Before you send money to an unfamiliar company, invest in an opportunity, or share personal information, take the time to verify that the business is real. Scammers create convincing-looking companies with professional websites, fake reviews, and fabricated credentials. You can start by running the company's website through our free scam checker for an instant risk assessment. This guide gives you a practical, step-by-step checklist to determine whether a company is legitimate or fake.

Step 1: Check Official Business Registration

Every legitimate company in the United States is registered with their state government. This is the single most important verification step.

1. Visit your Secretary of State's business search website. Each state has one -- search for "[your state] Secretary of State business search"
2. Search for the company's exact legal name
3. Verify the company status shows "Active" or "In Good Standing"
4. Check the registration date -- does it match how long the company claims to have existed?
5. Note the registered agent and address -- do they match what the company tells you?

If a company claims to be established but has no state registration, or was only registered very recently, treat it as a significant red flag.

Step 2: Search the Better Business Bureau (BBB)

The BBB maintains profiles on millions of businesses, including complaint history and customer reviews.

1. Go to https://www.bbb.org
2. Search for the company name and location
3. Review the BBB rating (A+ through F)
4. Check the complaint history -- look at what complaints were filed and how the company responded
5. Read customer reviews for patterns

A company not being listed on the BBB is not automatically suspicious, but a pattern of unresolved complaints is a strong warning sign.

Step 3: Verify with SEC and FINRA (For Investment Companies)

If the company is asking you to invest money, additional checks are essential:

SEC EDGAR Database (for publicly traded companies):

• Search at https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar
• Look for annual reports, financial statements, and other required filings

FINRA BrokerCheck (for brokers and investment advisors):

• Search at https://brokercheck.finra.org
• Check the individual advisor's or firm's registration, qualifications, and disciplinary history

SEC Investment Adviser Search:

• Search at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov
• Verify that the firm is properly registered

Step 4: Check the Company's Website and Domain Age

A company's website can reveal a lot about its legitimacy.

Check the domain registration:

1. Go to https://lookup.icann.org or https://www.whois.com/whois
2. Enter the company's website domain
3. Check the creation date -- if the company claims years of experience but the domain was registered last month, that is a red flag
4. Look at the registrant information -- is it hidden behind privacy services? That alone is not suspicious (many legitimate businesses use domain privacy), but combined with other red flags, it is concerning

Evaluate the website itself:

• Does it have a physical address, phone number, and email contact?
• Are there Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy?
• Does the content read naturally, or is it full of generic filler text?
• Do all the pages work, or are there broken links and empty sections?
• Are the team member photos real? (Right-click and search Google for the image to check)

Step 5: Verify the Physical Address

Do not take a listed address at face value.

1. Search the address on Google Maps -- does it show a real office or a vacant lot?
2. Use Google Street View to see the actual location
3. Check if the address belongs to a virtual office or mailbox service (e.g., Regus, UPS Store). This is not always disqualifying, but a company claiming to be a large operation from a mailbox rental is suspicious
4. See if other companies share the same address -- scam operations sometimes register many businesses at one location

Step 6: Research Reviews and Online Presence

Look beyond the company's own website:

• Google Reviews: Search the company name and read reviews across multiple platforms
• Trustpilot: Check https://www.trustpilot.com for customer reviews
• Social media accounts: Are they active with genuine engagement, or do they have fake-looking followers and generic posts?
• Search for complaints: Try "[company name] scam" or "[company name] reviews" in your search engine
• Fraud.org: Check the National Consumers League's database of reported scams
• BBB Scam Tracker: Search for the company in reported scam listings

Red flags in reviews:

• All reviews posted around the same time
• Reviewers with no other review history
• Generic, overly positive language without specific details
• Multiple complaints about the same issue (failure to deliver, inability to withdraw funds)

Step 7: Contact the Company Directly

A legitimate company will have no problem answering direct questions:

• Call the phone number on their website -- does someone answer?
• Send an email -- do you get a response from a company domain (not Gmail or Yahoo)?
• Ask for references from current clients
• Request proof of licensing or registration
• Ask about their return policy, complaint process, and management team

If a company avoids your questions, only communicates through chat apps, or pressures you to commit quickly, walk away. Companies that operate primarily through messaging apps like Telegram are especially risky -- see our guide on Telegram scams for common patterns.

Quick-Check Summary

| Check | Where to Verify | |-------|----------------| | Business registration | State Secretary of State website | | BBB profile | bbb.org | | SEC filings | sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar | | Broker/advisor check | brokercheck.finra.org | | Domain age | lookup.icann.org | | Physical address | Google Maps / Street View | | Reviews | Google, Trustpilot, BBB | | Scam reports | bbb.org/scamtracker | | Report fraud | reportfraud.ftc.gov |

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