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How background checks work

Run silent checks against trusted data to prevent fraud and financial crime

Jaye Hackett avatar
Written by Jaye Hackett
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Vouchsafe supports four types of background check. You can run these as part of a verification flow or smart lookup.

You can change the sensitivity of some checks.

✅ All checks run silently. Users won’t be notified, and checks don’t leave a soft mark on their credit file.

Anti-money laundering (AML)

Checks the user against ~280 international databases covering around 2 million entities. See what's covered here.

Detects users at higher risk of identity theft or those linked to organised, financial, or international crime. This includes:

  • politically exposed people (PEPs)

  • sanctioned individuals

  • watchlists and official debarments

You can also run the AML check in real time using Alerts.

Online footprint analysis

Finds the user's digital presence by checking ~500 public and semi-public sources.

Matches are based on their email address and/or phone number.

This is a strong signal that the user is a real person, not a made-up or synthetic identity.

Credit bureau (UK only)

Verify a person’s name, date of birth, address and postcode against a UK credit reference agency’s records, as well as public data sources like the electoral roll.


This can be used to confirm identity and address as part of a KYC/AML check.


This won’t affect their credit score or appear on their file.

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