A hit is a list entry to test, not a conclusion
An OFAC sanctions search asks whether a name on a payment, a customer, a vendor, or a shipment appears on a sanctions list administered by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The official tool is Sanctions List Search. OFAC says it uses fuzzy logic on the name field so misspellings and near-spellings can return, and it covers the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) plus non-SDN lists such as the Foreign Sanctions Evaders List, the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List, and other lists named on the tool page.
The tool page also says to read the program code on every returned record. The code is what tells you which list you hit. Those lists do not all carry the same prohibition. A search that stops at "the name came up" has not finished.
Lookup Plainly does not run this search for you, does not block payments, and does not provide criminal-history lookups. Court records, when you need them, belong to the court guides already on this site, not to a sanctions screen.
What the slider actually changes
Sanctions List Search has a slider for how close a name must be before it is returned. At a strict setting you see tighter string matches. At a loose setting you see more near-matches, including names that only share a piece of the string. OFAC's FAQ on the tool says fuzzy logic, including phonetic matching, applies to the name field. Other fields use ordinary character matching. OFAC does not recommend a "correct" slider position.
Treat the slider as the width of the net. A returned row is a candidate. The program code, the full entry, and the identifiers on that entry are the test. Weak aliases are a further trap: OFAC classifies some aliases as weak, and a screening product may hide them on purpose. If your only overlap is a weak alias plus a common surname, you do not yet have a match.
OFAC's own sequence for a possible match
FAQ 5, updated September 9, 2026, is the document to follow. Condensed for a reader who is not a bank compliance desk, the sequence is:
- Name the list. Confirm the alert is an OFAC list or an OFAC country, region, or government program. Private tools often mix in the Commerce Department's Entity List, the State Department's debarred-parties list, or the FBI's most-wanted list. OFAC says it will not advise you on those other lists. If the badge is not OFAC, go to the agency that publishes that list.
- Separate a listed name from a country rule. A hit on a person or company named on a list is step-three work. A payment involving a sanctioned jurisdiction, or an unlisted company that may be blocked because of ownership, is a different problem. FAQ 5 points that ownership question at OFAC's 50 Percent Rule materials. A name search that returns nothing does not answer who owns the company.
- Compare the whole entry. Open the full sanctions entry in the official tool or the Sanctions List Service. Use every identifier OFAC printed: full name, former names, aliases, nationality, passport or national ID, tax ID, date and place of birth, business registration numbers, and addresses. Enhanced files can include non-Latin script and a designation date.
- Expect false positives. OFAC says many alerts are false positives. One example in the FAQ is a person whose name resembles a vessel on a list. An address match alone is also weak, because several businesses can share a building. One shared token, such as a first name or a city, is not a match. Several independent facts lining up, such as organization name plus location, or full name plus date of birth, is the pattern OFAC tells you to take forward.
- If it still looks real, read the rule that applies. A true match is not a single button labeled "block." Some programs require blocking property. Some require rejecting the transaction without a block. Some activity is exempt or covered by a general or specific license. FAQ 5 tells organizations to check the program regulations before they freeze or refuse anything, and to report certain blocks and rejects to OFAC within 10 business days.
- Keep the worksheet. OFAC says it will not confirm the false positive for you. It also says to keep a record of what you compared. The hotline is for compliance questions, not for a yes-or-no identity check on a stranger.
If you are an individual who stumbled on your own common name, the same comparison applies in miniature. Match dates of birth, middle names, and countries. Do not email extra identity documents to a random "OFAC removal" site. Delisting has its own OFAC process. A blog that offers to clear your name for a prepaid fee is not that process.
Nearby systems that get pasted into the same email
| Record | Agency | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| SDN and non-SDN sanctions lists | OFAC | Is this name on an OFAC sanctions list, and under which program? |
| SAM exclusion | SAM.gov | Did a federal agency post a suspension, debarment, or similar ineligibility? See SAM.gov entity search. |
| State formation record | Secretary of state | Does this legal entity exist in that state? See business entity search. |
| SEC filing | SEC | Did this filer submit a securities disclosure? See SEC EDGAR search. |
| EIN | IRS | What is the federal tax identification number, when you are entitled to use it? See FEIN lookup. |
A vendor can be active in the secretary of state's file, absent from SAM, and still produce an OFAC near-match because a similar name is listed in another country. Those are three sentences, not one.
What not to do with the result
Do not screenshot the first fuzzy row and forward it as proof. Include the program code, the listed name as printed, the identifiers you compared, and the identifiers that did not match.
Do not use the tool as a people-search engine. The list is a sanctions publication. It is a poor way to find a phone number, a relative, or an address for ordinary contact, and a similar name is a known failure mode.
Do not assume a U.S. company is safe because the U.S. name is missing. FAQ 5 flags unlisted entities that can be blocked by operation of law when ownership rules apply. Ownership is a document question. Start with formation records and any ownership filings you actually have, not with a second loose name search.
OFAC also says use of the search tool does not limit civil or criminal liability for someone who relies on it carelessly. This guide is an explanation of the public tool. It is not a compliance program and not legal advice. If money, goods, or a customer relationship is about to move and a close match remains, stop and use the organization's sanctions procedure or counsel rather than a directory site.