How Zygos works

When someone reports a problem, Zygos records what they say happened. That claim is kept separate from the evidence about it, from where that evidence came from, from the business's response and from what moderators decided. Zygos never turns a claim into a statement that a business did something.

Throughout Zygos, each statement says who it comes from:

• Zygos observed — something a Zygos analyst checked or observed directly, with the evidence for it.
• Reporter states — what a person who reported a problem says happened.
• Business states — what the business says in response.
• Outside source — material from a social media post, website, registry or other source outside Zygos.
• Moderation — what Zygos moderators decided, and why.

Submitting a report does not publish it. A moderator reviews the report and its evidence, classifies each item as supporting, partly supporting, contradicting, inconclusive or context, and decides whether the claim meets Zygos's standard for display. Reports can be sent back for more evidence, rejected, or published.

Published does not mean true. It means the claim, its evidence and any response are shown so that you can weigh them. Every moderation decision is recorded with its reason in a tamper-evident log.

Before a claim is published, the business is offered the chance to respond, unless it cannot be reached, in which case the moderator records why. It can respond at any time afterwards. Responses are published beside the claim and never replace or edit it. When a claim is resolved, for example by a refund, the resolution is recorded and the history is kept.

Outside evidence links to its original source so you can inspect it yourself. Zygos keeps a capture of what it saw and when, records whether the source is still available, and marks when one item merely repeats another, so thirty posts repeating one allegation are not mistaken for thirty independent accounts.

When several references trace back to the same source, the claim page says so: repeating a source is not counted as corroboration. Zygos describes the earliest source it has observed, which is not necessarily where something started, and it says two reports do not share a source only when someone at Zygos has checked.

When Zygos verifies a domain, phone number or social account, it confirms that the business controls it, or that it matches an official record. That establishes identity. It says nothing about whether the business is good to deal with.

Zygos does not give businesses a trust score and does not call anyone a scammer or a fraudster. Profiles show dimensions — identity, verification, claims, responses, resolutions, outside evidence, impersonation indicators — each with its basis. Possible impersonation indicators are observations, not conclusions.

Reporters' names and contact details are never published. Uploaded files are stored privately and reviewed only by Zygos staff; the public sees a moderator's description of each item. What a reporter wrote is kept exactly as submitted, and a moderator prepares the public version so that personal details are not exposed.

A profile shows the other profiles it is connected to: an official account, a page that presents itself as a business, a number two sellers share. Every connection has one of these states, and a “Why this connection?” panel lists what is claimed, what supports it, what argues against it, and what remains unknown.

Verified by Zygos

Zygos confirmed it directly: control of the identifier, or a match with an official record.

Found by Zygos, not verified

Zygos saw it in a source it can show you, but has not verified it.

Declared by the business

The business says it is theirs. Zygos has not verified it.

Reported

It came from a report and has not been verified.

Inferred — not established

Zygos noticed a shared identifier. On its own, that does not establish a connection.

Relationship not established

A connection is claimed, but the evidence does not establish it: Zygos has not verified that the two are operated by the same business.

Disputed

The parties disagree about the connection.

Contradicted by evidence

The evidence contradicts the claimed connection.

Historical

No longer in use. Kept so the history is not lost.

Some statements are derived: computed from records already on the page, such as “these two profiles list the same phone number”. They are labelled as derived, and a shared identifier on its own never makes a connection established. It can mean one operator, a reseller or a reused number.

Sellers change handles, numbers and pages. When an identifier stops being used, Zygos marks it historical, with the period it was observed in use, instead of deleting it. Searching an old handle still finds the account, and what was recorded under the old name stays on the record.

One business sometimes appears under two names, or a seller takes over a handle another used before. Zygos can suggest that two records may describe the same subject, with its reasons and its doubts, but it never combines them by itself: a moderator decides. The combined profile says which record each item was originally recorded on, the old address leads to it, nothing is deleted, and the decision can be undone.

Such a decision concerns identity only, not conduct. A shared phone number or a similar name is a reason to look, not a conclusion: numbers are reassigned, and resellers share contacts.

Today, evidence comes from reports, from analysts capturing public pages, from businesses' own declarations, and from verification checks. Pasting a link into Zygos reads only the address: Zygos does not open the page, sign in to any platform or collect posts automatically.

Inputs Zygos could add later, each arriving as evidence with its source shown, never as a verdict:

• Business registries. Matching a profile against an official company or business-name record.
• Payment identities. Confirming the registered name behind a till, paybill or account number with the provider's permission.
• Website ownership. Automated checks that a business controls the domain it lists. Today an analyst performs and records these checks.
• Social platforms and marketplaces. Public profile and listing pages, captured by analysts, or through official access a platform grants.
• Community reports. More ways for buyers to report, each moderated before anything is published, as reports are today.

None of these is connected in this preview, and no platform or registry has partnered with Zygos. How the demo data works

Every result starts with a short answer: what Zygos found, what it means, what to do before paying, and what Zygos did and did not check. The wording follows fixed rules over published records only. Nothing private, and nothing about how often something is searched, changes it.

“Strong published evidence establishing this business's online identity”

A Zygos moderator assessed the identity as established, at least two of its current details are verified, at least one verification check is in date, and no possible impersonation indicator or unconfirmed claim to be another business is published.

“Some identity information, but important details remain unverified”

Not strong, but the identity is assessed as established or partly established, or at least one current detail is verified.

“Not yet enough verified identity information”

Anything else, including a profile no moderator has assessed and nothing on it verified.

“Zygos could not establish that this account belongs to …”

The profile presents itself as another business and that connection is not established. A written denial from that business is shown as its statement, and the answer points to that business's verified channels.

“Zygos does not yet have enough verified information”

Nothing published lists what you searched for. That is not a finding that it is safe or unsafe.

Identity and complaints are answered separately. A business can have a well-established identity and unresolved complaints at the same time, so complaints never change the identity wording, and a verified identity never hides a complaint. A source is listed as checked only when Zygos itself verified something there or recorded it; a reporter's screenshot is evidence, but it is not Zygos checking that source.