OFAC sanctions screening
Screen a deal's buyer, co-buyer and a company buyer's signer against the Treasury OFAC list. Mark sold waits until each is screened and cleared.
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Federal law forbids selling a vehicle to a sanctioned person. You run the screening right on the deal: AutoDealer.io checks your buyer (and co-buyer) against the U.S. Treasury OFAC sanctions list. A deal can't be marked sold until that screening has run, and a flagged match blocks the sale until you review it.
Where screening lives
Screening is Step 3 (Compliance) of the deal's 5-step closing workflow (after Deal info and Buyer).
- Open the deal from Deals.
- Click the Compliance step.
- You'll see two cards: OFAC sanctions screening and Red Flags: identity verification.
Run the screening
- In the OFAC sanctions screening card, click Run screening.
- The system checks the buyer's name, and the co-buyer's if the deal has one, against the Treasury SDN and Consolidated sanctions lists (primary names plus their known aliases).
- Each subject gets a result badge. If anything changes (a new co-buyer, a name correction), click Re-screen to run it again.
Re-screen does not undo a clearance. A match an owner or admin manager already cleared as a false positive is left as it is, as long as that person's name and the Treasury list have not changed since. So adding a co-buyer and clicking Re-screen screens the co-buyer without flagging your buyer again. Everyone else on the deal is screened afresh.
How a match is decided
The screening follows the steps OFAC itself gives for judging a name hit:
- A person is compared with listed people. A ship, an aircraft or a company on the list never flags your buyer because one word is shared. (A company buyer is compared with listed companies instead: see A company buyer below.)
- Both names must match. The buyer's first name is compared with the listed first names and the last name with the listed surname, in either order. Small misspellings, one letter off, and names that sound the same (Mohamed and Muhammad) still count. Only a shared first name, or only a shared last name, is not a match.
- The date of birth decides, when the customer record has one:
- Same birth year as the listed person: Likely match. Stop the sale.
- One or two years apart: Possible match. An owner or admin manager compares the details.
- More than two years apart: ruled out. The card lists who was ruled out and their listed birth date, as the record.
With no date of birth on file, only the name is compared, and any name match is a Possible match. Add the date of birth from the buyer's ID and click Re-screen: most possible matches then fall away.
Enter the date of birth exactly as it is on the buyer's driver's license. If it is changed after the screening, the sale is held until you click Re-screen, because the screening relied on it. (The separate Red Flags: identity verification card on the same page is where you record the ID check itself.)
A company buyer
When the buyer is a company customer, the screening checks two names:
- The company, as a company. It is compared with listed companies, ships and aircraft, never with a listed person. Words for the legal form (LLC, Inc, Corp, Ltd and the like) are set aside on both sides, so "ABC Trading LLC" and a listed "ABC TRADING CO LTD" are the same name. Every word of each name must match; one shared word is not enough. The legal name and the trade name (DBA) are both checked.
- The authorized signer, as a person, with the person rules above (both names, and the date of birth).
Before the first run the card already says the buyer is a company and asks you to screen the company and its signer. After it, the card shows two rows, Company and Authorized signer. A company has no date of birth, so a company match is always a Possible match: the card says which of its names matched, and you compare the listed entry's address, country and ID numbers with the company's records.
If no signer is named on the customer record, the card says so and the sale is held: add the signer to the customer, then run the screening. A changed legal name, trade name or signer after the screening holds the sale until you click Re-screen.
What the result badges mean
| Badge | What it means | Blocks the sale? |
|---|---|---|
| No match | No name scored over the flag threshold. | No |
| Potential match: review | The names match a listed person, and the birth year is within two years or could not be compared. An owner or admin manager must review it. | Yes |
| Likely match: stop the sale | The names match a listed person born in the same year. Do not complete the sale. If it is your buyer, call the OFAC hotline at 1-800-540-6322. | Yes |
| Cleared (false positive) | You reviewed a potential match and decided it isn't your buyer. | No |
| Confirmed hit | You reviewed a potential match and confirmed it IS your buyer. | Yes |
Until the first run, the card reads Not yet screened and nobody has a badge. A buyer or co-buyer with no screening blocks the sale too (see below).
When a subject is flagged, the card lists each matched name with a match percentage, the source list (SDN or Consolidated), any sanctions programs, and what the list says about that person: date of birth, place of birth and nationality. An a.k.a. tag means it matched an alias. Compare those details with the buyer's ID.
The system flags; you decide. It is built to catch spelling variants rather than miss a real sanctioned person, so a common name can still come up as a possible match. Judge it against the buyer's ID, and keep a note of what you compared.
What blocks "Mark sold"
Mark sold goes through only when the buyer, and the co-buyer if the deal has one, each have a latest screening that is No match or Cleared (false positive) and was run on the name they have now. Anything else is refused:
| What happened | The message you get | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The deal was never screened. | "Run the OFAC screening on the buyer (and co-buyer, if any) before marking this deal sold." | Click Run screening. |
| A company buyer's signer is not screened, or no signer is named. | The same message. | Name the signer on the customer record, then click Re-screen. |
| A co-buyer was added after a screening that covered only the buyer. | The same message. | Click Re-screen so the co-buyer is screened too. |
| The buyer's or co-buyer's name changed after the screening. | "A buyer or co-buyer name changed after the OFAC screening. Re-run the screening before marking this deal sold." | Click Re-screen. |
| The latest result is Potential match: review or Confirmed hit. | "Resolve the OFAC screening match on this deal before marking it sold." | Resolve the match (next section). A confirmed hit stays blocked. |
The deal page warns you about each of these before you click, and the Mark sold button is switched off until it is dealt with. With no screening, or a co-buyer who is not screened yet, the Compliance step reads "Needs OFAC screening." After a name change the step reads "Needs OFAC re-screening," and the OFAC card says a name changed after the screening. With an unresolved match, the step shows as blocked with "Resolve the OFAC match."
There is no way around the screening. A deal that was never screened is refused exactly like a deal with an unresolved match, so run the screening on every buyer and co-buyer before you try to close.
A passing result is checked again at "Mark sold"
The Treasury list changes often, and the platform checks for a new copy every day. When you click Mark sold, a passing result (No match or Cleared (false positive)) that was run before the list last changed is screened again automatically, against the current list. While the list stays the same, the result stands and nothing is run again. On a clean deal you notice nothing and the sale goes through. If the fresh run flags a name, the sale is refused with the "Resolve the OFAC screening match" message and the new result is on the Compliance step for an owner or admin manager to review.
That automatic run only refreshes a result that already passed. It never screens someone who was not screened, and it never clears a match.
Resolve a potential match
When a screening newly flags a buyer or co-buyer, every owner and admin manager gets a notification on the bell that opens the deal's Compliance step. The person who ran the screening is left out, since the match is already on their screen. Anyone who keeps OFAC / sanctions hit on a deal on under Settings → Notifications also gets a message from the assistant within about five minutes. A match still waiting after a day is named in the morning message.
Resolving a match is for owners and admin managers. A salesperson can run the screening but does not resolve a match. You can only resolve a Potential match: review. (No match results need nothing; Cleared (false positive) and Confirmed hit are already resolved, so trying to resolve them is rejected.)
- On the flagged subject, read the listed match(es): name, percentage, source, and programs.
- Compare against the buyer's government-issued ID (name spelling, and use DOB/address if the listed entry shows them).
- Type a Resolution note: who you compared against, what you checked.
- Choose one:
- Mark false positive: it is not your buyer. The badge becomes Cleared (false positive) and the sale is unblocked.
- Confirm hit: it is your buyer. The badge becomes Confirmed hit and the deal stays blocked.
Confirm hit is not a way to push the deal through. It does the opposite. A confirmed hit keeps the sale blocked, because completing a sale to a sanctioned (SDN) buyer is federally prohibited. Only Mark false positive unblocks the deal. If you genuinely have a confirmed hit, stop the transaction and follow your OFAC reporting obligations.
Every screening and resolution is written to your audit log (who ran it, who resolved it, and the outcome). They appear there as OFAC screening run and OFAC match resolved.
If Treasury changes the list between the day you clear a false positive and the day you mark the deal sold, the automatic re-screen at Mark sold usually flags the same name again, because it still resembles the listed entry. A cleared result is not run again while the list stays the same, so a match you cleared on Friday still stands on a Saturday or Sunday sale.
When a name you already cleared is flagged again
The new result still needs an owner or admin manager, but you do not start over. It shows who cleared this name before, when, and the note they left.
- If the listed entries are the same ones that review looked at, the note box already holds that note. Check the buyer is still not that person and click Mark false positive.
- An entry that was not part of the earlier review is marked New, and the note box starts empty. Review the new entry before you decide.
If the name was last confirmed as a hit, no earlier clearance is shown.
Look at a cleared match again
To take a second look at a match you cleared (you think it was cleared by mistake, or you learned something new about the buyer), an owner or admin manager clicks Review again on it. That screens the name afresh. If it still matches, the sale is held until you resolve the new result, and you can then Confirm hit or Mark false positive.
You can also get ahead of it. When the list has changed since you cleared a match, the OFAC card says so on the Compliance step. Click Re-screen then and confirm the result, and the sale will not stop for it at closing.
FAQ
Who can run and resolve screenings?
Owners, admin managers and sales can run a screening, on all plans. Only owners and admin managers can resolve a match or use Review again on a cleared one. Accounting can open the deal but cannot run or resolve a screening. If a button is missing, your role can't use it.
It says the OFAC list "has not been loaded yet."
The platform keeps a shared copy of the Treasury list that refreshes daily. Right after a fresh deployment the copy can be momentarily empty. In that case the system refuses to report a false "No match" and asks you to try again shortly. Wait a bit and click Run screening again.
Does this check DOB, address, or driver's license?
It uses the date of birth on the customer record: a listed person born more than two years apart is ruled out, and the same birth year makes it a likely match. Address and license number are not compared automatically; the listed details are shown so you can compare them. The Red Flags: identity verification card on the same Compliance step is where you record the ID check.
A common name keeps flagging. Is screening broken?
First check the buyer's date of birth is on the customer record: without it only the name is compared. With it, listed people born more than two years apart are ruled out. If a possible match remains, compare the listed details with the buyer's ID and, if it isn't them, click Mark false positive with a note.
Does AutoDealer.io screen buyers automatically?
No. A screening runs when someone clicks Run screening or Re-screen on the deal's Compliance step, or approves the assistant's re-screen card. The one automatic run is at Mark sold, and it only refreshes a result that already passed and was run before the list last changed.
Can the AI assistant mark a deal sold past an OFAC match?
No. The same gate applies to the dealer AI's mark-sold action: a deal with no screening, a changed name or an unresolved match is rejected with the same OFAC error. The AI only proposes actions and never finalizes a sale without your explicit approval.
Will the screening result show up to shoppers or the public AI?
No. Screenings are internal compliance records. The public-facing AI never reveals deal, customer, or compliance data.
Ask the assistant
In the AI chat, "is the A100 deal clear to sell?" reads the buyer's and co-buyer's latest screening, the Red Flags check and the mark-sold gate, and tells you what is blocking and what to do next. "Anything blocking a sale?" does the same across every open deal, and "re-run the OFAC check on A100" prepares a re-screen for you to approve. The assistant never clears or confirms a match: that stays with an owner or manager on the deal's compliance page, and the morning scan names any match that has waited a day for that review.