LIVE Verified against 16 official registers
FCA Financial Services Register Companies House UK Sanctions List HMRC Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme HMRC VAT Number Checker HMRC-Approved ISA Managers Scotch Whisky Association Members Directory HMRC Supervised Business Register Ofgem Feed-In Tariff Register Carbon Credit Project Registries HMRC Money Laundering Penalties Information Commissioner's Office OpenFIGI Domain Registries Mail And Web Records Ofcom Numbering Data
MetaAshes

The Rise or Burn Assessment

Claims Are Easy to Make. Evidence Is Hard to Fake.

Anyone can make a claim. MetaAshes checks it against 16 independent official sources, connecting the firm, its people, regulatory status and payment details to the evidence behind them.

The result is a documented verdict: RISEN or BURNED.

From regulated financial investments to whisky, wine, gold, crypto, art and carbon credits, each assessment is built around the official records and registers relevant to that market.

Start an Assessment How It Works
  • 69 fraud checks
  • 16 official sources
  • 165 scoring rules
  • 8 fairness checks
  • PDF evidence report
Verified against
  • FCA Financial Services Register
  • FCA Warning List
  • Companies House
  • UK Sanctions List
  • HMRC
  • Information Commissioner's Office
  • WHOIS domain registries

The Challenge

Identity Is the Easiest Thing to Imitate.

A fraudulent firm can copy a name, a reference number, a website and even a reputation. What it cannot control is the independent record held by the institutions behind those claims.

MetaAshes brings those records together, checks them against one another and looks for what matches, what does not and what deserves a closer look.

£221.5m lost to investment fraud in the UK in 2025 Up 40% year on year
14,893 investment fraud cases reported Up 26% year on year
£14,900 average loss per case Derived from UK Finance data
No. 1 largest source of authorised push payment losses Ahead of every other APP scam type

Source: UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026, reporting on 2025.

The Anatomy of Impersonation

  1. 1A genuine firm's name and regulatory reference number are adopted.
  2. 2A separate website, email address and telephone number are attached to that identity.
  3. 3A search returns the genuine firm, reinforcing false confidence.
  4. 4Funds are transferred to an account unconnected to the genuine firm.

Why Sophisticated Impersonation Succeeds

Sophisticated impersonation does not look like fraud.

The website can look genuine. The correspondence can look professional. The regulatory details can appear correct.

The inconsistencies often emerge only when those claims are checked against independent records and compared with one another.

MetaAshes does exactly that.

Submit the details. Test the claims. See what the evidence says.

Demonstration · 1 minute 48 seconds

One Offer Letter. Every Claim Tested.

Follow a fictional investment offer from the moment it arrives to the final verdict, with every claim checked against the evidence.

The firm in this demonstration is fictional, but the assessment process is real. It shows the same verification process used when assessing a genuine enquiry.

Narrated by the founder of MetaAshes.

  1. 0:00 Why the FCA Register is not enough
  2. 0:16 What MetaAshes does
  3. 0:24 Uploading the offer letter
  4. 0:50 Testing every detail
  5. 0:58 The verdict and its evidence
  6. 1:26 The written report
  7. 1:32 Why every approach is tested

The video loads from YouTube only when you press play, and then runs in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode, as our Cookie Policy explains. Harrowvale Sterling Capital, its letter and its telephone numbers are fictional.

Our Approach

One Assessment. Every Independent Record.

Provide the details you have been given. MetaAshes checks each one against independent official records and returns a clear, evidence-based conclusion.

  1. 01

    Submit the Details

    A guided form asks one question at a time about the firm's identity, its credentials and the payment instructions. You can answer each question yourself, or upload an email or letter and have its details read into the form.

  2. 02

    Independent Verification

    Each detail is checked against 16 official and public sources, and the offer is then assessed against recognised patterns of investment fraud.

  3. 03

    A Documented Verdict

    You receive a risk level, a RISEN or BURNED verdict and a documented report that you can share with your bank or the appropriate authority.

Assessment Pathway One

Regulated Financial Investments

Private and listed shares, bonds, loan notes, ISAs, funds, pensions, forex and CFDs. Most products in this category require FCA authorisation, so the firm is tested directly against the Financial Services Register: whether its reference number is genuine, whether the number belongs to that firm, and whether its permissions cover this specific product. A loan note or mini-bond is tested differently, against the promotion approval the law has required since 2021. An ISA manager is tested against HMRC's own published register.

Assessment Pathway Two

Whisky, Wine, Gold and Crypto Assets

These markets sit outside FCA authorisation, so verification establishes who genuinely holds the asset, whether a warehouse, an exchange or a distillery, and confirms that holder independently rather than relying on the seller's word. Crypto firms are also checked against the FCA's register of cryptoasset firms and the promotion approval required since 2023.

Assessment Pathway Three

Art, Carbon Credits and Green Energy Investments

With no custodian to verify, the seller or scheme is checked directly against the register that governs its market: an art dealer against HMRC's register of Art Market Participants, and a carbon credit project against its issuing registry. A green energy investment is checked for the promotion approval the law requires.

Risk Indicators

The Twelve Patterns Behind Most Investment Fraud.

Each of the following corresponds to a live assessment MetaAshes performs, not a static warning list.

Cloned Identity

A genuine firm's name and credentials are adopted, while the website and bank account belong to someone else entirely.

Fabricated or Borrowed Reference Number

The number given is invented, or belongs to a different, unrelated firm.

Activity Beyond Authorisation

The firm holds a genuine permission, but not the one required to sell this specific product.

Presence on the FCA Warning List

The regulator has already identified this firm or website as unauthorised or cloned.

Shell or Phoenix Company

No genuine trading history, questionable directorships, or a pattern of dissolving and re-forming under a new name.

A Website Built to Imitate

Recently registered, closely resembling the genuine firm, down to a near-identical domain.

Payee Mismatch

The receiving bank account is not held in the name of the company being represented.

Advance Fee Requests

A tax, fee or deposit demanded before funds can be withdrawn. No genuine firm requires this.

Remote Access Requests

A request to install software granting control of a device. No genuine firm requires this either.

Recovery Room Activity

A follow-up approach offering to recover funds already lost, for a further payment.

Sanctioned Parties

The firm, company or an individual behind it appears on the UK's financial sanctions list.

Unverifiable Assets

No independent evidence the asset exists, no clear legal title, and no credible route to resell the asset.

Our Methodology

Consistent. Evidenced. Auditable.

Every result is produced by 165 defined rules and 8 fairness safeguards, which can only ever work in a genuine firm's favour. Newly established firms, and firms that can prove their own contact details, are weighted in proportion to the proof they can show. Identical evidence always produces an identical conclusion. See how the fairness checks work.

RISEN low or moderate risk BURNED elevated or high risk

The Rise or Burn distinction reflects the outcome of the assessment: a firm whose record withstands independent scrutiny has RISEN; one that does not has BURNED.

The Discipline Is in the Cross-Referencing

Any single register can be misrepresented in isolation. Testing independent sources against one another, sources with no reason to agree unless the underlying facts are genuine, is where verification actually happens.

Calibrated Fairness

A genuine firm is not penalised for a legitimate trading name, recent authorisation, or a director who shares a name with another individual. Context is built into the assessment itself.

Certain Findings Are Decisive

Some evidence is conclusive on its own. Other indicators are weighed only in combination.

Human-Readable, Not AI-Determined

The result is calculated before any AI is applied. AI is used solely to produce the plain-English explanation; it cannot alter the outcome.

A Complete Evidentiary Record

Every finding is documented in plain English and available as a formal report, suitable for a financial institution or the appropriate authority.

Scope of Assessment

69 Checks. 8 Areas of Risk.

See what each assessment examines across 8 areas of risk. Select an area to view its individual checks. Our scoring methodology remains proprietary.

FCA Financial Services Register

Establishes whether the firm is authorised, whether its regulatory credentials are genuinely its own, and whether it is permitted to offer what it is selling.

  1. 01Firm Reference Number validity
  2. 02Claimed parent or principal firm
  3. 03Ownership of the reference number
  4. 04Registered trading names
  5. 05Authorisation status
  6. 06Scope of regulatory permissions
  7. 07Official website on record
  8. 08FCA Warning List screening
  9. 09Official telephone number on record
  10. 10Regulatory restrictions
  11. 11Product identity verification
  12. 12Loan note promotion approval

Independent Sources

The Record, Not the Representation.

Every source below is retrieved directly from its issuing authority, never from the firm's own website, materials or correspondence.

01 Refreshed hourly

FCA Financial Services Register

The UK regulator's authoritative record of authorised firms, their permissions and their official contact details.

02 Refreshed hourly

Companies House

The UK's official register of companies, their officers, filings, controlling parties and secured charges.

03 Refreshed daily

UK Sanctions List

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's register of individuals and entities subject to UK financial sanctions.

04 Refreshed daily

HMRC Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme

HMRC's register of businesses approved to trade alcohol wholesale, including wine and whisky merchants.

05 Queried live

HMRC VAT Number Checker

HMRC's free, public VAT number checker, queried live to confirm which business a given VAT number is currently registered to.

06 Refreshed by hand

HMRC-Approved ISA Managers

HMRC's published list of every firm approved to manage an ISA, checked whenever money is said to be going into one.

07 Refreshed by hand

Scotch Whisky Association Members Directory

The industry body's list of operating Scotch whisky distilleries, used to confirm that a named distillery or holder genuinely exists.

08 Refreshed by hand

HMRC Supervised Business Register

HMRC's register of businesses supervised for money laundering, including dealers and galleries registered as Art Market Participants.

09 Refreshed by hand

Ofgem Feed-In Tariff Register

Ofgem's quarterly published record of every UK Feed-in Tariff-accredited small-scale renewable generation installation.

10 Refreshed by hand

Carbon Credit Project Registries

The carbon offset projects published by six standards. Verra, the Climate Action Reserve and Isometric come from the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project's Voluntary Registry Offsets Database; the American Carbon Registry and ART from their own public reports; and Gold Standard from its own registry. The American Carbon Registry and Gold Standard copies are refreshed daily, and Verra is queried live for a project not yet held.

11 Refreshed daily

HMRC Money Laundering Penalties

HMRC's published record of businesses penalised under the Money Laundering Regulations.

12 Refreshed daily

Information Commissioner's Office

The UK register of organisations that process personal data, including their registration status.

13 Refreshed hourly

OpenFIGI

Bloomberg's open, free financial instrument registry, which identifies the exact security an ISIN or SEDOL belongs to.

14 Refreshed hourly

Domain Registries

Authoritative WHOIS and RDAP domain registration records, drawn from registries worldwide.

15 Queried live

Mail And Web Records

Technical records confirming whether the firm's email address and website are genuinely operational.

16 Updated monthly

Ofcom Numbering Data

The communications regulator's allocation of every UK telephone number range, showing whether a number can exist and which phone company holds the range.

17 Never stored

Your Account

Tell us how the firm approached you, what it is offering and how you have been asked to pay. This information will not appear on any official register, but it can provide some of the most important evidence in an assessment.

A Conclusion, Either Way

Proceed With Confidence, or Stop Before Committing.

MetaAshes exists to support sound decisions with genuine firms, not only to identify fraud. Whichever result you receive, the appropriate next step is clear.

RISEN

No Critical Concerns Identified

  • No critical concerns were found within the sources examined, but this is an automated assessment and not a guarantee.
  • Confirm the firm for yourself on the FCA Register at register.fca.org.uk before you commit any money.
  • When you call the firm, use the number published on the official register rather than a number given to you in the offer.
  • Pay only by bank transfer to an account in the company's own name, or by card, and never in cryptocurrency.
  • Walk away if you are pressed to decide straight away or are promised a guaranteed return.
BURNED

Critical Concerns Identified: Stop Contact

  • Do not make any further payments to this firm until you have spoken to your bank, whatever reason you are given for sending more.
  • An authorised firm will never ask you to pay a fee, tax or charge before it releases your own money, and a request of this kind is a well-known sign of fraud.
  • Call your bank today, explain that you may have been the victim of fraud, and ask whether you are eligible for reimbursement under the authorised push payment (APP) fraud rules. Reporting quickly gives your bank the best chance of helping you.
  • Tell the FCA about the firm by calling 0800 111 6768 or through the FCA website at fca.org.uk.
  • Report what has happened to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report it to Police Scotland on 101.
  • Keep every message, screenshot and payment reference, and attach this report to anything you send to your bank or the police.
  • Be wary of anyone who later offers to recover your money for a fee, because people who have already lost money are often targeted a second time in this way.
MetaAshes

Test the Claim Before You Commit.

A brief, independent assessment before funds are transferred.

Start an Assessment View Pricing