Introduction
The scam and fraud alert, a feature of Scam, phishing, and malware protection, gives you real-time warnings about deceptive websites. These alerts identify potential scam and phishing websites, helping you to avoid them before any harm is done.
How does the scam and fraud alert work?
- Phishing and scam protection – Automatically blocks access to phishing, scam, and fraud websites that are designed to steal your personal details or money.
- Drive-by Download prevention – Stops you from landing on malicious sites that attempt to automatically download and install malware onto your computer or device.
- Protection from new threats – Uses advanced threat intelligence gathered by cybersecurity experts to identify, understand, and block newly emerging online threats.
- Independent security – Works to protect your browsing even when you are not connected to a VPN server. Simply enable it once for continuous protection.
- Integrated virus scanning – Includes a built-in scanner that checks your downloaded files for viruses and malware, immediately deleting any malicious files it finds.
Requirements
Make sure that you have the NordVPN Plus or Ultimate subscription active and that the NordVPN application is installed on your macOS or Windows device.
Here's what to do
- Open the NordVPN app.
- Click the shield icon on the left side of the NordVPN application.
- Click "Advanced browsing protection."
- Enable the "Scam and fraud alert" by clicking the toggle:
Scam and fraud alert statuses
When the scam and fraud alert detects a deceptive website, the threat entry in your Protection history is tagged with a status that reflects how the alert is currently handling that domain.
- DETECTED – The website was identified as a potential scam or phishing site, but alerts for this specific domain are currently turned off. You will not see an in-browser warning the next time you visit it.
- BLOCKED – The website was identified as a potential scam or phishing site and an alert was shown, preventing you from continuing to the site. This is the default behavior for newly detected scam or phishing domains.
- ALERTS OFF (available in a future release) – Indicates that you have disabled scam and fraud alerts for this specific domain. The site is still recognized as suspicious, but no alert will be triggered.
Turning alerts on or off for a specific website
You can control whether the scam and fraud alert acts on a particular domain directly from your Protection history.
- Open the NordVPN app.
- Click the shield icon on the left, then open Protection history.
- Select the Malicious websites tab and locate the scam or fraud alert entry you want to manage.
- Click the entry (or the ellipsis icon) and choose Manage threat. A modal showing the domain and its current status will open.
- In the modal, use the action button:
- Turn off alerts – Disables scam and fraud alerts for this domain. The threat status badge changes to DETECTED, and you will no longer be warned when visiting it.
- Turn on alerts – Re-enables scam and fraud alerts for this domain. The threat status badge changes to BLOCKED, and the alert will trigger again on future visits.
These per-domain controls let you fine-tune the scam and fraud alert behavior for sites you trust, without disabling Scam and phishing protection across your entire browsing experience.
Additional tips
- Always double-check the URL address before clicking a link.
- Be wary of websites with poor spelling, grammar, or unprofessional design.
