Is thestar.com a scam?

Our automated security review found no threat indicators on thestar.com. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.

Is thestar.com safe to use?

thestar.com 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.

Does thestar.com have a valid SSL certificate?

Yes. thestar.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Google Trust Services · WR1, expiring in 41 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.

How old is the thestar.com domain?

thestar.com is 30.7 years old, registered on 11/7/1995 through Tucows Domains Inc.. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.

Has thestar.com been flagged by antivirus engines?

No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report thestar.com as clean.

Is thestar.com on any phishing or malware blacklists?

No. thestar.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.

Where is thestar.com hosted?

thestar.com resolves to an IP operated by Lee Enterprises, Incorporated in US (usage type: Fixed Line ISP). 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.

Is thestar.com a well-known website?

Yes. thestar.com 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.

Security Review

Is thestar.com legit or a scam?

Our verdict:Safe· 97/100

SafeSuspiciousDangerous

The official domain for the Toronto Star, a highly established Canadian news organization with a 30-year web history and zero malware detections.

Why we trust it

Domain age of over 30 years (registered in 1996).Zero detections across 92 antivirus engines in our network.Verified business registration for Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. in Canada.

thestar.comScanned 44m ago

Post Facebook

Trust score

SAFE

Score breakdown

Heuristics 100·MT 95

See the live page ↓

Positive signals (5)

Antivirus clear Not on major blacklists Domain is 31 years old Encrypted connection Clean server reputation

View density

Analysis Summary

Threat Intelligence

0/92

All engines report clean

Domain Age

31 years old

Registered Nov 7, 1995

MT Intelligence

Safe

Low likelihood · 100% confidence

SAFE

No threats detected

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

Website Preview

LIVE RENDER

thestar.com

1Professional news layout with consistent branding for Toronto Star

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

Visual Screenshot 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.

/ 100

Low visual risk

Visual red flags detected in the screenshot

The screenshot displays a professionally designed, fully-rendered news website with standard industry features like a newsletter pop-up and subscription options, showing no visual indicators of a scam.

Visual risk5/100

What our vision model saw

6 signals

Professional news layout with consistent branding for Toronto Star

Standard newsletter sign-up modal overlaying content

Functional navigation bar with multiple news categories

Legitimate-looking subscription offer and sign-in button

Presence of legal links including terms of service and privacy policy

High-quality imagery and professional typography consistent with a major media outlet

MT Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence

MT Security Analyst

Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust95/100

MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection

Confidence

The domain has been registered for over 11,000 days, which is a massive indicator of legitimacy. Our antivirus network shows a perfect clean sweep with zero detections across 92 different engines. The site is hosted on a reputable IP address and uses high-grade encryption for its login and subscription forms. While some users report frustration with billing or cancellation processes on independent review sites, these are typical customer service complaints for a large media corporation rather than signs of a scam. The site's infrastructure and global traffic ranking confirm it is a top-tier, authentic news destination.

Full dossier

Analysis complete

Page Content

The website features a professional, high-density news layout consistent with a major daily newspaper. It includes sections for local, national, and international news, along with specialized columns and multimedia content.

Infrastructure

The site is hosted on a stable IP with a very low abuse score and utilizes valid SSL certificates issued by Google Trust Services. It integrates with standard advertising and analytics frameworks like Amazon and DoubleClick, which is typical for large-scale commercial media.

Domain History

Registered in 1996, the domain is nearly 30 years old. This longevity is a primary trust signal, as fraudulent sites are almost always short-lived.

Web Reputation

The site maintains a high global traffic rank and is recognized as the official digital home of Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. There are no records of phishing or malware distribution associated with this domain.

Risk Factors

Some users on Reddit and an independent review aggregator report difficulties with the subscription cancellation process.
Occasional third-party scams have been known to impersonate this brand, though the domain itself is secure.

Positive Signals

Domain age of over 30 years (registered in 1996).
Zero detections across 92 antivirus engines in our network.
Verified business registration for Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. in Canada.
High global traffic ranking within the top 100,000 sites.
Professional visual design with clear legal and privacy disclosures.

AI Recommendation

This site is safe to use for reading news and managing a legitimate subscription. If you sign up for a paid plan, keep a record of your account details for customer support.

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 thestar.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Domain age

30 yrs

Registered Nov 1995

Business registration

Active · Canada

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 · 3 complaints · 5 positive

Key findings

7 headline facts from open-web research

thestar.com is the official website of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper founded in 1892 and owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.
Company address listed as 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8; site states it is 100% Canadian owned.
Publishes original news content on breaking news, investigations, politics, business, and frequently covers fraud/scam awareness topics.
Customer complaints primarily center on digital/print subscriptions, billing issues, cancellation difficulties, website/app performance, and perceived political bias.
Has a Trustpilot page with mixed/negative subscriber feedback; listed on BBB with complaints but not accredited.
No evidence of thestar.com itself being a scam, phishing site, or involved in fraud; occasional mentions of fake articles impersonating the Star for crypto scams.
Domain age of ~30+ years (launched 1996) aligns with a legitimate major media outlet.

Scam reports (2)

Direct quotes from public scam databases, forums, and news.

Trustpilotopen
"Honestly I have had the worst experience ever with the Toronto Star . I had a digital subscription which they are supposed to send me emails everyday."
Redditopen
"PSA – Cancelling a Toronto Star subscription is a huge pain in the ass."

Business registration

Status: active · Canada

Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. (wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation), founded 1892, address 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8; explicitly states 100% Canadian owned

Research summary

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

We found that thestar.com is the official website of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper founded in 1892. Business records confirm it is operated by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. and is 100% Canadian owned. While some consumer complaints exist on Reddit and an independent review aggregator regarding subscription billing and cancellation difficulties, these are standard service issues and not indicative of a scam.

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.

0Malicious0Suspicious61Harmless92Engines

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.

Technical checksdomain · encryption · redirects · server reputation

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

Age31 years old

RegistrarTucows Domains Inc.

RegisteredNov 7, 1995

ExpiresNov 5, 2026

Owner privacyVisible

Encryption Certificate

StatusValid

ProtocolTLSv1.3

IssuerGoogle Trust Services · WR1

ExpiresAug 15, 2026 (41d)

Self-signedNo

Hosting & Technology

HostingLee Enterprises, Incorporated

Server locationUS

PopularityTop 100k worldwide

Redirect Chain

Hops

Cross-domain

Lookalike

Punycode

1301http://thestar.com/
2200https://www.thestar.com/

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence

Confidence score3%

Reports on file2

ISPLee Enterprises, Incorporated

Usage typeFixed Line ISP

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 thestar.com and not a lookalike like t-hestar.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

Reputation Sources

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

Google Safe Browsing

Not listedCheck ↗

VirusTotal

Not listedCheck ↗

AbuseIPDB

Not listedCheck ↗

Also verify:Spamhaus ↗DNSBL / SURBL ↗PhishTank ↗

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 found no threat indicators on thestar.com. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
thestar.com 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. thestar.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Google Trust Services · WR1, expiring in 41 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
thestar.com is 30.7 years old, registered on 11/7/1995 through Tucows Domains Inc.. 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 thestar.com as clean.
No. thestar.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
thestar.com resolves to an IP operated by Lee Enterprises, Incorporated in US (usage type: Fixed Line ISP). 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. thestar.com 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.

Final Verdict

Trust / 100

Final Verdict·thestar.com

SAFE

This is the official website for the Toronto Star, a major Canadian newspaper with over a century of history. It is a legitimate media outlet with no evidence of fraudulent activity. You can safely browse the news and manage your subscription here.

This site is safe to use for reading news and managing a legitimate subscription. If you sign up for a paid plan, keep a record of your account details for customer support.

AV engines

MT passes

Net signals

Scan another URL

Security review completemalwaretips.com/url-scan

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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.