What a Source Check is
You probably arrived here from a citation in something you were reading. This page explains what that citation is claiming, and — just as importantly — what it is not.
In one paragraph
A Source Check is a record of which public registers were searched for a named person's stated credentials, and what each one returned. If someone says they are a doctor registered in the United Kingdom, a Source Check searches the General Medical Council register and writes down what it found. It does the same for the other claims a person makes about themselves, one register at a time.
It is a record of searching. It is not a judgement about a person, and it never becomes one.
What the report actually contains
- Each claim, and the register searched for it — named, with the exact search printed so you can repeat it yourself.
- What that register returned, with a link to the entry where there is one.
- Which claims were not confirmed, each naming the specific register that was asked.
- What was not checked at all, listed explicitly. A gap you can see is worth more than a report that quietly leaves it out and lets you read silence as coverage.
The four verdicts
There are exactly four. They describe the state of the evidence, not the state of the person.
Every claim checked was confirmed by the register that governs it. The report names each register and links the entry.
Some claims were confirmed and at least one was not. The report says which is which, so the confirmed part is not weakened by the open part and the open part is not carried by the confirmed part.
The register was searched and did not return a match. Many entirely genuine people do not appear in the registers that would cover them: some registers are voluntary, some are not searchable from outside, some hold only part of a profession, and some names are recorded differently from how a person writes them.
A register returned something that conflicts with the claim as stated. The report shows the claim and the record side by side and leaves the reading to you.
“Could not verify” does not mean a person is not real, and it does not mean they lied. It means one search, on one day, in one register, did not return a match. Reporting it as anything stronger than that misstates what the report says.
Which registers
Naming them is the point — a reader who can name the register can go and check it. Depending on what a person claims, a check may search:
Which of these applies depends entirely on the claim. A report never implies a register was consulted when it was not.
A report is a moment, not a standing status
Every report is point-in-time. It records what a register said on the day it was asked, and registers change: licences lapse, entries are added, names are corrected. A report from March does not describe today.
Every report is immutable. Once written it is never edited. Re-running a check produces a new report with a new reference, and the old one continues to say exactly what it said.
Every report carries a reference number, which is how a specific check is identified. It is not a web address and it opens nothing.
Why you cannot read the report itself
Reports are about named private individuals. Publishing one would hand that person's file to everyone who follows a citation, including people with no business reading it. So reports are not published, and there is no public URL that opens one.
What anyone can do is ask us to confirm a check with a given reference happened — when it ran, and which registers it consulted. Write to contact@mentionfox.com with the reference number from the citation. We will not disclose anything about the subject of a check to anyone other than the person who ran it.
If a check was run on you
You can have it corrected, and you do not need anyone's permission to start.
- Send evidence. Write to contact@mentionfox.com with the reference number and the register entry, licence, filing or document that settles the point.
- A corrected report supersedes the original — it does not overwrite it. The first report continues to exist and to say what it said; the new one records the correction, the evidence, and the fact that it replaces the earlier reference. Nothing is quietly rewritten, and the record of the mistake survives alongside the fix.
- Anyone citing the superseded reference is pointed at the correction when they ask us to confirm it.
What a Source Check does not establish
- It does not establish identity. Nothing in a report proves the person who contacted you is the person in those records. No public register settles that.
- It is not a public-record check in the regulated sense, and must not be used for employment, tenancy or credit decisions.
- It does not assert that anyone is fake. The tool reports what was found and what was not. It has no verdict that means “this person is lying”, because searching a register cannot show that.
- It does not replace asking. The fastest way to close what a report leaves open is usually the person, their employer, or the outlet's press office.
Related
- Citation guidelines — if you are writing about, or citing, a check.
- Pricing — what running a check costs.
- Contact us — to confirm a reference, or to correct a report about you.