Domain Due Diligence
Report for Family-locator.com
Why we think so?
Family-locator.com is a long-running family-tracking site (domain created in 2015) with substantial traffic (~624k visits/month). It uses reputable infrastructure (Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, Stripe for payments) and has valid SSL, so the site is technically legitimate. However, there are two strong trust concerns: a documented 2019 data leak that exposed roughly 280,000 users’ location data, and recurring user complaints about unwanted subscription charges and refunds. No Google Safe Browsing or crypto-blacklist flags were found. Verdict: ⚠️ Suspicious — likely real but handle payments and personal data with caution.
Risk Insights
Major privacy incident on record
- 2019 database exposure reported by security researchers.
- Leak reportedly included ~280,000 users' live locations.
- This increases risk for users and for targeted social engineering.
Operationally real but customer-service issues exist
- Uses Stripe, Google Workspace, Zendesk — typical for legitimate services.
- Multiple complaints about billing and refunds in app stores/support forums.
- If you must pay, monitor charges and keep evidence of cancellation requests.
Contradictory Signals
Technical legitimacy and usage scale conflict with serious historical privacy failures and customer-service problems.
Signal A: High traffic, mature domain, reputable infrastructure
Signal B: Documented data leak and repeated billing complaints
Category Scores
Red Flags & Warnings
- Documented 2019 database leak exposed tens/hundreds of thousands of users' real-time location data, including children — major privacy incident.
- Multiple user complaints about unexpected subscription charges and denied or difficult refunds on app stores and support forums.
- Some related subdomains and older site instances were flagged as ‘older / unavailable’ by automated reputation checks, suggesting maintenance/consistency issues.
🔎 Detailed Checks & Analysis
Domain age & registrar
Score: 70/100
Domain age & registrar
"An older registration (2015) reduces the chance this is a throwaway scam domain, but age alone doesn't guarantee safe practices."
Reason: Domain created in 2015 and registered via GoDaddy suggests long-term presence and continuity.
Technical hygiene (SSL, DNS, hosting)
Score: 75/100
Technical hygiene (SSL, DNS, hosting)
"SSL is valid (wildcard for *.family-locator.com); DNS shows Cloudflare nameservers and standard MX/TXT records for Google Workspace and Zendesk."
Reason: Valid SSL certificate and use of Cloudflare / Amazon infrastructure indicates competent technical operations.
Third‑party integrations & payments
Score: 70/100
Third‑party integrations & payments
"Presence of Stripe and Google Analytics suggests conventional payment and telemetry flows; still verify payment receipts and refund paths before purchase."
Reason: Stripe present for payments and standard analytics/tools are in use, which supports normal business processes.
Traffic & popularity
Score: 65/100
Traffic & popularity
"Large user base can be reassuring, but high traffic also increases impact of any security or billing problems."
Reason: High monthly traffic (~623k) and search-driven visitor share imply a widely-used service.
Reputation & user complaints
Score: 45/100
Reputation & user complaints
"App-store reviews and forum posts describe billing disputes; automated reputation checks list mainly negative user feedback even where scans mark the site technically safe."
Reason: Multiple user reports of unwanted charges and refund difficulties lower trust in customer practices.
Privacy & security history
Score: 30/100
Privacy & security history
"The data-exposure event is a high-severity incident for a geolocation product; check whether the vendor published a post-mortem or implemented fixes."
Reason: A 2019 incident exposed real-time location records for ~280,000 users — a significant security breach for a location-tracking service.
Your Next Steps
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1
Avoid entering payment details until you confirm refund and trial policies; if you must subscribe, use a card you can monitor and cancel quickly.
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2
Search App Store / Play Store purchase history and developer responses for the exact app tied to this domain before paying.
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3
If you used the service in the past, check for signs of the 2019 leak (unexpected location-related messages) and rotate any account credentials.
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4
Report unwanted charges to your payment provider and request refunds via the platform (App Store / Google Play) if developer support is unresponsive.
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5
Limit sharing sensitive data (children’s exact locations) with the service until you’re satisfied with its security posture and privacy policy.
Evidence & Citations
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SimilarWeb site analytics for family-locator.com (Sep 2025)
Shows ~623,656 visits in Sep 2025, bounce rate ~48.6%, and top country share (US ~19.6%).
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Technology and integrations detected (Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, Stripe, Google Analytics)
Scan found Cloudflare nameservers, Amazon hosting, Stripe payments, Zendesk support and standard analytics tags — consistent with an operational product.
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WHOIS, DNS and SSL details for family-locator.com
WHOIS shows registrar GoDaddy and creation timestamp in 2015; MX/TXT records indicate Google Workspace and Zendesk; SSL is valid and issued by Amazon RSA.
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Aggregated findings and user-reports (billing complaints, 2019 data leak)
Contains references to user complaints about charges/refunds and to media/security reports documenting a 2019 database leak that exposed location data for ~280k users.
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Site contact scrape
Public support pages list help@family-locator.com and support@family-locator.com and social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
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Google Safe Browsing & crypto blacklist checks
No active Safe Browsing threats detected for the domain.
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Crypto scam blacklist check
Domain not found on crypto-scams blacklist.
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USPTO trademark search for 'family-locator.com'
No matching trademark records returned for the query.
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