Checklist: verify the company, not the website

Checklist: verify the company, not the website
A website proves somebody bought a domain. Here is what proves more.
— Legal entity name and registration number, checked in the register of the country claimed.
— A registered address that is not purely a mail-forwarding service, and directors whose names appear somewhere other than that single company.
— Consistency between the entity on the contract, the entity on the invoice, and the account the money comes from. Every gap is a place where responsibility disappears.
— Domain history. A brand claiming years of operation on an address with no history is claiming something else.
— Staff who exist outside the company's own site. Prior roles, event appearances, public profiles.
— Any physical presence claim you can check independently.
— Ask for a reference from a partner who left them. The reaction to that request tells you as much as the reference would.
This is not paranoia. Every unpaid period is credit you extended, and this is the minimum before extending credit.