When you're looking up a .ch or .li domain name, you're probably landing on nic.ch. That's by design: nic.ch is the official registry for Swiss domain names, operated by Switch under a mandate from Switzerland's Federal Office of Communications. So is nic.ch a scam? Absolutely not. This is the authoritative source for .ch domain lookups, and the site has the credentials to prove it.
What makes nic.ch stand out from most domain lookup tools is its history and security. The domain has been running for 29 years and sits near the top of the global traffic rankings. Security is better than average: DNSSEC is enabled, the SSL certificate is solid, and the site enforces email authentication standards so you won't get spoofed messages pretending to be from them.
One small gap: nic.ch doesn't publish a separate privacy policy or terms of service page, which is unusual for a European registry. That said, they do have the required legal disclosure page (Impressum) mandated by Swiss and EU law, so it's not a red flag — more of a minor oversight. If you're just checking domain availability or registrar info, there's nothing here to worry about. For a .ch registration or lookup, nic.ch is the real thing.