---
title: "Is hw.ac.uk Legit? Trust Score 100/100"
source: TrustSniffer
type: Website trust & fraud report
subject: "hw.ac.uk"
verdict: "High Trust"
title: "Is hw.ac.uk Legit? Trust Score 100/100"
trust_score: 100
classification_confidence: 70
canonical_url: https://trustsniffer.com/report/hw.ac.uk
assessed: 2026-08-12
---

# Is hw.ac.uk legit? TrustSniffer's high-trust assessment: 100/100

## Verdict


**Verdict: High Trust, trust score 100/100.** hw.ac.uk appears legitimate.

Our checks found nothing pointing to fraud. Ordinary care still applies when you pay or sign in.

Labels: Not Scam, Low Risk

Assessed 2026-08-12 by automated analysis. Classification confidence 70%.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What this site appears to be | Official Heriot-Watt University site homepage content: campus information, study programmes, news, contact details, and links to social channels. No overt financial investment or credential-harvesting features detected. |

## 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.

| Check | Result | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Malware engines | None flagged it (VirusTotal) | Clear |
| Google Safe Browsing | Not listed (Google) | Clear |
| Abuse reports on the host | 0 reports (AbuseIPDB; shared hosting inflates this count) | Noted |
| Domain age | 23 years old (Registered history) | Clear |
| Web archive | Archived since 2003 (1 snapshot) | Clear |
| Certificate | Encrypted connection (Issued by Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA OV R36) | Noted |

## The page as captured


No screenshot is retained for this report.

## Key findings


- Automated classification: Not Scam.
- Domain age: more than 10 years (registration continuity).
- Public web-archive history exists since 2003.
- No flags from the reputation services TrustSniffer consulted at assessment time.

## Full analysis


### Overview

This is the official-looking Heriot-Watt University homepage, presenting degree programmes, research, campus information, admissions and Clearing services, institutional news, student life, contact details, and links to social channels. Its apparent purpose is to support higher-education recruitment, student services, research communication, and institutional engagement.


### Scam/Impersonation Risk

No contradictions were observed. The homepage has a coherent university-institutional purpose, identifies Heriot-Watt University, provides substantive academic and campus content, and contains no detected phishing, credential-harvesting, investment, cryptocurrency, or other overt abuse features. The available reputation evidence is clean, and the historical record does not indicate suspicious repurposing or semantic drift. The site’s apparent identity is therefore consistent with an established educational institution, although the real-world operator is not independently verified by this assessment.


Evidence:
- The homepage identifies “Heriot-Watt University” and presents foundation, undergraduate, postgraduate, research, and graduate-apprenticeship study pathways.
- The homepage contains campus, research, admissions, contact, student-life, and institutional-news content, with no sensitive login form or untrusted form destination detected.
- External checks recorded 0 malicious results, 0 suspicious results, and no blacklist or phishing indication.
- The domain was registered in 2003 and is approximately 23.47 years old; archival coverage records 1 snapshot spanning 2003–2003, representing 1 year tracked.

### Regulatory Verification Notes

The site presents a clear institutional identity and an education-sector business model based on degree provision, research, campus services, and fundraising or donations. No financial-services licence or regulatory registration claim was identified; for this type of institution, that is a disclosure and verification matter rather than an indication of impersonation. The certificate’s subject organization is Heriot Watt University, which is consistent with the homepage identity, while independent operator verification remains incomplete.


Evidence:
- The homepage title is “Home | Heriot-Watt University,” and the page identifies multiple campuses, including Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai, Malaysia, and online study.
- The homepage links to social channels including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky, supporting continuity of the presented institutional identity.
- The site is served from AS16509, Amazon.com, Inc., US; its TLS certificate is OV, issued by Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA OV R36, and valid to 2026-12-20 23:59:59 UTC.

### What to Verify Next

Before credential or payment interactions, an organization should independently confirm the relevant university contact details, admissions destination, donation recipient, and payment-protection arrangements using contact information obtained through an independent institutional source. Where a transaction concerns tuition, accommodation, donations, or another paid service, the applicable terms, refund conditions, and official recipient should be checked before completion. Any licensing or registration requirement relevant to the specific service should be confirmed with the appropriate authority.


Evidence:
- The homepage provides institutional contact details and campus-location information that can be compared with an independently sourced university contact route.
- The site’s stated functions include admissions, study programmes, research, campus services, and fundraising or donations, creating distinct verification points for any proposed payment.
- No sensitive form, external password form, wallet interaction, or credential-harvesting behavior was detected during the observed interactions.

### Summary Verdict

Available evidence is consistent with an established, apparently legitimate university website and supports a high-trust, low-risk posture. No scam, phishing, impersonation, or identity-conflict indicators were observed, but the operator’s real-world identity should be regarded as likely rather than independently proven.


### Infrastructure Integrity

The site is protected by a CDN/WAF arrangement, with the observed address belonging to an Amazon edge environment and no origin candidate exposed in the analysis. This reduces direct origin exposure and is a mitigating infrastructure signal, but it is not, by itself, proof of institutional legitimacy.


### Closing Assessment

Normal browsing and routine institutional use are proportionate to the observed risk posture; credential or payment activity should proceed after ordinary independent checks of the relevant institutional destination, transaction terms, and payment protections.


_Written analysis generated 2026-08-12 by the TrustSniffer Analysis Engine from the evidence in this report._

## What the analysis found


No rule findings contributed to this verdict.

## Identity verification


| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Status | LIKELY |
| Identity score | 76/100 |
| Identity verification confidence | 76% |

- Identity verified on page
- Trusted social count=2

_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 hw.ac.uk.

- The request stayed on hw.ac.uk. It was not redirected to another domain. (Clear)
- The earliest public archive of this site is from 2003-02-23. (Clear)
- It is hosted on AMAZON-02, from a server in US. (Noted)

## Domain intelligence


| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Registrar | Not available |
| Hosting | AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US |
| Country | US |
| Server IP | 75.2.42.62 |
| Name servers | Not available |
| SSL issuer | Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA OV R36 |
| SSL expiry | 2026-12-20 |
| Domain age | 23.47 years (continuous registration) |
| Domain expiry | Not available |
| Archive first seen | 2003-02-23 |
| Archive snapshots | 1 |
| Reputation | VirusTotal: 0 flagged \| AbuseIPDB: 0 reports \| Google Safe Browsing: 0 matches |

## About this assessment


A trust score summarises the evidence TrustSniffer could collect about hw.ac.uk 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.

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---
*Source: [TrustSniffer](https://trustsniffer.com/report/hw.ac.uk) — independent automated trust & fraud analysis. Cite as https://trustsniffer.com/report/hw.ac.uk · assessed 2026-08-12.*