Frequently Asked Questions

Trust Duck is an independent business verification platform that assigns a Trust Duck Score (0–100) to businesses worldwide. The score is calculated using AI, third-party review data, LinkedIn signals, and web presence checks — with no paid placements.

The Trust Duck Score is a 0–100 reliability rating for a business. It combines external review platform ratings (Trustpilot, Clutch, G2), LinkedIn follower counts, Maps listing verification, domain age, SSL status, profile completeness, press coverage, and Wikipedia/Wikidata presence.

Trust Duck was built by Philip Cripe of CripeHub Solutions. It grew out of a shared frustration watching consumers and investors get burned by businesses that misrepresented themselves.

Yes. Browsing scores, submitting a business, and claiming your profile (ownership verification) are all free. Subscribing to Standard ($20/month or $220/year) adds full AI verification and raises the score cap to 90. Premium (human audit, cap 100) is a legacy tier on some older accounts and is not currently available to new signups.

No. Trust Duck is fully independent. We read publicly available data from those platforms as one signal among many, but we have no commercial relationship with them.

No. Scores are calculated algorithmically from verifiable signals. No amount of payment changes what the algorithm finds. Upgrading to Standard or Premium raises the score cap and triggers deeper verification, but the underlying signals — reviews, LinkedIn, domain age — cannot be bought.

Trustpilot collects reviews on its own platform. Trust Duck aggregates signals from multiple platforms (including Trustpilot) and adds LinkedIn verification, domain age, and Maps presence to produce a single composite score. We also screen for red flags like sanctions matches.

Scores update automatically when a review is submitted or approved, when a business is claimed, and during periodic re-verification runs. Claimed businesses can also manually trigger a re-score from their account dashboard.

Yes. Any business with an online presence can be submitted regardless of country. Location signals (city, country, region) are used for ranking pages but do not affect the score itself.

All industries are supported. Category tags include Web3, Fintech, Crypto, eCommerce, SaaS, AI, DeFi, NFT, Blockchain, Marketing, Consulting, Legal, Accounting, Real Estate, Healthcare, Education, Gaming, and more.

The seven signals are: (1) External reviews — Trustpilot, Clutch, G2 up to 47 pts. (2) LinkedIn — company and founder followers up to 11 pts. (3) Maps listing — Google/Apple Maps presence up to 8 pts. (4) Web presence — HTTPS and domain age up to 7 pts. (5) Profile completeness — up to 7 pts. (6) Press presence — news coverage or published Trust Duck articles up to 5 pts. (7) Wikipedia/Wikidata presence — up to 5 pts.

We check that the URL resolves and read the rating. Scores are weighted by review count and converted to a points value. A 4.0/5 average with 50+ reviews earns more than a 4.0 with 3 reviews. The maximum from external reviews is 47 points.

We search worldwide news coverage for the business name and count distinct outlets — coverage on your own website does not count. 5+ outlets earns 5 pts, 3–4 earns 3 pts, 1–2 earns 1 pt. Businesses without external coverage can publish articles on their Trust Duck profile instead: 1 pt per published article up to the full 5. You get whichever is higher.

We look the business up in Wikidata and only count an entry whose registered official website matches the business domain — this prevents name collisions. A verified Wikidata entry earns 3 pts, and an English Wikipedia article brings it to 5 pts.

We use RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) — a standardised, public DNS registration system — to find the domain registration date. A domain registered 10+ years ago earns 4 pts. 5–9 years earns 3 pts. 2–4 years earns 2 pts. 1–2 years earns 1 pt. Under a year earns 0.

We perform a live HEAD request to the business website. An active HTTPS site earns 3 pts. An active HTTP-only site earns 1 pt. An unreachable site earns 0. Combined with domain age, the web presence maximum is 7 pts.

At the formula level we validate that the LinkedIn URL resolves to linkedin.com (3 pts). At the AI level we retrieve follower counts for both the company page and the founder profile. 10,000+ combined followers earns 11 pts. The scale goes down to 2 pts for any confirmed presence.

A confirmed Maps URL (Google or Apple Maps) that responds with HTTP 200 earns 4 pts. A URL provided but unconfirmed earns 2 pts. An address on file with no URL earns 2 pts. A verified listing with reviews (set by AI) earns 5 pts. Maximum is 8 pts.

Eight fields: company name, website, description (50+ characters), founder name, email, LinkedIn URL, Maps URL or address, and at least one review platform URL. Each filled field contributes proportionally to the 7-point maximum.

The formula score runs instantly on submission using automated technical checks (HEAD requests, RDAP, URL validation). The AI score runs when a profile is upgraded to Standard — it adds LinkedIn follower counts, actual review ratings scraped from external platforms, and a red-flag analysis. The formula score is a floor; AI fills in the rest.

Red flags include: OFAC sanctions matches, FATF watchlist mentions, terrorism-related associations, suspected fraud patterns, and very recently registered domains (under 30 days). A sanctions or terror match puts the profile into manual legal review and zeros the score.

Not directly. A new business simply cannot earn the domain age points that an established one can. Its score reflects what can be verified now. As the domain ages and reviews accumulate, the score rises naturally.

Not currently. Reaching 100 requires Premium tier, which is a legacy status on some older accounts and is not available to new signups. Unclaimed profiles are not scored at all. Subscribing to Standard ($20/mo or $220/yr) caps at 90.

Score caps exist because unverified profiles cannot be fully checked. Unclaimed profiles are not scored at all. Claiming for free (ownership verification) does not change that — subscribing to Standard ($20/mo or $220/yr) unlocks AI verification and raises the cap to 90. Premium (cap 100) is a legacy tier, not currently available to new signups.

Yes. The full point breakdown for every signal is documented at trustduck.click/how-we-score. We believe transparency is essential — you should know exactly what earns what.

A business with a Trustpilot score of 4.0 or higher and at least 5 reviews, or a Clutch/G2/score of 4.0+ with at least 3 reviews, is automatically approved on submission without waiting for manual review.

Go to trustduck.click/submit. You need a verified account. Fill in the business name, website, description, and any review platform URLs you have. The formula score runs within seconds of submission.

No. Anyone can submit a business for a formula score. Claiming the profile (which grants owner features) requires verifying you own the business.

The initial formula score typically completes within 1–2 seconds. The page is live immediately at /business/[slug].

Search for it at trustduck.click/rankings or using the search bar on the home page. If it's there, you can claim it. If not, submit it.

Yes. Submissions are open. However, you can only claim and manage a profile if you can verify ownership. Submitting a business with false information violates our Terms of Service.

Your listing goes live with a formula score. If the business meets the auto-approval threshold it's marked verified immediately. Otherwise it may enter a pending queue for review.

The initial score is a formula-only score — it reflects what automated checks can find (HTTPS, domain age, URL validation). Full external review data and LinkedIn follower counts are only added after AI verification, which runs when you upgrade to Standard.

Yes, after claiming the profile. Claimed owners can edit all fields from their account dashboard at trustduck.click/account.

Claiming is free and verifies you are the business owner. It unlocks edit access to your listing and badge embedding on your website. Optionally, you can then subscribe to Standard ($20/mo or $220/yr) for AI verification and a 90-point cap. Premium (human audit, 100-point cap) is a legacy tier, not currently available to new signups.

Find your business at /business/[your-slug] and click Claim. You'll need a verified account and a matching company email domain.

Standard ($20/mo or $220/yr) runs full AI verification and raises the score cap to 90 — it includes the owner badge, edit access, and badge embedding. Premium (cap 100, +10 bonus, human audit) is a legacy tier on some older accounts and is not currently available to new signups.

Premium profiles receive a flat +10 point bonus applied on top of all other score components. This reflects the additional accountability that comes with a fully verified, human-audited commitment. Premium is currently a legacy tier and not available to new signups.

A verified badge appears on your company profile and can be embedded on your own website. It links back to your Trust Duck Score profile and updates dynamically as your score changes.

Your free claimed status (ownership verification) is permanent as long as your profile complies with our Terms of Service — we may remove it if a profile is found to contain false information or was obtained fraudulently. The Standard subscription itself is recurring: if it lapses, your profile keeps its free claimed status but loses AI verification and drops back out of the 90-point cap.

Standard is a subscription — $20/month or $220/year. It includes AI verification, the owner badge, edit access, and badge embedding, and raises the score cap to 90 for as long as the subscription stays active. Premium (one-time human audit, cap 100) is a legacy tier from an earlier pricing model and is not currently available to new signups.

No — Trust Duck doesn't host its own reviews. Your Trust Duck Score is built from aggregated data on external review platforms (Trustpilot, Clutch, G2) instead, so it can't be inflated by fake accounts created directly on our site.

The aggregate score and review count from Trustpilot, Clutch, and G2 are displayed as signals on your profile. Individual reviews are not reproduced — only the platform score and count.

Trustpilot and Clutch need 5+ reviews, G2 needs 3+, before that platform counts toward your score. Below the threshold, the platform still appears on your profile but does not affect the score. Full point breakdown at trustduck.click/how-we-score.

That's between you and the platform it's hosted on — Trust Duck doesn't host or moderate reviews itself. If you believe a business's overall profile is inaccurate or fraudulent, you can report it from the business page.

The AI searches Trustpilot, LinkedIn (company page and founder), Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing, G2, Clutch, and the wider web. It checks domain age, SSL, LinkedIn follower counts, review ratings and counts, red flags, and generates a verification narrative.

Typically 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on how many platforms respond. You will see the score update after it completes.

Yes — when a business is submitted (formula only), when a profile is upgraded to Standard (full AI), and when an admin triggers a re-verification. Owners previously had a manual re-score button; this is temporarily disabled pending Stripe integration.

Yes. The AI may miss data if a platform blocks crawlers, if a LinkedIn URL is incorrect, or if search results are ambiguous. Formula checks (HTTPS, RDAP, URL validation) are deterministic and reliable. AI-layer checks are more powerful but occasionally miss or misread data.

Trust Duck uses the Anthropic Claude API for AI-layer verification tasks. The formula layer (domain age, HTTPS, URL validation) uses direct technical checks with no AI.

The AI may visit the website as part of its research to corroborate claims, but the score is based on verifiable signals — not subjective content assessment.

Claimed profiles are re-verified when review platform data is updated through our partner API integrations. Profiles can also be re-verified on demand by the business owner.

Yes. Trust Duck Scores are public. Please attribute them to 'Trust Duck Score' and link to the company's profile page. Scores reflect the data available at time of publication and may change.

Every point is traceable to a public signal. The How We Score page documents the full methodology. The debug tool in the admin panel shows every check with raw HTTP responses and timing.

Not by a third party at this stage. All scoring logic is documented publicly and can be independently reproduced — the RDAP lookup, HTTPS check, and external platform URLs are all public.

Use the contact form at trustduck.click/support or email via the address on the Legal page.

The public API at /api/companies supports CSV export (?format=csv) and JSON. See /api/companies?format=text for a plain-text overview of all companies.

A high score reflects strong verifiable signals — not a guarantee of quality or trustworthiness. Use it as one data point among many. A score of 70+ indicates a well-established business with consistent public signals.

Yes. GET /api/companies supports search, category, location, min_score, claimed, limit, and offset parameters. Responses are available in JSON, plain text (?format=text), and CSV (?format=csv). No API key is required for read access.

Yes. GET /api/companies/[slug] returns the full company profile including score breakdown, external review data, verification notes, and LinkedIn/Maps status.

Yes — trustduck.click/llms.txt. It describes the platform, scoring methodology, API usage, and data structure in a format optimised for language models.

Yes. Every company profile page includes JSON-LD schema markup with LocalBusiness type, aggregate rating, and review data. This helps search engines and LLMs understand and surface the data.

Each result includes: name, slug, profile URL, website, founder, description, category, location (city/region/country/global_region), Trust Duck Score, score breakdown, external review data (per platform), LinkedIn/Maps verification status, claim tier, and verification notes.

The API returns Cache-Control: public, max-age=300 (5 minutes). For real-time accuracy, re-fetch before publishing or acting on a score.

Yes, subject to our Terms of Service. Attribution to Trust Duck is required. Commercial use cases should contact us for a usage agreement.

If you create an account: your email, display name, avatar (if Google login), and hashed session tokens. If you submit a business: the information you provide. We do not sell personal data.

Contact us via the support form. We will review removal requests. Note that if a business was submitted by a third party and the information is accurate, we may retain it in the public interest.

Profiles that match OFAC, FATF, or terrorism-related signals are placed into a legal review queue, the score is suspended, and a warning is displayed on the profile. We do not remove these profiles — the warning is part of the public record.

We respect data privacy rights. EU users can request access to or deletion of their personal data via our support contact. Business listing data is treated as public commercial information.

You must not submit false information, impersonate a business you do not represent, or use the platform to harass or defame. Full terms are at trustduck.click/legal.

Your account and personal data are deleted. Reviews you submitted are anonymised. Business listings you submitted remain on the platform as public commercial information.