Verify a Business
To get a Verified Business™ badge, a business must be able to initially present the proper corporate and personal paperwork to satisfy our initial requirements. If a business cannot provide corporate paperwork, we will obtain the proper corporate paperwork and personal paperwork to complete our business verification process:
“The Verified Business badge allows my business to be more transparent with my clients and potential customers. The value of online trust cannot be overestimated.”
Initial Verification:
Corporate Status: We will do a full records search with the Secretary of State’s office and/or jurisdictional equivalent such as a city or county reveals whether or not a company is Active or Inactive.
EIN: We verify the EIN or federal tax id number of the business. Because we are corporate specialists we know how to look at federal corporate paperwork
Email Address: Any email provided to us must be verified by entering the code we email you in your online account.
Legal Correspondence: A Verified Business™ must get quarterly correspondence from us when we send a verification code to the company’s registered agent. This demonstrates an active legal notice address.
Mailing Address: A Verified Business™ must get a monthly notice from us with a verification code showing they provide an active mailing address. To maintain our Verified Business™ standard, that address must be consistent on all mediums. It must be the same mailing address on the domain name, the state registration, and the same address that we verify.
Corporate History: We do full public records searches with the State to reveal a full history of all corporate filings, showing when a company was originally formed, any name changes, annual report filings, and updates to corporate information.
Management: If a Verified Business™ wants to become transparent about who the managers and stakeholders are of the company, we will verify that the names we are provided with actually are listed in public and private corporate paperwork that governs the company.
Phone Number: We call the company’s publicly listed phone number to ensure that the line is operational and that an individual can be reached. We leave voicemail messages to ensure that the company returns customer calls.
Website Details: Domain names are registered with public registries. We will verify the history and registration details that is publicly registered and ultimately controls the website used.
Ongoing Listing Standards:
Initial verification is only the first step. Verification is an ongoing process. To maintain a Verified Business™ badge, a business must maintain the following requirements:
Corporate Status: A Verified Business™ must be active and in good standing.
EIN: A Verified Business™ must demonstrate annually a consistent, unchanged EIN registered with the IRS.
Email Address: A Verified Business™ must have email addresses that match what they use publicly. We send a monthly email with a code that must verified.
Legal Notices: A Verified Business™ must get quarterly correspondence from us when we send a verification code to the company’s registered agent. This demonstrates an active legal notice address.
Mailing Address: A Verified Business™ must get a monthly notice from us with a verification code showing they provide an active mailing address. To maintain our Verified Business™ standard, that address must be consistent on all mediums. It must be the same mailing address on the domain name, the state registration, and the same address that we verify.
Phone Number: A Verified Business™ must verify their phone number once a month. A phone number listed on a domain name registration must be the same as the website and the information we verify.
The Future of Verification
As the verification industry grows, Verified Business LLC will continue to adopt new standards for initial and ongoing verification. Our standards will expand and develop over time as we work closely with businesses to formulate the most complete and transparent set of legitimate business records, data and background information.