SAFE

No threats detected

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

Security Review

Is the-sun.com legit or a scam?

This looks safe to use.

Official US edition of the 1964-founded British tabloid The Sun, registered since 1997 with clean security scans.

Cross-checked against 9 independent sources — none raised a concern
the-sun.comScanned 2h ago
0/100
Trust score
0 = danger · 100 = safe
SAFE
Score breakdown
Heuristics 87·MT 85
Screenshot of the-sun.comSee the live page ↓
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 May 14, 1997

Website Preview

Screenshot of the-sun.com
LIVE RENDER
the-sun.com

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.

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.

0
/ 100
No visual red flags

No scam visual patterns detected

The screenshot displays a professionally rendered news website with standard editorial and advertising content, showing no visual indicators of a scam or malicious intent.

Visual risk0/100

What our vision model saw

5 signals

Professional news outlet layout with standard navigation bar

Legitimate advertising banner for realtor.com integrated into the page

Functional UI elements including search and sign-in buttons

High-quality imagery and consistent typography

No visible urgency tactics or fake trust badges

Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence
Analysis
Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust85/100
MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection
0%
Confidence
The domain the-sun.com has been registered for 29.2 years under News Corp ownership and resolves to a legitimate news site. Our antivirus network returned zero detections across 92 engines and the hosting IP carries no abuse reports. The page itself displays standard editorial content with no login forms, urgency tactics, or scam-family triggers. Two scam reports reference third-party advertisers that appeared on the site rather than the newspaper itself. The combination of extreme domain age, clean infrastructure signals, and business registration under News Group Newspapers supports a safe classification.
Risk Factors
2
  • Two scam reports on Trustpilot cite third-party advertisers that appeared on the site and led to unauthorized bank charges.
  • 660 complaints were recorded across review platforms, primarily related to advertising practices rather than the publication.
Positive Signals
5
  • Domain registered 29.2 years ago in 1997 and owned by News Corp subsidiary News Group Newspapers.
  • Zero detections across 92 antivirus engines and clean browser blocklist status.
  • Hosting IP carries zero abuse reports and a 0/100 abuse score.
  • Business registration confirmed as active in the United Kingdom under News UK.
  • Screenshot shows professional news layout with legitimate advertising and no scam indicators.
The full analysis

Page Content

The page title reads "Verifying Device" with minimal body text that simply states verification failed and offers a retry button. No contact details, login forms, or promotional offers appear on the page. External scripts load from p.toadmash.net, which is consistent with ad-network activity rather than malicious payloads.

Infrastructure

The site is hosted on IP 192.0.66.136 with an abuse score of 0/100 and zero abuse reports. SSL is valid and issued by Let's Encrypt with 59 days remaining. Two redirects occur but stay within the same domain family. No malware or phishing flags were raised by our sandbox or antivirus network.

Domain History

The domain was registered on 14 May 1997 through MarkMonitor Inc. and has remained under the same ownership for 29.2 years. Privacy protection is disabled, confirming public registration by News Group Newspapers, a division of News UK under News Corp.

Web Reputation

Independent sources confirm the site is the official US-facing digital presence of The Sun newspaper. an independent review aggregator reviews mention third-party ads that led to unauthorized charges, while the publication itself has issued warnings about fraudulent subscription offers using its name. Media Bias/Fact Check rates the outlet as right-biased with mixed factual reporting due to sensationalism.

What this means for you

The site is a legitimate news outlet. Exercise normal caution with any third-party advertisements that appear, as some users have reported issues with external advertisers rather than the newspaper itself.

AI Recommendation
The site is a legitimate news outlet. Use normal caution with any third-party ads that appear on the page.
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 the-sun.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Business registration
Active · United Kingdom
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
2 scam reports · 660 complaints · 1 positive
Key findings
5 headline facts from open-web research
  • The domain the-sun.com is the official website for the US edition of The Sun, a major British tabloid newspaper founded in 1964.
  • Media watchdog groups like Media Bias/Fact Check rate the publication as 'Right Biased' with 'Mixed' factual reporting due to sensationalism and failed fact checks.
  • Users on Trustpilot have reported third-party advertising scams (e.g., 'MYIQ' test) appearing on the site that led to unauthorized bank charges.
  • The domain has been registered since 1997 and is owned by News Corp, a global mass media company.
  • The site is frequently confused with 'The Sun Magazine' (thesunmagazine.org), which has issued warnings about fraudulent subscription renewal scams using its name.
Scam reports (2)
Direct quotes from public scam databases, forums, and news.
  • Trustpilotopen

    "Allow a partner called MYIQ to advertise on their website for an IQ test costing .50P, but the scammers steal 60 pounds from your bank account! Thousands of people have been scammed!!"

  • The Sun Magazineopen

    "A few months ago, some subscribers received fraudulent renewal offers promoting The Sun at an inflated price. This mail did not come from us."

Positive reviews (1)
Quotes indicating the site is legitimate.
  • Quoraopen

    "Football fans of my acquaintance say it's very reliable about football, and gets the big stories about transfers and manager sackings before anyone else."

Business registration
Status: active · United Kingdom

Published by News Group Newspapers division of News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.

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

an independent review aggregator contains two reports of third-party advertisers (including an IQ test service) that appeared on the site and resulted in unauthorized bank charges. The Sun Magazine has published warnings about fraudulent subscription renewal offers sent in its name. A Quora user described the site as reliable for football transfer news. Business records confirm ownership by News Group Newspapers under News Corp.

Domain Timeline

  1. May 14, 1997
    Domain registered

    First appeared in WHOIS records — 29 years old today.

  2. Jul 14, 2026
    Latest security review — Reviewed as safe

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

the-sun.com 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 queried
ESET-NOD32
Not queried
Avira
Not queried
Sophos
Clean
Fortinet
Clean
Google Safebrowsing
Not queried
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

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.

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 numbersNone
Postal addressNot listed
Linked social profiles0
Signal Summary
Several contact red flags
  • No contact email found anywhere on the page.
  • No phone number listed on the page.
  • No postal address visible on the page.

Domain & Encryption

Domain History
Age29 years old
RegistrarMarkMonitor Inc.
RegisteredMay 14, 1997
ExpiresMay 15, 2028
Owner privacyVisible
Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.3
IssuerLet's Encrypt · YE2
ExpiresSep 11, 2026 (59d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingAutomattic, Inc
Server locationUS
Web serverCloudFront

Redirect Chain

Hops
2
Cross-domain
No
Lookalike
No
Punycode
No
  • 1301http://the-sun.com/
  • 2302https://the-sun.com/
  • 3200https://www.the-sun.com/

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file0
ISPAutomattic, Inc
Usage typeContent Delivery Network

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 the-sun.com and not a lookalike like t-he-sun.com.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·the-sun.com
SAFE

The site is the official US edition of the long-established British tabloid The Sun. The domain has been registered since 1997 and shows no malicious detections. Third-party ads on the site have drawn complaints about unauthorized charges.

The site is a legitimate news outlet. Use normal caution with any third-party ads that appear on the page.

AV engines
92
Domain age
29 yrs
Flagged
0
Scan another URL
Security review completemalwaretips.com/url-scan

Safety FAQ

Common questions, 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 the-sun.com, so it appears legitimate. All 92 antivirus engines we queried report it clean, and the domain is 29.2 years old, registered on May 14, 1997 — established domains are far less likely to be scams. Even so, always double-check the exact address in your browser, because phishing emails routinely spoof real, trusted domains like this one.
  • the-sun.com passed our automated checks with a trust score of 86/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged it at the time of the last scan, and its signals line up with an established, legitimate site. Treat any unexpected login prompt or payment request on it with the same caution you would anywhere.
  • Yes — and this is worth understanding. Even trustworthy domains get spoofed in phishing emails (a fake message that only looks like it's from the-sun.com), and legitimate sites are occasionally compromised on specific pages. A clean verdict means the site itself checks out today; it does not mean every email or link claiming to be from the-sun.com is genuine. Always reach the site by typing the address yourself rather than clicking links in unexpected messages.
  • No — all 92 antivirus and blocklist engines in our malware network currently report the-sun.com as clean. That's a good sign, though antivirus coverage is only one of the many signals we weigh, and brand-new scam sites can appear clean before vendors catch up.
  • No — the-sun.com is not currently on the major browser blocklist feeds that Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge rely on. Note that blocklists can lag behind brand-new scam domains, so "not listed" is reassuring but not a guarantee on its own.
  • the-sun.com is 29.2 years old, registered on May 14, 1997 through MarkMonitor Inc.. A multi-year registration history is one of the stronger signals against a scam, though it's never a guarantee on its own — established domains can still be misused.
  • Yes — the-sun.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · YE2, valid for another 59 days. Important caveat: SSL only encrypts the connection between you and the site — it does not verify who runs it. Almost all scam sites now have valid SSL too, so a padlock alone never means "safe".
  • the-sun.com resolves to an IP operated by Automattic, Inc in US (Content Delivery Network). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad — but hosting that doesn't match a brand's claimed country, or that sits on networks known for abuse, is one of the many signals we weigh alongside the verdict above.
  • This report is a record of the scan run on July 14, 2026, and the verdict reflects that point in time. Scam sites change fast — they can go live, get flagged, or vanish within days — so if you believe something about the-sun.com has changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan that re-checks every signal from scratch and republishes an updated verdict.
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Community review

User reviews & comments(0)

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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.