As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly check whether a UK supplier is legitimate.

What to actually do

1. Use a tool built for this

   The route this page recommends

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Gather the supplier's quotation, invoice, contract, website URL, email address, phone number, registered address, bank details and any certificates, and redact unrelated personal or banking information.
   2. Open the Companies House service and any relevant official UK register, then record the legal name, company number, status, registered office, directors where relevant and filing history exactly as shown.
   3. Check whether the supplier's website, email domain, phone number, address, quotation and bank-account name match the official records, and contact the supplier through a trusted number rather than replying only to a payment-change email.
   4. Paste the gathered facts and document text into a chatbot with the prompt, asking it to separate verified evidence from supplier claims and to cite every source it used.
   5. Open each cited source yourself, compare the company number, names, addresses and dates with the report, and mark any citation that does not support the stated claim.
   6. Ask the supplier for missing evidence, contact an independent trade reference where appropriate, and approve only a proportionate first order or payment after a colleague has checked the evidence and unresolved risks.

   Prompt

   Assess whether this UK supplier appears legitimate, but do not give a simple safe or unsafe conclusion without showing the evidence.
   
   Supplier information:
   - Trading name: [name]
   - Legal name: [name, if known]
   - Companies House number: [number, if known]
   - Website: [URL]
   - Email addresses and phone numbers: [details]
   - Registered address and trading address: [details]
   - Goods or services offered: [description]
   - Proposed price, payment terms and delivery terms: [details]
   - Documents supplied, such as quotations, invoices or certificates: [paste text or describe files]
   - How I found the supplier: [details]
   - What I plan to buy and the consequence of failure: [details]
   
   Use current, authoritative UK sources where available, including Companies House and relevant official government registers. Cite the source URL and the date checked for every factual claim. Separate verified facts, supplier claims, assumptions and missing evidence. Check for inconsistencies between the legal name, company number, address, website, email domain, bank details, trading history, goods offered and payment terms. Identify red flags, but do not treat a young company, limited online presence or a Companies House listing alone as proof of fraud or legitimacy.
   
   Return:
   1. An evidence table with claim, source, date checked and confidence.
   2. A list of unresolved identity, payment, delivery and documentation risks.
   3. Specific checks I should complete myself before paying, including how to verify any changed bank details through a trusted contact route.
   4. A cautious conclusion using one of: evidence supports proceeding with safeguards, evidence is insufficient, or do not proceed until the listed issues are resolved.
   5. The smallest safe next order or payment step, if one is sensible.
   
   Do not invent records, reviews, certificates, contact details or financial information. If you cannot access a source, say so and give me the exact page or search needed.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Hand it to a person

   The distant third

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.