How to check whether they are scammers: the website, the company and the offer before you pay

Most scams share one feature: they could have been checked in a few minutes, but nobody checked because they were in a hurry. This article covers the official, free tools you can use to check a company, an online shop or a financial offer, and what each of them actually shows.

No single tool guarantees safety on its own. But if a seller or “consultant” fails even two checks, it is not worth paying them.

The tools and what they show

The company: Centre of Registers

1. In the search, enter the name or the company code that the seller states on the website or on the invoice.
2. Compare: whether the exact name, code and address match.
3. Look at the legal status – whether the company is not in liquidation or going bankrupt.

What the Centre of Registers does not show: whether the website really belongs to that company. Scammers like to copy a real company's details. So check the other way round as well – whether the real company mentions that shop or offer on its own website or social network account.

Investment and loan offers: Bank of Lithuania

LB puts it plainly: on receiving any offer to invest, you must first check whether the company making the offer is authorised to engage in this activity, and make sure that the licence is held by that very company and not by another one with a similar name. You also need to check whether its website is not included in the list of entities providing financial services illegally.

• It is in the list and the activity matches – this is a necessary but not yet sufficient condition: go on to check whether you are really dealing with that company.
• It is not in the list – it cannot provide such services in Lithuania. LB notes that such companies are often registered in exotic jurisdictions.
• The website is listed among the illegal ones – cut off communication.

Banks also name the sign of fake loans: if you are asked to pay a “contract”, “insurance” or “notary” fee before receiving the loan, it is a scam.

Online shop: VVTAT advice

The State Consumer Rights Protection Service (VVTAT) advises checking the following before buying:

• whether information about the seller is provided – company name or first name and surname, email and physical addresses, phone number, form of activity;
• whether the mandatory pre-contractual information is provided – the right to withdraw from the contract, the guarantee;
• whether this information can be verified publicly online, and not only in the shop itself;
• reviews of the seller in other sources.

The Service also warns against relying solely on reviews in the shop itself and advises caution when buying from sellers outside the European Union.

The website: address and age

• Address. Read it letter by letter. Scammers register addresses that differ from the real ones by a single letter or the ending.
• Age. A “long-established” shop whose domain was registered a month ago is a contradiction. The date of a .lt domain is shown by domreg.lt.
• The padlock in the browser only means an encrypted connection. Scam websites have it too.
• Photos and texts. Product photos that can be found in other shops, and text with translation errors, are additional signs.

What a check does not show

All these tools answer the question “does this exist?”, but not the question “am I dealing with who they say they are?”. This is exactly the gap scammers aim at: they borrow a real company's name, code, even employees' names.

• Real details, someone else's channel. The company is real, but you received the message from a personal number or a free email address. Contact the company using the contact details on its website and ask.
• Real licence, different company. LB separately warns you to check that the licence is held by that very company and not by one with a similar name.
• A new website with no history. The Safe Browsing check may not yet have flagged a new deceptive website. An empty result does not mean “safe”.
• Good reviews. Reviews on the website itself belong to the seller. Look for them where the seller does not manage them.

That is why the last check is always the same: the payment method. When paying by card or through the platform's protected payment you still have the option to dispute the transaction; once you have transferred money to a private individual or to a crypto wallet – almost none.

The offer: three questions

Frequently asked questions