How we work.

Two stages. Public surfaces only. Every claim carrying its own evidence, and every subject given the chance to answer before anything is published.

Two stages

Every case runs in two stages, and each report says plainly which one you are reading.

1. Stage 1 — Reconnaissance A public-surface audit of what the seller claims about itself: testimonials, awards, ratings, deadlines, pricing, and the records behind each. We buy nothing, contact no one, and touch nothing that is not already public. The findings stand on their own — a case does not need the product test to be worth reading.
2. Stage 2 — Product test We buy the product and use it, on infrastructure we control, to measure what the marketing does not tell a buyer: value delivered, whether the stated results reproduce, support quality, refund-policy adherence, and whether the price charged matches the price advertised. Published as a separate edition, because a product can make honest claims and still underperform.

Our rules

Public surfaces only. No hacking, no breached data, no leaked documents, no purchased databases. Everything in a report was visible to any member of the public at the time we captured it.

Every claim carries its evidence. Each finding is paired with a preserved artifact, a capture timestamp, and a SHA-256 hash. The unaltered originals are kept, and the derivation of every published image from its original is recorded. Where a claim can still be checked, you can check it yourself.

Every subject gets a right of reply. Anyone we name is offered the chance to respond before publication, and any response is published in full and unedited. Where a finding rests on inference rather than observation, we label it as inference.

Corrections are new editions. We do not silently edit a published report. If something in one is wrong, the correction is issued as a dated edition so the record of what was said, and when, stays intact.

What we do not do

We are not a regulator and we have no enforcement power. We do not accuse anyone of a crime — characterising conduct legally is for courts. We assess whether a product's claims can be independently verified, and we publish what we find alongside the evidence so that whoever can act on it — a platform, a newsroom, a regulator, or a buyer — is able to.

We would rather publish a report that finds a company in good standing than one that does not. A favourable finding costs us nothing.

Publishing, and early access

Each case is published as a standalone report. Before publication, cases are offered to a small number of outlets in tiers — first a national investigations desk, then specialist and regional press, then independent and smaller outlets. If an earlier tier takes the story, later tiers hear from us when it publishes.

Cases still in preparation are not listed anywhere. If you work in consumer protection, online fraud or platform integrity and would like early sight of a case, get in touch.