So you landed on open.maricopa.edu and want to know if it's legit. Short answer: yes. This is the Maricopa Open Digital Press, a publishing platform run by the Maricopa County Community College District. It's a place where faculty create and share open-access ebooks for classroom use. Not a scam, not a storefront, just a straightforward academic project.
The domain is a subdomain of maricopa.edu, which is an official .edu institution. That's a strong signal — .edu domains are tightly controlled. The site has been around for at least five years, uses modern security, and has a clear About page explaining its mission. There's no payment processing or sensitive data being collected here, so the missing privacy policy isn't the red flag it would be on a shopping site.
If you're a student or instructor looking for open textbooks, open.maricopa.edu reviews from actual users are positive. The real question isn't 'is open.maricopa.edu a scam' — it's 'does this have the book I need for my class.' That's the only reason to click away.