WebVetted
+ New
Site icon

Domain Due Diligence

Report for Next.co.uk

Report Date
October 6, 2025
Recommendation
Proceed
Overall Summary
Safe
  Why we think so? 

✅ next.co.uk appears to be a legitimate, high‑traffic UK retail site. It receives about 29.7M monthly visits (global rank ~#582), uses enterprise CDN and security (Akamai, Cloudflare), presents a valid DigiCert wildcard TLS cert (valid to 2026-06-16), and publishes multiple contact emails and phone numbers. Automated checks show no Google Safe Browsing or crypto‑scam blacklist hits. There are recurring customer complaints about refunds and a high‑profile equal‑pay legal ruling against Next plc — these are operational or reputational issues, not proof the site is a scam. Recommendation: proceed with normal consumer caution (verify payments/returns).

Confidence Score
86%

Risk Insights

🛡️

High-traffic, enterprise-grade site

  • ~29.7M monthly visits and global rank ~#582.
  • Uses Akamai, Cloudflare, and major payment providers.
  • No Safe Browsing or crypto blacklist hits in checks.
⚠️

Operational risk: refund & returns complaints

  • Multiple customer reports of delayed or missing refunds on review sites.
  • High-profile legal ruling (equal pay) creates reputational exposure.

Contradictory Signals

Technical/traffic signals point to a legitimate large retailer, while complaints and litigation point to service and reputational risk — these do not indicate scam but do increase caution.

Signal A: High technical & traffic signals (Akamai, DigiCert, 29.7M visits)

Signal B: Multiple consumer complaints and a major legal ruling against the company

Category Scores

Red Flags & Warnings

  • Frequent customer complaints about delayed or missing refunds and return disputes on review platforms — operational risk that can cause financial loss for some users.
  • Recent high‑profile equal‑pay tribunal ruling against Next plc with estimated liabilities (reported >£30M) — reputational and legal exposure.

🔎 Detailed Checks & Analysis

Traffic & popularity

Score: 92/100
Passed

"SimilarWeb and SimilarTech data show global rank ~#582 and large, steady traffic across months; this supports legitimacy and operational scale."

Reason: High monthly visits (~29.7M) and strong UK audience share (~92%) are consistent with a major retail brand rather than a fly‑by‑night scam.

Technology & hosting

Score: 94/100
Passed

"Presence of Akamai CDN, Akamai DNS, and Mimecast for email reduces risk of hosting‑level compromise and suggests investment in security."

Reason: Uses enterprise CDNs and security vendors (Akamai, Cloudflare, Mimecast), indicating professional hosting and bot/abuse protection.

TLS / domain controls

Score: 90/100
Passed

"Certificate issuer and validity window confirm HTTPS is properly configured; DNS has SPF and multiple verification TXT records for major providers."

Reason: Valid DigiCert wildcard TLS cert (valid through 2026-06-16) and canonical HTTPS observed.

Contact information

Score: 88/100
Passed

"Scraped contacts include press@next.co.uk, customer support numbers (0333 777 8000 series) and verified social profiles."

Reason: Multiple official contact emails, UK phone numbers, and active social accounts are published — helpful for verification and dispute resolution.

Blacklist / phishing checks

Score: 95/100
Passed

"Automated blacklist queries returned no threats or matches for next.co.uk in the provided data set."

Reason: No matches on Google Safe Browsing and no crypto‑scam blacklist entries in the retrieved checks.

Trademark / impersonation risk

Score: 80/100
Passed

"USPTO query returned zero direct elements for the search term; this does not cover non‑US marks or informal impersonation outside trademark filings."

Reason: No USPTO trademark results for the exact query; less evidence of US trademark conflicts or active brand impersonation via US filings.

Customer reviews & complaints

Score: 50/100
Failed

"Review platforms show multiple users reporting delayed/missing refunds and dispute handling problems; treat as operational risk that may cause consumer harm."

Reason: Significant volume of customer complaints about refunds and returns exist on independent review sites; these are service failures rather than proof of fraud.

Legal / public records

Score: 55/100
Failed

"Tribunal outcome and estimated liabilities (reported >£30M) indicate legal exposure; Next is appealing, so status may evolve."

Reason: High‑profile equal‑pay tribunal ruling against Next plc (2024) with material liabilities — affects reputation and consumer trust.

Your Next Steps

  • 1

    If you plan to buy: use a card or a payment provider with buyer protection (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, PayPal).

  • 2

    For refunds/returns: keep order numbers and screenshots and escalate via the published customer phone (0333 777 8000) and support channels.

  • 3

    Report suspicious emails or messages that claim to be from Next to the address indicated on Next’s fraud guidance page and do not click links in unsolicited messages.

  • 4

    If you see a transaction problem, check bank/payment dispute options early and record all communications.

  • 5

    For serious unresolved financial loss, file a complaint with UK consumer protection (e.g., Citizens Advice) or your bank.

Evidence & Citations

🕵🏻 Keep investigating

Community feedback

Not rated yet

0 reviews published

5 stars 0%
4 stars 0%
3 stars 0%
2 stars 0%
1 star 0%

Leave a review

Reviews

No public reviews yet. Be the first to share your experience.