# Detect tampered and deepfake Company Extract > A forged company extract is caught by the things the registry controls and the forger cannot: the extraction timestamp, the sequence behind the reference number, and a seal that was impressed rather than printed. An extract is a point-in-time statement of who the directors are, who holds the shares, and whether the company is still in good standing, so the edits worth making remove a disqualified officer, revive a struck-off entity on paper, or move a stale extract's date forward to satisfy a freshness rule. **Canonical URL:** https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/company_extract **API document class:** `company_extract` **Last updated:** 2026-10-07 --- ## What a genuine company extract contains An extract states the company number, the full legal name, the legal form, the registered office, and the date of incorporation, followed by the current status: active, dormant, in liquidation, or dissolved. Then come the officers, each with an appointment date and, where they have left, a resignation date, the company secretary, the shareholders with their holdings, the issued share capital, and the activity codes the company is registered under. The page ends with the extract reference, the date and time of extraction, the registrar's seal, and on modern extracts a verification code or QR. Everything on the page is true only as at the extraction timestamp, which makes that timestamp the field the whole document depends on. Every appointment and resignation date has to fall before it, the status has to be consistent with the officer list, since a dissolved company has no serving directors, and the shareholdings have to sum to the issued capital stated above them. The verification code is derived from the extract's own contents, so editing a director's name leaves a code that resolves to a different document. ## How company extract forgeries are made ### Director list edits A disqualified, sanctioned, or politically exposed officer is deleted from the list, or a respectable name is inserted to make the board look bankable. This is the edit that defeats screening downstream, because the names that reach the sanctions check are the names the extract supplied. ### Status reversal A status line reading dissolved, struck off, or in liquidation is changed to active so a dead shell can open accounts or sign contracts. The revised status then contradicts the officer list below it, which on a genuinely dissolved company shows every director as terminated on the same date. ### Extract date rolled forward Due diligence policies usually require an extract no older than thirty or ninety days. Moving the extraction date forward keeps an old and now inaccurate snapshot inside that window, and is attractive precisely because the underlying document is entirely genuine. ### Shareholding adjustment Holdings are redistributed so no single shareholder crosses the threshold that would make them a beneficial owner requiring identification. The redistributed figures frequently stop summing to the issued capital printed a few lines above them. ### Verification code and QR recreation A QR is regenerated so it scans cleanly and looks legitimate on inspection, but it encodes a URL or reference the registrar never issued. Reviewers rarely follow the code, and a barcode that decodes to something inconsistent with the printed particulars is a reliable signal. ### Extracts built from a blank template Registry layouts are public, so a complete extract can be typeset from scratch for a company that was never registered. Nothing internal contradicts anything else, and what gives it away is the print: uniform, digitally clean output where a registry print run leaves its own characteristics. ## What TamperCheck checks on a company extract TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class. ### Embossed seal analysis A physically embossed seal deforms the paper it sits on. A seal that was scanned and reprinted is flat, and the two separate cleanly under analysis even when they are hard to tell apart by eye. ### Barcode and QR payload comparison Encoded payloads are decoded and compared against the human-readable values printed alongside them. Editing the visible text without re-encoding the barcode is a common and highly detectable mistake. ### Date and validity consistency Issue, expiry, and period dates are checked against one another and against the file's own creation metadata, which catches backdating and validity extension. ### And many more checks The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a company extract. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks. ## Who verifies a company extract, and why Corporate banking and lending teams running due diligence. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging. ## How to verify a company extract in 4 steps 1. **Pull the extract yourself.** Do not accept the copy you were sent. Request the same extract directly from the registry, or follow the verification code printed on it, and compare the officers, shareholders, status, and registered office against the document you were given. 2. **Check the extraction timestamp against the content.** Confirm every appointment and resignation date falls before the stated extraction date and time, and that the status is consistent with the officer list. A company shown as active with all directors terminated on one date has had one of those two fields changed. 3. **Add up the shareholdings.** The holdings listed should sum to the issued share capital stated on the same page. A shortfall or an overrun usually means a shareholder was removed or a stake was reduced to keep someone below the beneficial ownership threshold. 4. **Analyse the document itself.** A copy reprinted from a genuine extract passes every lookup you can run. TamperCheck applies 200+ forensic checks to the file, returns a risk score from 0 to 100, and points to the specific region that was altered, at $0.50 per document. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do banks verify a company registry extract? Banks re-run the extract themselves at the registry instead of relying on the copy the customer supplied, then compare the directors, shareholders, registered office, and company status field by field. Names from the extract feed sanctions and adverse media screening, and where the registry cannot be queried directly the supplied document is analysed for edits before it is trusted. ### Can a company extract be forged? Yes, and it is one of the more attractive targets in a due diligence pack, because the extract is what supplies the names that get screened. Deleting one director from the list quietly removes that person from every downstream check. Registry layouts are public, seals are scannable, and the copy under review is usually a PDF that nobody re-pulled from the source. ### How recent does a company extract need to be? Most due diligence policies require one no more than thirty to ninety days old, because the document is only a statement about the moment it was produced. That rule is also the reason the extraction date gets edited: moving it forward is a single-field change that returns an out-of-date snapshot to acceptable, without touching anything a reviewer is looking at. ### What is the difference between a company extract and a certificate of incorporation? The certificate records one historical event, the company's formation, and never changes; the extract describes the company as it stands today, including officers, shareholders, and whether it is still active. A certificate therefore proves a company once existed, and only an extract shows whether it still does and who currently controls it. ## Related document types - Articles of Incorporation: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/articles_of_incorporation - Business Registration: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/business_registration - Board Resolution: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/board_resolution - GST Certificate: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/gst_certificate - Trade License: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/trade_license - Registration Certificate: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/registration_certificate --- Try TamperCheck now: https://tampercheck.ai/dashboard · Docs: https://tampercheck.ai/docs · Pricing: https://tampercheck.ai/pricing