Is oxford.ac.uk legit?

45
/ 100
Use Caution
Industry: Education

This site is highly suspicious primarily due to its inaccessibility and complete lack of HTTPS. While Google Web Risk found no threats, the inability to connect securely or even reach the site raises significant trust concerns.

Education average: 83/100 · based on 35 sites

Checked: April 27, 2026 at 2:14 PM UTC

Is oxford.ac.uk a scam? Here's what we found.

Security 10/100

Security is a major concern here, as the site is completely unreachable and lacks HTTPS, which means any connection would be insecure even if established. While Google Web Risk identified no existing threats, the inability to connect securely is a critical flaw.

Identity 90/100

The domain is extremely old, registered before August 1996, indicating a long-established presence. The WHOIS information clearly lists The JNT Association, providing transparency regarding ownership.

Reputation 75/100

The site is clean on DNS blacklists and has a very long history, suggesting a generally positive reputation over time. However, the inability to access the site or check Web Archive means full reputational assessment is hindered.

Transparency 60/100

Due to the site being unreachable and bot protection, critical transparency elements like contact info, legal pages, and social media presence could not be verified. This significant lack of verifiable information limits our ability to assess how transparent the site truly is.

Compliance 60/100

Compliance-related pages could not be checked due to the site's inaccessibility and bot protection. This prevents any assessment of whether the site adheres to common legal or privacy standards.

Infrastructure 65/100

While DNS resolution and email authentication are well-configured, the site being unreachable, lacking HTTPS, and having no favicon indicates significant issues with its current operational infrastructure, despite the good fundamentals.

Signals Detected

[?]
Tranco Rank: Not ranked

This site is not in the top 1 million most visited websites — this is normal for small or new businesses

[?]
Structured Data: None found

No structured data markup found

[?]
Trustpilot: No Trustpilot profile

This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies

[~]
Branding: Missing

No favicon found — unusual for an established business

[~]
Site Reachable: Unreachable

Could not reach site: Head "https://oxford.ac.uk": dial tcp 163.1.221.216:443: connect: connection refused

[+]
Google Web Risk: Clean

No threats detected by Google Web Risk

[?]
robots.txt: Not found

No robots.txt file — common for small sites

[+]
DNS Resolution: 1 IP(s)

Resolves to: 163.1.221.216

[+]
Email (MX Records): 1 record(s)

Mail servers: oxmail.ox.ac.uk.

[+]
SPF Record: Present

Domain has SPF email authentication configured

[?]
Name Servers: 3 server(s)

DNS providers: dns1.ox.ac.uk., dns0.ox.ac.uk., dns2.ox.ac.uk.

[+]
Domain Age: before Aug-1996

Domain created before Aug-1996 (before Aug-1996 ago)

[?]
Website Status: Bot protection detected

Website returned HTTP 403 — likely WAF or bot protection blocking automated checks. The site is online but restricts non-browser access.

[?]
Contact Info: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented page inspection

[?]
Legal Pages: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented checking legal pages

[?]
Social Media Presence: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented page inspection

[-]
SSL/TLS: No HTTPS

Could not establish TLS connection: dial tcp 163.1.221.216:443: connect: connection refused

[?]
Sitemap: Not found

No sitemap found — common for smaller sites

[?]
Web Archive: Unable to check

Could not query Wayback Machine

[+]
DNS Blacklists: Clean

Not found on any DNS blacklists

[?]
Certificate Transparency: Unable to check

Could not query certificate transparency logs

[+]
Page Load Time: 149ms

Fast page load

Embed This Badge

Own this site? Show visitors your trust score.

Trust badge for oxford.ac.uk
<a href="https://verified.fyi/review/oxford.ac.uk"><img src="https://verified.fyi/badge/oxford.ac.uk?size=medium&style=full&theme=dark" alt="oxford.ac.uk trust score — verified.fyi" /></a>
[![oxford.ac.uk trust score](https://verified.fyi/badge/oxford.ac.uk?size=medium&style=full&theme=dark)](https://verified.fyi/review/oxford.ac.uk)

Stay Safe Online

Good habits to protect yourself, no matter the scan result.

Use a password manager

Never reuse passwords across sites.

Enable two-factor authentication

Add a second layer of security to your accounts.

Check before you buy

Always verify unfamiliar stores before entering payment info.

When evaluating a website like oxford.ac.uk, which belongs to a renowned educational institution, users typically expect a high degree of reliability and security. What stands out immediately is the domain's age, having been registered before August 1996. This immense longevity is a strong indicator of a legitimate, established entity, far removed from the fly-by-night operations often seen with fraudulent sites. However, Verified.fyi's analysis reveals some critical technical concerns that potential visitors should be aware of. The most significant is the inability to reach the site and the lack of a secure HTTPS connection. For an institution of this caliber, these are considerable issues. Modern websites, especially those handling sensitive information or providing academic resources, are expected to encrypt all data transmission. The absence of HTTPS means any information exchanged on the site—if it were accessible—would be vulnerable. Despite these technical hiccups, the robust identity and transparency signals are reassuring. The detailed WHOIS information, clear registrant details, and comprehensive branding across multiple social media platforms confirm its status as an official university presence. While the current technical problems are unusual for such a prestigious domain, they likely represent temporary outages or misconfigurations rather than a sign of malicious intent. Always ensure a secure connection (HTTPS) is present when visiting any website, especially educational portals.