Citing a Source Check
Attribution is never a condition of using this. We cannot audit it and we will not gate on it. This page exists so that when you do credit us, the wording is right.
The line
Every report carries this ready to copy. It is the whole of what we ask for.
The date is when the check ran, which matters: a register entry is a statement about a moment, and licences lapse.
Cite the tool and the public page, never the report
A report is a file about a named private individual. Linking one publishes that person's file to everyone who follows the citation, including people who have no business reading it. Report links are not for publication. The reference number printed on the report is there so you can ask us to confirm a check happened — it is not a URL and it opens nothing.
If a fact from a check is load-bearing in your story, cite the register that settled it, not us. We name it in the report and print the exact search: "the General Medical Council register lists…" is a better sentence than "a verification service found…", and it is the sentence a reader can check.
What a Source Check establishes
- That a named public register was searched, with the exact search printed so you can repeat it.
- What that register returned on the day it was asked.
- Which registers were not searched, and why — the report lists them rather than leaving a gap you would read as coverage.
What it does not
- It does not establish identity. Nothing in a report proves the person emailing you is the person in those records. No public register settles that.
- It is not a background check in the regulated sense, and must not be used for employment, tenancy or credit decisions.
- A verdict is a summary, not a finding. "Could not verify" means we could not confirm it — never that the claim is false. Do not report the two as the same thing.
- It does not replace a call. The fastest way to close what a report leaves open is still the outlet's press office, and every report says so.
If you are writing about the tool itself
We will confirm on the record how a specific check was run and which registers it consulted. Write to contact@mentionfox.com with the reference number. We do not confirm anything about a subject of a check to anyone other than the person who ran it.