Guide · Updated 2026-10-19 · By The PayOrScam team
How to check if a company registration document is fake
A certificate of incorporation or registration extract is easy to forge with a PDF editor. The document on its own proves little; what counts is whether the official register says the same thing. Companies House says fraudsters are known to hijack companies by changing their directors and registered office, and it deals with around 50 to 100 cases of corporate identity theft every month.
Step 1: check it against the official register
Identify the jurisdiction on the document (for example England and Wales, Delaware, Singapore).
Search that register yourself, not through a link in the document: Companies House in the UK, the Secretary of State or Division of Corporations for the US state (NASS lists every state's search), ACRA in Singapore.
Compare every field exactly: legal name, company number, incorporation date, company type, status and registered address.
Check the status. A genuine certificate for a company that has since been dissolved doesn't prove it trades today.
Check the officers and recent changes. On Companies House, look at the filing history for sudden director or address changes. Since 18 November 2025, new UK directors must verify their identity with Companies House.
Use the registry's own verification where it exists. UK certificates can be downloaded free from the company's filing history; Singapore ACRA certificates can be checked through a verification URL or QR code; Cayman Islands certificates can be validated online with the file number and authorisation code.
Step 2: look for signs of forgery or editing
Fonts, spacing or alignment that differ within the document, especially around the name, number or date
A blurry or pixelated seal or crest
A number in the wrong format for that registry, or an incorporation date that doesn't fit the company's history
The wrong registry for the country (e.g. a US company with a "Companies House" certificate)
PDF metadata showing it was created or edited in an image or word-processing program, or sent as a screenshot or Word file instead of an official PDF
Upload the document to PayOrScam. It checks the company against official registers and inspects the file's metadata, edit history and hidden layers, with a source for every finding. If the register and the document disagree, trust the register.