What does a watchlist hit mean?

It may mean that the hit was for the actual person or entity on a watchlist. However, it may be someone with a similar name that isn't actually the person or entity on the watchlist. Typically, the next stage our customers follow is an enhanced due diligence (EDD) process to determine whether the person or entity should be barred or cleared.

There are two main things that BlockScore does to help the EDD process. First, BlockScore returns the name of the watchlist from which the hit occurred and the full record of the hit which includes all information we have. This can speed up the manual review process. For full details and an example, see BlockScore watchlist documentation.

Additionally, the candidate can be updated with additional details at no additional charge to attempt to clear a false positive programmatically or manually. For instance, if only name were collected, additional details such as a passport number can be added to the record to weed out the false positive.

As a disclaimer, different industries have different requirements so always be sure to consult with an attorney regarding your compliance process.