Bands
- Low risk 15
0–39. Nothing heavy turned up. Reply as you normally would.
- Check 50
40–69. Something doesn’t fit. Read the trail before you quote.
- High risk 95
70–100, or any hard stop. A deal or a win waits for an owner or admin.
A hard stop makes a lead High risk whatever its number. The chip still shows the number, so “High risk 30” means a hard stop found it, not the sum.
Hard stops
- A possible sanctions match on a name or alias, email, phone or website, or on a vessel IMO number in the message.
- An email or website domain imitating one you already deal with: a zero for an o, another ending, a letter or two changed, or your name plus a word.
- A bank-detail change nobody has confirmed with a callback.
A person clears a hard stop. AI never does.
Harb0r Line Machinery
Mark Ellisonm.ellison@harb0rlinemachinery.com
High risk because the email domain imitates harborlinemachinery.com.
- StopEmail domain imitates harborlinemachinery.com
What this proved: harb0r has a zero where the domain already on your books has the letter o.
- FlagEmail domain registered 6 days ago
What this proved: The registry’s date for the domain. It can’t show who registered it.
- FlagAsks to change the delivery address
What this proved: The message asks for the goods to go somewhere new.
- FlagEmail domain differs from the website given
What this proved: They wrote from harb0rlinemachinery.com and gave harborlinemachinery.com as their website.
- FlagNo DMARC record on the email domain
What this proved: The domain doesn’t ask receiving servers to reject mail forged in its name.
- ClearNo match on name, email, phone or website
What this proved: None of the four is on OFAC’s lists. A front company with new details can still pass.
- ClearBusiness domain, not free or disposable mail
What this proved: Only that the address isn’t on the free-mail or disposable lists.
- ClearMail server found
What this proved: The domain can receive mail. It says nothing about who reads it.
A sample lead, Harb0r Line Machinery, scored High risk 95.
Signals
| Signal | Weight |
|---|---|
| Email domain registered under 90 days ago | Medium |
| Email domain registered under a year ago | Light |
| Free email address | Light |
| Disposable email address | Heavy |
| No mail server for the domain | Medium |
| No DMARC record | Light |
| Email domain differs from the website given | Medium |
| A fee before any contract | Heavy |
| Commodity-offer jargon (ICPO, FCO, MT799, SBLC, JP54) | Heavy |
| Credit terms on a first order | Light |
| Deliver to our forwarder, or a new address | Medium |
| A shipping agent picked by the buyer | Medium |
| Urgent language | Light |
| WhatsApp, WeChat or Telegram only | Light |
| New bank details in the message | Heavy, and a hard stop until a callback |
| Air only, airport to airport, price accepted | Medium |
| A party shares a team member’s email or phone | Heavy |
| A pattern AI noticed in the message | Light |
Weights as of October 2026. Heavier signals move the score more. The exact points stay inside Laneseal, so nobody can write a message to land just under them.
When a check can’t run
Each lookup gets four seconds. If RDAP, DNS or the sanctions file doesn’t answer, that check reads Couldn’t run, adds nothing to the score, and the lead is still saved. You can run the checks again from the lead.
Checks run again
A score isn’t a stamp from the day the lead arrived. Across the platform, the same checks run again when a quote is accepted, before anyone signs, at booking, before cargo is released or picked up, and before any payment to new bank details. Laneseal runs every check again when someone converts a lead to a deal or marks a deal won, and whenever a contact’s email, phone or website changes.
Overrides
Owners and admins can go past a High risk gate by writing a reason of at least ten characters. Laneseal logs the override with their name and the time. Members can’t override.
Bank details
Laneseal records a party’s bank details. A different account, whether it arrives in a message or someone types it in, makes the party High risk and opens a callback.
The callback asks for the number you dialled, where you found it (the company registry, the official website or a number already on file), what you heard, and notes of at least ten characters. If someone on your team entered the new details, a different person has to confirm them. A one-person business can confirm its own after 24 hours.
Use a number you found yourself, never one from the request.
What AI does
AI reads each inquiry for the goods, origin and destination, mode, weight and volume, containers, ready date, Incoterm, hazmat and declared value. It checks the fit against your services and lanes, lists what’s missing and drafts a follow-up. A person sends it. AI can add a flag worth 10 points. It never clears a hard stop or approves an override, and with AI off every rule still runs.
What a score can’t tell you
A registry match proves a company exists, not that the person writing works there. A clean domain says nothing about a mailbox that has been taken over. A sanctions list misses a front company with a new name and new numbers. That’s why Laneseal shows every finding with what it proved, and why bank changes and High risk deals wait for a person.
Data sources: RDAP (opens in a new tab), DNS, OFAC’s Sanctions List Service (opens in a new tab) and the open disposable-email-domains list (opens in a new tab).
Put the findings to work on your next lead.
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