How Scammers Could Defeat Your Time-In-Business Underwriting Requirements

Fraudsters are increasingly bypassing 'time-in-business' (TIB) underwriting requirements by purchasing 'aged' shelf corporations. For retailers and operators offering financing, this means a business license that looks five years old on paper might actually have been acquired by a scammer yesterday. These entities often pass basic Secretary of State checks but lack a legitimate operational history. This creates a significant risk for merchant financing and B2B credit programs that rely on age as a primary proxy for stability. To protect your business, you must look beyond official registration dates. Scammers can buy a clean corporate shell, but they struggle to fake a digital footprint. If a business claims to be years old but has no historical Google Street View presence, no Yelp reviews from three years ago, and a brand-new website, it is likely a shell. Traditional underwriting is no longer enough to guarantee that a merchant or customer is who they say they are. Operators should cross-reference social media archives and domain registration history to verify that the business activity matches its legal age. Relying solely on 'years in business' is now a major vulnerability in your credit assessment process.

Source: deBanked

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