Verdict
dekalbfire.com shows high-risk / scam indicators.
This assessment found strong scam indicators. Do not pay, sign in, or share personal details with this site.
| What this site appears to be | DeKalb County Fire Department site with navigation to volunteer info, training library, forms/applications, contact details and a support/donation page. Includes physical address and statements of mission. |
|---|
Evidence status and limitations
Evidence completeness: UNKNOWN
- The real-world operator identity was not independently verified.
- Module-level completeness metadata is unavailable for this legacy report.
At a glance
The checks that decide most of this verdict.
| Malware engines | 5 flagged itVirusTotal | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Google Safe Browsing | Not listedGoogle | Clear |
| Abuse reports on the host | 0 reportsAbuseIPDB; shared hosting inflates this count | Noted |
| Domain age | 26 years oldRegistered history | Clear |
| Web archive | Archived since 2001203 snapshots | Clear |
| Certificate | Encrypted connectionIssued by YR1 | Noted |
The page as captured
Key findings
- Automated classification: Sensitive Interaction Risk.
- Domain age: more than 10 years (registration continuity).
- Public web-archive history exists since 2001.
- At least one reputation service TrustSniffer consulted had flagged this domain at assessment time.
Full analysis
Security Alert
Fortinet flagged this site in external intelligence checks, indicating elevated compromise/scam exposure that requires immediate caution.
The website presents itself as the DeKalb County Fire Department in Tennessee, offering public emergency-services information, volunteer recruitment, training resources, forms, station information, contact links, and community support or donation options. Its stated purpose is public-service communication and support for local fire and emergency-service activities rather than commercial trading.
Scam/Impersonation Risk
Confirmed external reputation contradictions make this site unsuitable for sensitive interaction despite its official-looking public-service presentation. External checks identified malicious detections and a confirmed blacklist condition, creating a material risk that the domain or its infrastructure may be associated with harmful activity. The homepage itself contains no login form, hidden form, wallet function, or obvious brand-impersonation indicators, and the site's long registration history and sustained archive presence provide provenance context; however, those positive signals do not override the external threat detections. No separate identity inconsistency or direct brand-impersonation finding was observed.
- External reputation telemetry recorded 5 malicious detections, with 0 suspicious detections, from 10 effective evaluations; a Tier-1 security vendor was among the detecting parties.
- The domain was registered in 2001 and is approximately 25.63 years old; the registrar is Bluehost Inc.
- The domain has 203 archive snapshots spanning 2001–2025, with 25 years tracked and a maximum recorded gap of 1 year.
- The homepage contains no login form, sensitive form, hidden form, wallet connection, or suspicious browser behavior across 2 successful behavioral runs.
Regulatory Verification Notes
The homepage identifies the organization as the DeKalb County Fire Department, Tennessee, and publishes a mission statement, volunteer information, training material, forms, contact links, and a support route. The supplied content does not independently verify that the domain is operated by the named county department, so the apparent public-service identity should not be treated as proven. No licensing or registration number is presented in the supplied site content; for this type of public-service presentation, that is a disclosure and verification point rather than standalone evidence of fraud. The available third-party broker context contained no matching broker record, but that result has no legal or regulatory significance.
- The homepage title and visible text identify “DeKalb County Fire Department – DeKalb County TN” and state a mission to serve the community.
- The homepage lists the street address as 782 King Ridge Road, Dowelltown, TN 37059.
- The site is hosted on AS31898, identified as ORACLE-BMC-31898 – Oracle Corporation, US.
- The site's TLS certificate is DV-validated, issued by YR1, and valid through 2026-10-19T06:44:01+00:00.
What to Verify Next
An independent county-controlled directory or an offline county contact route should confirm that the named department operates or endorses this domain before any sensitive interaction. Any donation or support transaction should be checked for its beneficiary, payment destination, and confirmation process through independently sourced county contact information rather than relying solely on links presented by the site. Credentials, payment details, or other sensitive information should not be submitted unless that independent confirmation is successful.
- The homepage provides a “Contact / Links” route that can be compared against independently sourced county communications.
- The site navigation includes a “Support DeKalb Fire Inc.” route, making beneficiary and payment-destination confirmation necessary before financial activity.
- The supplied page analysis found no login or sensitive form, so any later request for such information would represent a change in the observed interaction profile.
Summary Verdict
The overall posture is critical trust risk, with sensitive interaction risk elevated by confirmed external reputation contradictions. The site's public-service appearance and apparent operational continuity are insufficient to establish that it is safe for account access, credential submission, or financial activity. The real-world operator identity remains unverified.
Infrastructure Integrity
The site resolves to a single IP address, with no CDN, WAF, or origin candidates identified in the supplied infrastructure analysis. This provides limited protective context and cannot offset the external reputation findings.
Closing Assessment
Until independent confirmation from the relevant county authority is obtained, interaction should remain limited to passive viewing, with no credentials or payment information submitted.
Written analysis generated 2026-08-20 by the TrustSniffer Analysis Engine from the evidence in this report.
What the analysis found
2 findings contributed to this verdict, raised by registration and ownership, analysis engine, external reputation.
01 Governance Risk
- The public registration record for this domain is incomplete.Registration and ownership
rule:KF_WHOIS_INCOMPLETE
02 Sensitive Interaction Risk
- The analysis matched a pattern TrustSniffer treats as a direct threat to a visitor.Analysis engine
signal:direct_threat - An external threat feed lists this domain: either Google Safe Browsing marked it malicious, or a significant number of malware engines flagged it.External reputation
rule:EXT_BLACKLIST_CRITICAL
Identity verification
| Status | UNVERIFIED |
|---|---|
| Identity score | 30/100 |
| Identity verification confidence | 50% |
- No on-site identity signals detected
Identity verification measures whether the site can be independently connected to a real-world brand or person. It is separate from the classification confidence.
What TrustSniffer observed
First-party facts recorded during the assessment of dekalbfire.com.
- The request stayed on dekalbfire.com. It was not redirected to another domain. Clear
- Registration is published under Bluehost Inc.. Clear
- DNS for this domain is served by bluehost.com, across 2 name servers. Noted
- The registration is paid up to 2027-01-08. Noted
- The earliest public archive of this site is from 2001-03-02. Clear
- It is hosted on ORACLE-BMC-31898, from a server in US. Noted
Domain intelligence
| Registrar | Bluehost Inc. |
|---|---|
| Hosting | ORACLE-BMC-31898 - Oracle Corporation, US |
| Country | US |
| Server IP | 162.241.217.105 |
| Name servers | NS1.BLUEHOST.COM, NS2.BLUEHOST.COM |
| SSL issuer | YR1 |
| SSL expiry | 2026-10-19 |
| Domain age | 25.63 years (continuous registration) |
| Domain expiry | 2027-01-08 |
| Archive first seen | 2001-03-02 |
| Archive snapshots | 203 |
| Reputation | VirusTotal: 5 flagged | AbuseIPDB: 0 reports | Google Safe Browsing: 0 matches |
About this assessment
A trust score summarises the evidence TrustSniffer could collect about dekalbfire.com at assessment time. It is a starting point for your own judgement, not a guarantee: a high score means the signals were consistent with a legitimately operated site, a low or critical score means several risk patterns were present.
TrustSniffer assesses a website from the evidence it can collect at a point in time: domain registration and age, hosting and certificate, the content the site served, and third-party reputation feeds. A score is a summary of that evidence, not a guarantee and not a legal finding. There is no human rating and no user review in it. A site can change after it is assessed.