Free basic check — answer in minutes
Deal Check USD 8.88 — result in minutes
AI checks tell you a company exists. Vanguard Verify (by Vanguard Trade Capital, Dubai) tells you if the deal is real — the SBLC, the cargo, the bank and the people.
Independent: Vanguard Verify never verifies a deal in which any Vanguard entity is a buyer, seller or broker. Your documents and findings are confidential and never used for trading. Independence policy ›
Reference numbers tested, scam phrases flagged and documents compared with our register of known fakes.
In commodity trade the costliest mistake happens before anything ships: a fake seller, a fake SBLC or proof of funds, a copied FCO. Even the safest route costs money up front — opening an LC means bank charges before you know the seller can deliver. One check now saves months later.
Then it takes two minutes, costs nothing, and gives you proof to show your buyer or your bank.
The basic check is free. A Deal Check is USD 8.88 — compare that with LC opening charges and months lost on a deal that was never real.
No. Under our independence policy, what you submit is used only for your check: we never contact your counterparty behind you, never pass your deal to anyone, and never check a deal in which our own group is a party.
Vanguard Verify is run by Vanguard Trade Capital Goods Wholesalers DWC-LLC, Dubai South, Licence 14282.
Your Letter of Intent or ICPO gives away your company name, registration, address, phone and email — and a CIS adds passports and bank details. If the seller isn't real, those documents can be reused to make offers and purchase orders you never issued. Check first. Send your documents second.
Our founder
Worked in corporate banking at Barclays in London (2009–2013) on SBLCs and documentary credits, then in credit fraud analysis at American Express in Milan (2013–2015). The people who used to sit on the bank side of these deals.
Vanguard Trade Capital Goods Wholesalers DWC-LLC · Dubai South Free Zone, UAE · Licence No. 14282 · Registration No. 13236 (Dubai Aviation City Corporation)
Barclays and American Express are named only as past employers. They are not connected to Vanguard Verify.
Upload one document — SBLC, MT799, B/L or FCO — and get a free document check.
A bank letter, bill of lading, SGS certificate, ICPO, a WhatsApp screenshot or something you found online. Upload it and we check how the file was made, read what it says, and compare it with every document we have already checked. If our team has already been unable to verify it, you are told at once.
Prefer email? Forward the offer or document to [email protected]. Red flags back by email.
Enter it to confirm we issued it. You see only Valid, Expired or Not found, the issue date and the verdict word. No names and no details.
Three deals we saw first-hand. Every one looked professional. Every one could have been stopped by a check that costs less than the bank charges.
A US buyer needed sunflower oil fast. The "exporter" sent professional-looking documents and asked for a factory-visit fee. The visit kept being delayed, so the buyer, under pressure, paid a 30% deposit for 5 containers, then another 30% for 6 more. Nothing was ever shipped. Only excuses arrived.
A "trading house" with flawless company documents, a professional website and confident directors claimed allocations from major refineries. Behind it: an offshore company registered in a secrecy jurisdiction, directors in two different countries, a recent name change, and a bank account in a third country, ready to discount the buyer's LC for cash. There was never any allocation.
A buyer presented an SBLC as proof that payment was guaranteed. It looked real: logo, SWIFT format, signatures. It was forged. A seller who loads cargo against a fake SBLC has no recourse.
Why the biggest frauds used the same papers twice: the shared registry ›
Swipe ›
Based on real cases seen by our founder. Names, places and details have been changed or removed.
How it works: watch a scam get caught, check digits, the six-step anatomy of a scam ›
Swipe ›
Enter the deal value to see how much is at risk.
We check the deal from the documents you upload and public sources, before you pay. Free inspection and contract clauses ›
Free basic check → Deal Check USD 8.88, result in minutes. Broker plans:
We never contact your buyer or seller unless you order a site visit. Your deal stays yours.
Add-ons: Analyst Deal Check USD 299 · Buyer & Seller Elite
Sellers sometimes ask buyers to pay USD 5,000–10,000 just to visit a factory or warehouse — and some disappear after the payment. Our local field officer visits the plant, mill or warehouse for you, confirms the company, the stock and the address, and sends dated photos and a live video call. Fixed fee, agreed before the visit. You pay us — never the seller.
Request a site visitBrokers: broker plans from USD 28.88/month ›
Deal Check USD 8.88: result in minutes, never an incomplete result.
See all plans › Buyer & Seller Elite and add-ons. Referral Partners ›
I spent four years on SBLCs and documentary credits in corporate banking at Barclays in London, and then worked in credit fraud analysis at American Express in Milan. I thought I had seen every trick.
Vanguard Verify exists so you check first, and trade second.
— The founder, Vanguard Verify
Then, as a commodity broker, I watched it happen to the people I was working with. A buyer paid two deposits to an exporter who had nothing to ship. A "trading house" with perfect paperwork turned out to be an offshore shell waiting to cash someone's LC. A buyer handed over an SBLC that no bank had ever issued.
None of these frauds were clever. Nobody had simply checked them before the money moved.
Dubai South Free Zone · Reg. No. 13236 · Licence No. 14282
The basic check is free, 2 a day per person, with no card: one document at a time, with the 25 automatic checks, the scam-wording scan, check digits and a registry match. You can also forward an offer to [email protected]. A Deal Check is USD 8.88 per deal: all 41 checks on both sides, result in minutes. Broker plans: Starter USD 28.88 a month (4 Deal Checks), Pro USD 49.88 (12) and Max USD 88.88 (30), all with unlimited basic checks; unused checks do not roll over. The Company plan is USD 299 a month for unlimited deal checks, up to 5 users. Buyer Elite and Seller Elite are USD 1,999 a month with the Super Check; add-ons are quoted per deal. Verified Supplier is USD 99 a month. Enterprise starts at USD 6,000 a month. Annual billing: pay 10 months, get 12. WhatsApp +1 (506) 405-0469 or email [email protected] to pay.
Never trust the PDF, the letterhead or a SWIFT-style printout. Ask your own bank to check the SBLC bank to bank, by SWIFT (an MT760 received by your bank from the issuing bank). Check the issuing bank's SWIFT/BIC code in the official SWIFT directory and call the bank on a number you found yourself, not the one on the document. "Leased" or "monetised" SBLCs and wording such as "ICC 600 regulations" or "UCP 700" are red flags. If your own bank has not confirmed it, it does not exist. Read the SBLC guide ›
Check every container number against its ISO 6346 check digit, then confirm the B/L number, container numbers, vessel and voyage directly with the shipping line on its own website or tracking service. Check the vessel's IMO number and position on an AIS tracker. Make sure the shipper, consignee and port match the contract. A scanned or emailed copy B/L is not title to the cargo, and the same B/L number appearing in two deals means one of them is fake. Vanguard Verify runs the check digits and the registry match for free.
Confirm the company in the official company register of its country, and check who owns it. Make sure the email domain matches the company website and that the website is not newly registered. Ask for proof of product (not proof of funds, which is the buyer's document) and confirm any refinery allocation directly with the refinery. Be wary of ICUMSA 45 offers far below market, upfront fees, "procedures" that ask the buyer to pay or open instruments first, and sellers writing from free webmail. Pay only through a confirmed letter of credit or licensed escrow released against documents you have verified.
An MT799 is a free-format message between banks. It does not move money, block funds or guarantee payment. Scammers ask for an MT799 "proof of funds", or offer one, to look serious, then ask for fees or use it to start a fake procedure. Real proof of funds comes from the buyer and is confirmed by your own bank, bank to bank. An offer that treats an MT799 as proof of funds or as a guarantee is a red flag. MT760 vs MT799 explained ›
Guides: What is an SBLC? · SBLC providers and leased SBLCs · MT760 vs MT799 · All guides ›
How it works · All 41 checks · The shared registry · Plans · Roadmap
Banks, platforms and investors: to pilot the shared registry, write to [email protected]
The live demo, the five gates in full, every trick in the book, the check-digit maths behind every container and ship number, and the six steps every commodity scam follows.
An invented sugar offer, checked by the same rules you use. Five gates, a few seconds.
Registry and licence, sanctions screening, a company domain instead of Gmail, and no name that is one letter away from a real mill or refinery.
Funds confirmed bank to bank on a number you found yourself. MT799 "proof of funds", leased SBLCs and ICPOs dressed up as money are flagged on sight.
Bank instruments and SWIFT messages (LC, SBLC, MT760) are checked through your own bank, bank to bank. We never rely on a phone number or email given by the other side.
Fake ICC rules, prices far below market, and any bill of lading, certificate or account already used in another deal, the pattern behind the biggest frauds.
Container numbers pass ISO 6346, ship numbers pass the IMO check, and the stock is shown through an inspector you appoint and pay.
Confirmed LC or licensed escrow only. Upfront fees, advance wires and crypto-only payment stop the deal.
Bills of lading, containers, ship IMO numbers, IBANs, SWIFT codes, certificates and emails, pulled out of pasted text automatically.
Fake ICC rules, MT799 "proof of funds", leased SBLCs, upfront fees.
The same document in two deals is stopped on sight.
ISO 6346, ISO 13616, IMO and ISO 9362, tested in milliseconds.
One letter off a real refinery is flagged as impersonation.
Enter your own sourced benchmark. Offers far below it light up, because a price 35% under market is bait, not luck.
Container and ship numbers carry built-in check digits. A forger typing a number from imagination fails ten times out of eleven, and the checker sees it instantly.
The last digit of a real container number is calculated from the first ten, under ISO 6346. Type any number and watch the math. A forger who guesses gets it wrong 10 times out of 11.
ICUMSA 45 offered 30–40% below market, "direct from the mill".
Gate 3 · price far below benchmarkA seller on Gmail whose name is one letter off a real refinery.
Gate 1 · webmail + look-alike name"Send ICPO and MT799 proof of funds, governed by ICC 600."
Gates 2 + 3 · fake rules, MT799 is not moneyA "copy B/L" as proof of product, lifted from someone else's shipment.
Gates 3 + 4 · reused document, bad check digit"Pay a USD 25,000 legal fee to release the documents."
Gate 5 · upfront fee before proofFee paid, phones off, no cargo. Unless you checked first.
Stopped at step 01Most commodity scams are not clever.
They are simply never checked.
No. Your documents are checked on our secure server and are not stored. For the live checks, company names, website and email domains, and bank account numbers are looked up in public sources. We record your email and phone to count your checks.
No tool can. It finds red flags and tells you exactly what a person still has to confirm: the instrument through your own bank, and the stock through your own inspector. A clean result means no red flags in what you provided.
Brokers introducing parties, buyers about to pay, sellers about to ship. Each side gets its own checklist.
Any bulk physical commodity. The rules are tuned for sugar, soybean products, edible oils, cement and clinker, coffee and grains.
25 automatic checks run on every deal, on the buyer and the seller together. 16 more come with every Deal Check.
How the registry catches a document used in two deals without revealing anyone's papers, how a Deal Passport is verified in one scan, and why Qingdao and Hin Leong made it necessary.
Warehouse receipts for the same metal were pledged to several banks at once. Nobody could see the duplicates.
Two Singapore traders collapsed after documents and cargoes were presented to more than one lender.
Every bill of lading, container, account and certificate fingerprinted once. When it appears in a second deal, everyone is warned, and nobody sees anyone else's documents.
computing…Each number is turned into a one-way code before it is stored. The code can be matched, never reversed: members see that a document was used before, not whose deal it was.
Every completed check becomes a sealed passport. Send it to the other side; they scan the code and see it is genuine, current and unchanged.
Every line is factual: live means you can use it today.
Three steps: tell us your side, paste what you were sent, and answer what has been checked by a person. The result sorts everything into the five gates.
Your saved checks, and three sample reports showing what a broker, a buyer and a seller each get.
When you save a check, its bill of lading, container, inspection certificate and SWIFT numbers, bank accounts, emails and company names are stored here as one-way codes. If the same document turns up in another deal, the checker stops it. One shipment has one set of documents.
Add the exact legal names of real mills, refineries and producers you deal with. Any company in a deal whose name is one or two letters off will be flagged as a likely impersonation.
A bank will not confirm anything about its customer to a stranger. If a counterparty sends you a bank letter or proof of funds, ask them to sign this. It lets the bank answer three yes/no questions and nothing more. If they refuse to sign, treat the bank letter as unproven.
Everything in Pro, 30 Deal Checks and 15 introductions a month, 1 Analyst Deal Check a month included, Boost, priority queue.
Choose Broker MaxUnlimited basic checks, 12 Deal Checks and 6 introductions a month, Board fully unlocked, Verified Broker badge.
Choose Broker ProUnlimited basic checks, 4 Deal Checks and 2 introduction requests a month, Introduction Records, Trade Passport.
Choose Broker StarterBoth sides checked, all 41 checks, result in minutes. Free basic check: 2 a day.
Check one dealYearly: 10 months' price. Prices fixed until 31 December 2027. All plans and prices ›
A local field officer visits the plant, mill or warehouse for you and sends dated photos and a live video call. Quoted per deal before we start.
Ask for a quoteAnalyst Deal Check: if we do not deliver your report within 2 working days after your documents are complete, or if we decline your case after payment, we refund you in full.
Plans: full refund if you cancel within 7 days of your first payment and have not used a paid check.
Already on a plan? Open the deal checker ›
Vanguard Verify is built by Vanguard Trade Capital Goods Wholesalers DWC-LLC, Dubai South Free Zone, UAE (licence 14282). Contact: [email protected].
It reads text you paste and tests identifiers against published check-digit standards (ISO 13616 for IBANs, ISO 6346 for container numbers, the IMO ship number rule, ISO 9362 format for BICs). It looks for wording described in fraud warnings from the ICC and law-enforcement agencies, records what you confirm by hand, and sorts the results into five gates. It runs on our secure server. We keep a record of each check (what was entered and the result shown) for 12 months to improve accuracy and handle disputes.
It is not a guarantee that a deal, document, company or payment is genuine, and it is not legal, financial or compliance advice. A document can pass every check here and still be forged. Do not send money, open a letter of credit or release documents or cargo on this result alone.
Saved checks and fingerprints are kept in your browser's storage only. Fingerprints are one-way codes. You can erase everything from "My registry".
Links to GLEIF, sanctions lists, domain lookups and ship registries go to those organisations' own websites. Their terms apply. We are not affiliated with them.
To the extent the law allows, Vanguard is not liable for any loss arising from reliance on the free checker. Paid services will be governed by a separate written agreement.
Brokers, buyers and sellers get different checks and prices, so we confirm your side once. Your role is then locked to this email. To change it later, contact us.
Free basic check: 2 a day. Deal Check USD 8.88, or 4 to 30 a month with a broker plan. Enter your business email and phone to continue. The free check reads your document on our secure server and does not keep it. For a Deal Check you upload documents to us; they are kept confidential, never used for trading, and deleted after 90 days.
Deal Check: USD 8.88 per deal. Both sides checked, result in minutes. Or choose a broker plan.
Independent: Vanguard Verify never verifies a deal in which any Vanguard entity is a buyer, seller or broker. Your documents and findings are confidential and never used for trading.
Plans are live and paid today. Send your details and we email you an invoice to pay in USDT (ERC20) within 1 hour.
We will email you your payment options within 1 hour. Meanwhile, every basic check is free.
Choose a paid plan for more checks, or invite friends to unlock more of the 41 checks. Your free basic checks start again on the 1st of next month.
The sunflower-oil buyer in Case 1 would have paid far less for a deal check.