A treasure trove of useful websites to help you with your online Due Diligence enquiries. We have broken down the websites into headings to help your research efforts.
Useful Links
AML Due Diligence Links
A glossary of terms from ACAMS the largest international membership organisation for Anti-Financial Crime professionals.
Fantastic set of resources put together by Travis Birch
The Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index is an independent annual ranking that assesses the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world.
The World Fact Book provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
A tool you can use to compare what a particular countries passport, driving licence or identity card should look like (EU only).
The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
High Risk Third Countries list
List compiled by the UK Law Society.
Handy resource to research different jurisdictions/countries.
Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Requires a login to get the best use from it.
The open database of sanctions targets and persons of interest (currently free to search 13.4.22).
Public Intelligence is an international, collaborative research project aimed at aggregating the collective work of independent researchers around the globe who wish to defend the public’s right to access information.
Interactive map featuring all current EU Sanctions.
UK HM Government Sanctions list
Find out which people, entities and ships are designated or specified under regulations made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, and why.
UN Security Council Sanctions list
This Consolidated List includes all individuals and entities subject to measures imposed by the Security Council.
We seek to level the playing field, so SEC whistleblowers can successfully report securities violations—without personal or professional regrets.
This tool is designed to provide a free & easy way to search companies & entities to see if they are on global sanctions lists. The consolidated data provided by OpenSanctions.org has been enriched with visualisation & quick pivot searching to OpenCorporates.com
From villages in rural India to the corridors of power in Brussels, Transparency International gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption. We work together with governments, businesses and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals.
Overcome the limits of national registers: search by name. Data on owners from over 200 jurisdictions. Intelligently de-duplicated ownership data.
Open Register of national politically exposed persons of Ukraine.
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
General Search Engines
Clustering search engine that display categorical search data in an explorer pane to the left of the search results
The great Google, hard to see how anything will better than it but remember for greater coverage you have to use other search resources!
Remember that results may differ when you use a different Google domain; consider others. A full list can be found here:
Search engines are like golf clubs, they all work very slightly differently. Be prepared to use others, and don’t just use Google.
Like Google, Yahoo indexes the Web and makes information from Web pages available to Web searches.
Good alternative search engine (Russian)
Meta search engine (and apparently private)
Meta search engine, stops IP tracking and direct advertisements based on search history
Search privately, receive better results and get rewarded with the Presearch decentralized search engine, powered by blockchain technology.
Same features as Duck Duck Go however the user interface is more simple
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Company Research
UK Companies House with access to documents for free!
The European Business Register is a network of National Business Registers and Information Providers from currently 25 European countries.
This portal allows you to search for and access company information from the national business registers across the EU.
UK Land registry (small fee for documents)
European Land Registry
Free Company and/or Director research with subscription option (UK)
Worldwide Company research tool, over 167 million companies to search from
Good source for Director information
Worldwide Company research tool
Good company resource, 40 million companies available for searching
AiHitdata is a unique source of company information. It stores and continually updates huge amounts of company data. Much of this data is unique, it will not be found in any other database available on the Internet.
Insight on companies including reviews
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Domain and IP Research
Fantastic domain/IP search tool and much more. You will get 20 days free by entering the voucher code INTELECTTRIAL. After that there is a small charge, but you get historical domain searches, excellent for looking at previous owners, hosts and much more!
IP Address tools
IP Address tools
DNS Information
Check what your browser leaks about you
Great tool for IP/Domain research
Check your IP address and more info about you
Quick IP address information
Investigate domains and IP addresses. Get registrant information, DNS records, and more.
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Audit Trail and Recording
A web capture tool designed for online investigations – highly recommended.IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Cyber Crime Resources
UK resource on online safety both business and personal
This site is packed full of resources on how to avoid a Data Breach, recommended to me by an up and coming Cyber Security professional (thank you Zoe)
Preventative advice from Norton
National Cyber Security Center
Expert, trusted, and independent guidance for UK industry, government departments, the critical national infrastructure and private SMEs.
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
UK Government initiative
We put together some quick tips and best practices for you to create stronger passwords, protect your devices, avoid phishing attempts, and browse the Internet securely.
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cyber attacks by criminals, overseas adversaries, and terrorists.
Anti-ransomware
Esupport Ransomware screen unlocker from Trend Micro
Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime handbook
Take a phishing quiz, see how well you do.
This Anti-Virus suite which is currently free gets a very good write up.
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Language
Our favourite translation tool, recommend the download rather than the website.
People Search
Worldwide people search tool – WEF June 2019 moved to a subscription model.
Worldwide people search tool with ranking
UK and mostly paid for results but some info available to research in other tools
Username search tool, scans websites where users enter in an alias
Still testing this one but given the removal of Facebook Graph Search this offers a working alternative (for now).
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Legal and Finance
UK Financial Conduct Authority
We aim to make financial markets work well so that consumers get a fair deal, including protecting consumers, enhancing marker integrity and promoting competition.
The Law Pages is a legal resources site that provides a number of services and facilities for legal professionals, students as well as the general public.
The Supreme Court’s docket system contains information about cases, both pending and decided, that have been filed at the Court.
Bankruptcy and statutory notices
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Proxy and VPN
Top 10 VPNs available for encrypted browsing
Proxify is an anonymous proxy service which allows anyone to surf the Web privately and securely.
A free proxy list and proxy checker providing you with the best free proxy servers.
VPN protocols, split tunneling and zero knowledge required.
Multi-platform apps designed to be user-friendly with 1 click
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Social Media Tools
Excellent social media monitoring tool, no longer free version.
Trawls many platforms and reports trends
Allows you to tailor search results to specific date ranges, people and more.
Designed to help you manage your own social media presenc
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.
Browser Extensions
Online Security
Online Security
Blocks YouTube, Facebook and ads everywhere else on the web.
Disconnect lets you visualize and block the invisible websites that track you.
Encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
A lightweight screen recorder and casting extension
FireShot takes full web page screenshots. You can edit and annotate captures.
Deletes typed URLs, Cache, Cookies, your Download and Browsing History instantly
Integrates with Chrome and a must for professional investigators. Screen captures and much, much more! Currently around £80 GBP and well worth it.
A Firefox extension which helps you remove your internet history and enhance your security and privacy within seconds.
Displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website’s server and provides a multitude of tools such as site safety checks, whois, translation, similar sites, validation, URL shortening, and more.
IMPORTANT: Links to other websites are made available for convenience of investigators and researchers. They do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. As with all links, please exercise caution. Care should always be exercised. We will not be held liable or responsible if they later prove to be malicious.