Verdict
pbs.org appears legitimate.
Our checks found nothing pointing to fraud. Ordinary care still applies when you pay or sign in.
| What this site appears to be | Official PBS site content: program listings, news articles, donation and membership prompts, sign-in and account management, and links to PBS services and shop. Standard nonprofit media site with clear donation and membership flows. |
|---|
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 | None flagged itVirusTotal | Clear |
|---|---|---|
| Google Safe Browsing | Not listedGoogle | Clear |
| Abuse reports on the host | 0 reportsAbuseIPDB; shared hosting inflates this count | Noted |
| Domain age | 31 years oldRegistered history | Clear |
| Web archive | Archived since 19965000 snapshots | Clear |
| Certificate | Encrypted connectionIssued by Amazon RSA 2048 M01 | Noted |
The page as captured
Key findings
- Automated classification: Not Scam.
- Domain age: more than 10 years (registration continuity).
- Public web-archive history exists since 1996.
- No flags from the reputation services TrustSniffer consulted at assessment time.
Full analysis
Overview
This website is the official PBS public-broadcasting platform, presenting television and digital programming, news, membership and Passport access, donation opportunities, account services, and an online shop; its apparent model is nonprofit public media funded through viewer support, sponsorship, memberships, and retail activity.
Scam/Impersonation Risk
No contradictions were observed across the available evidence: there were no phishing, impersonation, malicious-reputation, or blacklist indicators, and the site's content, branding, and operating model are consistent with an established public broadcaster. The homepage uses conventional sign-in, donation, membership, and shopping flows rather than presenting deceptive investment, cryptocurrency, prize, or unusually high-return propositions. The available evidence supports an apparently legitimate site, although it does not independently prove the real-world operator identity.
- The homepage presents “PBS: Public Broadcasting Service,” program listings, PBS News, donation and membership prompts, account access, and PBS Shop content, with no recorded red flags.
- The domain was registered in 1995 and is approximately 31.35 years old; archival records contain 5,000 snapshots spanning 1996–2011 across 16 tracked years.
- External reputation screening recorded 0 malicious and 0 suspicious detections, with no confirmed blacklist or phishing result; the site is ranked 905 in the recorded global traffic ranking.
Regulatory Verification Notes
The observed business model is nonprofit public broadcasting rather than a financial or investment service. The available page content clearly describes donations, sponsorship, membership and retail support, but no specific financial-services license or registration number is presented; this is a limited regulatory-disclosure point rather than evidence of deception. The site’s apparent legitimacy is supported by its long registration continuity, sustained historical presence, recognized corporate registrar, established page authority, and clean external reputation. No third-party broker-dataset match was recorded, but that signal is contextual and does not constitute a licensing determination. The operator’s real-world identity remains independently unverified.
- The homepage identifies the service as PBS and describes programming, donations, membership/Passport access, sign-in, and PBS Shop activity.
- The domain registration record lists CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. as registrar and an expiration date of 2027-04-20.
- The site’s TLS certificate uses DV validation, was issued by Amazon RSA 2048 M01, and is valid through 2027-02-08.
- The site is served through AS16509, Amazon.com, Inc., US.
What to Verify Next
Before credential or payment interactions, an enterprise or consumer user should independently confirm the merchant or donation recipient through an official PBS or station contact route, review the applicable privacy, donation, membership, and shop terms, and confirm available payment-protection and return arrangements for any purchase. Where a transaction involves a local station or other affiliated entity, the relevant entity and any applicable registration should be checked directly with the responsible public registry.
- The homepage provides distinct routes for account access, donations, membership benefits, and shopping, supporting separate review of the applicable terms.
- The observed site includes cookie-preference controls and a privacy-policy reference, which can be reviewed before account activity.
- The available content distinguishes PBS services from station selection and PBS Shop activity, supporting independent confirmation of the specific counterparty.
Summary Verdict
The overall posture is high trust and low risk, with convergent evidence consistent with an established, apparently legitimate public-media website. Normal browsing and ordinary service use are supported by the assessment, while the positive trust conclusion should not be treated as independent proof of the operator’s real-world identity.
Infrastructure Integrity
The website is protected by AWS CDN/WAF infrastructure, which is a meaningful mitigating control against direct exposure and common delivery-layer abuse, but protective hosting alone is not proof of legitimacy. Observed resolution consisted of CDN edge infrastructure rather than a directly identified origin server.
- CDN/WAF protection was identified as AWS.
- Edge infrastructure was observed on AS14618, Amazon.com, Inc., US.
- Two edge IP addresses were recorded: 54.225.198.196 and 54.225.206.152; no likely origin candidates were identified.
Closing Assessment
Ordinary use is proportionate to the available evidence, provided that account and payment actions follow standard independent checks of the relevant counterparty, terms, and payment protections.
Written analysis generated 2026-08-17 by the TrustSniffer Analysis Engine from the evidence in this report.
What the analysis found
No rule findings contributed to this verdict.
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 pbs.org.
- The request stayed on pbs.org. It was not redirected to another domain. Clear
- Registration is published under CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.. Clear
- DNS for this domain is served by awsdns-25.org, across 4 name servers. Noted
- The registration is paid up to 2027-04-20. Noted
- The earliest public archive of this site is from 1996-12-25. Clear
- It is hosted on AMAZON-02, from a server in US. Noted
Domain intelligence
| Registrar | CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Hosting | AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US |
| Country | US |
| Server IP | 2600:9000:278c:6000:0:3833:24c0:93a1 |
| Name servers | ns-1230.awsdns-25.org, ns-1674.awsdns-17.co.uk, ns-193.awsdns-24.com, ns-806.awsdns-36.net |
| SSL issuer | Amazon RSA 2048 M01 |
| SSL expiry | 2027-02-08 |
| Domain age | 31.35 years (continuous registration) |
| Domain expiry | 2027-04-20 |
| Archive first seen | 1996-12-25 |
| Archive snapshots | 5000 |
| 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 pbs.org 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.