How to tell if a document is fake in South Africa

Usually you can’t, from the document alone: logos, stamps and fonts can be copied. Ask the organisation that issued it, using contact details you find yourself, not the ones printed on it. Pick your document below to see who can confirm it (SARS for a tax PIN, the Deeds Office for a title deed), with the official link.

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Is this document real? Pick it and see who can confirm it

KuduDoc cannot tell you whether a document is genuine. The organisation that issued it can; here is how to ask them.

What were you sent?

Not listed? Ask the organisation named on it, using contact details you find yourself.

Who can confirm each document

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DocumentWho can confirm itWhat you need
Bank statementThe bank that issued itThe account holder’s written consent
Bank confirmation letterThe issuing bank; your own bank’s account-owner checkThe account number and the holder’s name
PayslipThe employerThe employee’s written consent
Tax compliance status PINSARSThe tax reference number and PIN
Company registrationCIPCThe registration number
CSD registration reportThe CSD, for government buyersThe supplier’s CSD number
B-BBEE certificateThe agency that issued itThe certificate’s number and date
B-BBEE sworn affidavitNobody issues it; check its date and the companyThe affidavit
QualificationThe institution that awarded it, or SAQAThe holder’s written consent
Title deedAny Deeds OfficeThe property’s description
Government order or quotation requestThe department, on the number on its own websiteNothing from the sender
PDF sealed with KuduDocKuduDoc’s public checkerThe PDF itself
PDF with a digital signatureThe PDF signature checkerThe PDF itself

Money

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Bank statement

Ask the bank, not the statement.

Who can confirm it
The bank that issued it
What you need
The account holder’s written consent

How to ask

  1. If the account holder can open their banking app with you, ask them to download the statement there and then: it comes straight from the bank.
  2. Otherwise, get the account holder’s written consent.
  3. Contact the bank through details on its own website, send the consent, and ask whether it issued this statement.
What the answer tells you
Whether the bank issued that statement.

Official link

Contact the bank through its own website.

With a KuduDoc account

Get consent to check Copy a request Keep the answer

Money

Last checked

Bank confirmation letter

Check the account, not the letterhead.

Who can confirm it
The bank that issued it; your own bank’s account-owner check
What you need
The account number and the holder’s name

How to ask

  1. Your own bank may offer an account-owner check: it confirms that an account number belongs to the named holder before you pay. Run it with the account number and the name on the letter.
  2. If the answer differs from the letter, call the bank that issued the letter through its website.
What the answer tells you
Whether the account number belongs to the named holder.
What it does not tell you
Anything else the letter says.

Official link

Your own bank’s app or website, and the issuing bank’s own website.

Money

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Payslip

Ask the employer, not the payslip.

Who can confirm it
The employer
What you need
The employee’s written consent

How to ask

  1. Get the employee’s written consent.
  2. Contact the employer through details you look up yourself, such as its website or switchboard, not the ones on the payslip.
  3. Ask whether it issued this payslip with these figures.
What the answer tells you
Whether the employer’s payroll records match the payslip. Employers keep each employee’s remuneration records for three years (BCEA s31), so they can compare it with their own.

Official link

The employer’s own website or switchboard.

With a KuduDoc account

Get consent to check Copy a request Keep the answer

Business and tenders

Last checked

Tax compliance status PIN (tax clearance)

The PIN is the check, not the printed certificate.

Who can confirm it
SARS
What you need
The tax reference number and PIN, from the taxpayer

How to ask

  1. Ask the taxpayer for their tax reference number and TCS PIN.
  2. Enter both on SARS eFiling (your organisation’s eFiling administrator switches on the TCS service once, under ‘Tax Status’) or on the SARS Online Query System.
  3. Check the name SARS shows against the business you are dealing with.
What the answer tells you
The taxpayer’s compliance status at the moment you check, not on the day the PIN was issued.

A printed or PDF tax certificate is not the check; the PIN is. On eFiling you can print the result of your check for your records, and it stays under ‘History’. See how long a tax PIN and a B-BBEE certificate last.

Official link

Opens SARS’s website

With a KuduDoc account

Keep the answer

Business and tenders

Last checked

Company registration (CIPC)

Look it up in CIPC’s own records.

Who can confirm it
CIPC
What you need
The registration number

How to ask

  1. Look the company up in CIPC’s records using its registration number, or order a disclosure certificate from CIPC.
  2. Compare the name, number and status with what you were sent.
What the answer tells you
Whether CIPC’s register holds that company, and its status.

Official link

Opens CIPC’s website

Business and tenders

Last checked

CSD registration report

Government buyers open the record on the CSD itself.

Who can confirm it
National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database, for government buyers
What you need
The supplier’s CSD number

How to ask

  1. If you buy for government, open the supplier’s record on the CSD itself.
  2. If you do not, the CSD’s own lookups need a CSD login: check the supplier’s tax PIN with SARS and its registration with CIPC.
What the answer tells you
The supplier’s current CSD record. The CSD says it checks supplier details with SARS, CIPC and other institutions.

Official link

Opens the CSD’s website

Business and tenders

Last checked

B-BBEE certificate

Find the agency on SANAS’s list, then ask the agency.

Who can confirm it
The agency that issued it (SANAS accredits them); CIPC for a certificate it issued; the B-BBEE Commission’s lists of invalid certificates
What you need
The certificate’s number, date and agency

How to ask

  1. Find the agency named on the certificate in SANAS’s list of accredited agencies.
  2. Contact the agency using the details on that list, not the certificate, and ask whether it issued this certificate.
  3. Look for the certificate on the B-BBEE Commission’s lists of invalid certificates.
What the answer tells you
Whether the agency issued it, whether the agency is accredited, and whether the Commission lists it as invalid.
What it does not tell you
A certificate missing from the Commission’s lists is not confirmed by that; ask the agency.

For a certificate CIPC issued to an exempted micro-enterprise, ask CIPC. Certificates from accredited agencies last 12 months: see how long a tax PIN and a B-BBEE certificate last.

Official links

Opens SANAS’s website Opens the Commission’s website

With a KuduDoc account

Keep the answer

Business and tenders

Last checked

B-BBEE sworn affidavit

An affidavit is the business’s own statement under oath, sworn before a commissioner of oaths. CIPC says that for an exempted micro-enterprise, once a commissioner of oaths has stamped it, it serves as the B-BBEE certificate and nothing more is required.

Who can confirm it
Nobody issues it: it is the business’s own statement under oath
What you need
The affidavit itself

How to ask

  1. Read the date the commissioner of oaths signed it: the affidavit lasts 12 months from that day.
  2. Check that the company or close corporation appears in CIPC’s records.
What the answer tells you
What can be checked: its date and the company.

Official link

Opens CIPC’s website

Qualifications

Last checked

Qualification

Ask the institution that awarded it, or SAQA.

Who can confirm it
The institution that awarded it; SAQA, which keeps the national record
What you need
The holder’s written consent

How to ask

  1. Get the holder’s written consent.
  2. Ask the university, college or school that awarded it, or ask SAQA, which keeps the national record of learners’ qualifications.
What the answer tells you
Whether the qualification was awarded and is on the national record.

Falsely or fraudulently claiming to hold a qualification is an offence (NQF Act s32B(3)), punishable by a fine, up to five years’ imprisonment, or both (s32B(6)).

Official link

Opens SAQA’s website

With a KuduDoc account

Get consent to check Copy a request Keep the answer

Property

Last checked

Title deed

Compare it with the deeds registry’s own printout.

Who can confirm it
Any Deeds Office; DeedsWEB for registered users
What you need
The property’s description (erf or unit, township)

How to ask

  1. Ask any Deeds Office for a printout of the property’s registration details, or get it from DeedsWEB if you are a registered user.
  2. The printout comes from the deeds registry itself: compare the title deed you were given with it.
What the answer tells you
What the deeds registry records for the property now.
What it does not tell you
Whether the person who gave you the deed is the owner the registry names. Holding a document, or receiving its custody, does not make anyone the owner of the property or rights it describes.

Official link

Opens the Deeds Office website

Business and tenders

Last checked

Government order or request for quotation

Call the department on the number from its own website.

Who can confirm it
The department named on it
What you need
Nothing from the sender: the department’s number from its own website

How to ask

  1. Before you quote, deliver or pay anything, find the department’s number on its own website.
  2. Call that number, not the one on the order, and ask whether the department sent it.
What the answer tells you
Whether the department sent it.

The Central Supplier Database describes the pattern: a request from what looks like a government email address, a quotation form with a logo and a named contact, an ‘urgent’ deadline, and goods to be delivered outside the building or to an agreed address.

Official link

Opens the CSD’s fraud notice

PDFs

Last checked

A PDF sealed with KuduDoc

Check the file on KuduDoc’s public checker.

Who can confirm it
KuduDoc’s public checker
What you need
The PDF itself, not a printed code

How to ask

  1. Open the public checker and check it free, without an account.
  2. Bring the PDF itself, not a printout or a screenshot.
What the answer tells you
Unchanged since sealingUnchanged since stampingNo matching record
What it does not tell you
What the document says, who signed it or who owns anything: a match is a fact about the file’s bytes.

Official link

Opens the public checker

PDFs

Last checked

A PDF with a digital signature

Check its signatures, not its letterhead.

Who can confirm it
The PDF signature checker
What you need
The PDF itself

How to ask

  1. Check its signatures with the PDF signature checker.
  2. Read each signature’s own line: whether the signed part has changed since that signature, and who the certificate names.
What the answer tells you
Whether the signed part changed since each signature, and who the certificate names.
What it does not tell you
Whether the document is true. That is a fact about the signature, not about what the document says.

Official link

Opens the signature checker

The picker shows routes already on this page: nothing you pick is sent anywhere, and it never asks for the document itself. If an official link on this page has moved, tell us at hello@kududoc.co.za.

How to check if a document is forged

A document can’t prove itself. Letterheads, logos, stamps and signatures can be copied, and a scan or a PDF made from a real document looks like one. Even a PDF’s own dates can be rewritten.

The organisation that issued it keeps the record behind it. Ask it.

SARS
the tax status
CIPC
the company register
The deeds registry
the title
The employer
its payroll records
The bank
the account
  • Use contact details you find yourself. The organisation’s own website, your banking app, a number you already had. The Central Supplier Database gives the same advice about orders that claim to come from government.
  • Where you can, get the document from the source. A statement downloaded from the banking app while you watch, a PIN you check with SARS yourself, a printout from the Deeds Office.

Warning signs worth a closer look

None of these proves a document is fake, and a document with none of them can still be false. Treat each one as a reason to ask the issuer, not as a test.

  • The only way to reach the issuer is a number or address printed on the document.
  • The sender is in a hurry, or discourages you from checking.
  • An email that looks official comes from an address outside the organisation’s own website domain.
  • Totals, balances or dates don’t add up, or don’t match each other.
  • You are offered a photo, a screenshot or a retyped copy instead of the file from the source.
  • The PDF’s properties name an editing app. A clue only: an innocent re-save does this too.

Pick the document in the router and ask →

What KuduDoc can and cannot tell you

KuduDoc cannot tell you whether a document is genuine or fake, and it does not look for forgeries. What it can do is narrower: if a PDF was sealed with KuduDoc, check it free, without an account.

What the public checker can say about a PDF

  • Unchanged since sealing

    The file’s bytes match a seal made from a KuduDoc account.

  • Unchanged since stamping

    The file matches a public-tool stamp, not an account seal.

  • No matching record

    No KuduDoc record matches this exact file.

A match means unchanged since sealing — a fact about the file's bytes, not about what the document says, who signed it or who owns anything.

No matching record is not evidence that a file was changed. Most documents were never sealed with KuduDoc, and the checker cannot tell a never-sealed file from an altered one.

If you issue documents yourself (payslips, letters, certificates), seal them before they leave you, so anyone who receives the sealed PDF can check it free against your sealing record.

If you think a document is forged

Tell the organisation the document claims to come from: it holds the record.

Questions people ask

Pick your document →

How can I tell if a document is fake?

Usually not from the document itself: logos, stamps and fonts can be copied, and a copy with no mistakes can still be false. Ask the organisation that issued it, using contact details you find yourself rather than the ones printed on the document.

How do I spot a fake bank statement?

Ask the bank, not the statement. Have the account holder download it from their banking app while you watch, or contact the bank through its own website with the account holder’s written consent. Totals that don’t add up are a reason to ask, not proof either way.

How can I check if a payslip is real?

Ask the employer named on it, through contact details you look up yourself, such as its website or switchboard. Get the employee’s written consent first. Employers keep each employee’s remuneration records for three years (BCEA s31), so they can compare the payslip with their own.

How do I check a tax compliance status PIN?

Ask the taxpayer for their tax reference number and PIN, then enter both on SARS eFiling or the SARS Online Query System. SARS shows the taxpayer’s compliance status at the moment you check, not on the day the PIN was issued.

How do I check a B-BBEE certificate?

Ask the agency that issued it, using contact details from SANAS’s list of accredited agencies rather than from the certificate, and check that the agency is on that list. The B-BBEE Commission also publishes lists of invalid certificates. Certificates from accredited agencies last 12 months.

How can I tell if property documents are forged?

Ask any Deeds Office for a printout of the property’s registration details, or get it from DeedsWEB if you are a registered user. The printout comes from the deeds registry itself, so compare the title deed you were given with it.

Does “No matching record” mean a document is fake?

No. It means no KuduDoc seal matches that exact file. Most documents were never sealed with KuduDoc, and the checker cannot tell a never-sealed file from an altered one. No matching record is not evidence that a file was changed.

Can KuduDoc tell me whether a document is genuine?

No. KuduDoc can tell you whether a PDF sealed with KuduDoc is unchanged since sealing. A match means unchanged since sealing — a fact about the file's bytes, not about what the document says, who signed it or who owns anything. For anything else, ask the issuer.

Sources

Every route is checked against the issuer’s own published page. Last checked .

Consent · Request · Answer

Keep each document with its answer.

The document, the signed consent and the issuer’s reply in one collection, with the expiry dates that matter. Personal is free, with no card and no expiry date.

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