTED_SOFTWARE.
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.
- Phone number listed (815.224.3491).
- Postal address visible on the page.
- Links to 4 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://studio718hair.com/
- 2200https://studio718hair.com/
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.
- Google Safe Browsing flagged this as malware / unwanted software.
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.
- Google Safe Browsing flagged this as malware / unwanted software.
Malware distribution detected
Signals suggest this page may deliver malicious files or exploit the browser.
- Do not interact with studio718hair.com
Do not enter credentials, deposit money, download files, or install browser extensions from this site.
- If you downloaded or ran a file from here
Disconnect the device from the internet, run a full scan with a reputable antivirus (Malwarebytes, ESET, Bitdefender), and consider a second-opinion scanner. Change passwords on any account you used from the device afterwards — ideally from a different device.
- OpenGet free cleanup help
MalwareTips has a dedicated malware-removal team who walk you through cleanup one-on-one.
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 studio718hair.com as dangerous. Multiple threat indicators were detected — treat the site as a scam until proven otherwise.
- No — studio718hair.com scored 1/100 on our trust scale. We detected active threat indicators, so we recommend avoiding the site entirely.
- Yes. studio718hair.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by GoDaddy.com, Inc. · Go Daddy Secure Certificate Authority - G2, expiring in 44 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- studio718hair.com is 19.4 years old, registered on 1/25/2007 through GoDaddy.com, LLC. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- 7 out of 92 antivirus engines in our malware network flagged studio718hair.com as malicious or suspicious (5 outright malicious). Even one detection is a meaningful signal.
- Yes. The major browser blocklist feeds flagged studio718hair.com with the following threat categories: UNWANTED_SOFTWARE. This protects billions of browser users from visiting the site.
- studio718hair.com resolves to an IP operated by GoDaddy.com, LLC 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 26, 2026. The verdict and evidence above reflect that scan and do not change on their own. If circumstances around studio718hair.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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