Glossary
The words we use, defined.
If a term in the product or this site isn't obvious, it should be here. If it isn't and you wish it were, tell us.
Beneficial Owner
The individual person who ultimately owns or controls a company, even when ownership runs through other entities. Disclosed in some registries; absence is a yellow flag for opaque structures.
Business Registry
Government-run record of legally registered companies in a jurisdiction. Primary source for confirming a company actually exists where it claims to.
Confidence Level
A High / Medium / Low band attached to each finding. Reflects how much corroboration we have for that specific signal.
Cross-Reference
Comparing a claim from one source against the same claim in independent sources. A claim corroborated across three categories is stronger than a claim from one.
Data Source
Any feed or database we pull from. We group sources into categories (registries, WHOIS, news, sanctions, hiring, social, web, patterns) rather than naming individual vendors.
Disambiguation
When multiple companies share a name, we ask you to pick before investigating. Prevents the report from describing the wrong entity.
Dossier
The full investigation report: case header, context, stats, findings, red flags, verdict. Designed to be skimmed in 60 seconds, deep enough to act on.
Fake Recruiter
A person posing as a recruiter to extract personal information, money, or labor. May impersonate a real firm or invent one.
Ghost Office
Registered address that's actually a mailbox, virtual office, or unrelated coworking space. Common in scam-company patterns.
Investigation
A single run of Forenzio against one company or recruiter. Each investigation produces one dossier.
Job Scam
Any 'job offer' designed to extract money, documents, or unpaid labor under the pretense of employment.
Legitimacy Score
0–100 score answering 'does this entity exist as it claims?' Inputs include registration, domain age, public records, hiring footprint.
OSINT
Open-source intelligence. Information gathered from publicly available sources. The category Forenzio operates in — we use only public data.
Red Flag
A specific finding that lowers trust. Each red flag includes what we saw, why it matters, and a confidence band.
Sanctions List
Government-published list of companies and individuals subject to economic restrictions (OFAC in the US, EU consolidated list, etc.). A hit on a sanctions list is a hard red flag.
Scam Risk Score
0–100 score answering 'does this look like a known fraud pattern?' Independent of the legitimacy score so a real company with a sketchy hiring practice still gets flagged.
Shell Company
A legally registered entity with little to no operations, often used to hold assets or obscure ownership. Legal in many jurisdictions, but a strong amplifier of other red flags.
Verdict
The top-line summary of an investigation — color-coded and one sentence. Always paired with the underlying scores and findings so you can verify.
WHOIS
Public record of who registered a domain, when, and where. Domain age and registrant transparency are core legitimacy signals.
Term missing? Email us — we'll add it.