Get Safe Online Rwanda, which runs an online safety campaign implemented by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation and Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), on Wednesday, September 13, launched a new tool that will help Rwandan internet users to tell if a website is legitimate or a scam before visiting it.

The new tool called Check a Website is available on Get Safe Online’s website, which is available in both English and Kinyarwanda. It is accessible at www.getsafeonline.org.rw/checkawebsite.

According to Get Safe Online, Check a Website is a safe, easy-to-use online tool. Users simply type in the address of the website they want to check and their results appear within seconds.

Check a Web comes as the Get Safe Online Rwanda campaign marks three years of raising awareness on the importance of staying safe online to users in Rwanda.

The Check a Website tool cleverly uses an algorithm to provide a trust score based on more than 40 data sources, as well as thousands of reports of malicious websites from law enforcement agencies, regulators and consumer brands every week.

According to the 2023 State of Omnichannel Fraud Report by TransUnion, a global information and insights provider, more than 32 per cent of Rwandans said they were targeted by fraud between September and December 2022. Rwandan consumers were primarily targeted by third-party seller scams on legitimate websites.

"Check a Website aims to help reduce the number of such incidents in Rwanda, by highlighting the importance of ‘think before you click,’” Get Safe Online Rwanda said in a statement.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Yves Iradukunda, lauded the launch of Check a Website.

"The launch of Check a Website in Rwanda comes at a critical time, and is a welcome contribution to government and partner institutions that work towards protecting Rwandan online users against fraud,” Iradukunda said.

Tony Neate, CEO of Get Safe Online, a UK-based non-profit organization, said: "We are excited to be able to finally offer individuals and businesses the opportunity to literally ‘check a website’ before they visit it.”

"We are also hugely grateful to our partners who have helped to make it happen. Working together with our local partners in Rwanda, we look forward to building awareness on the importance of online safety and help improve the united fight against scammers.”

Check a Website was initially launched in the United Kingdom in 2022 by Get Safe Online UK and CIFAS, UK’s leading fraud prevention service, and ScamAdviser.

Get Safe Online has provided free, accessible, high-quality public education and awareness services about online risks since 2006. The organisation prides itself on establishing "an excellent and trusted reputation among the cyber security community and the public.”

Get Safe Online provides high-quality services in 26 countries around the world, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office under its Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded programme.