OFAC sanctions screening
Screen a deal's buyer and co-buyer against the Treasury OFAC sanctions list, and resolve a flagged match before you mark the deal sold.
Federal law forbids selling a vehicle to a sanctioned person. AutoDealer.io screens your buyer (and co-buyer) against the U.S. Treasury OFAC sanctions list, right on the deal. 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.
Screening matches on name only — the buyer's first and last name as recorded on the customer record. It does not verify DOB, address, or ID. That's the human step: if a name flags, you confirm against the buyer's documents. (The separate Red Flags — identity verification card on the same page captures the ID-verification check.)
What the result badges mean
| Badge | What it means | Blocks the sale? |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | No name scored over the flag threshold. | No |
| Potential match — review | A name scored close enough to flag. A human must review it. | 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 |
When a subject is flagged, the card lists the matched names with a match percentage, the source list (SDN or Consolidated), and any sanctions programs. An a.k.a. tag means it matched an alias, not the primary name.
The matcher is deliberately generous — it flags anything close (fuzzy, word-order-tolerant, accent- and punctuation-insensitive) so a real sanctioned party can't slip through a middle name or spelling variant. Expect false positives on common names. The system flags; you adjudicate. That human review is exactly what the OFAC safe-harbor expects.
A match blocks "Mark sold"
While the latest screening for any subject is Potential match — review or Confirmed hit, you cannot mark the deal sold — the action is rejected with "Resolve the OFAC screening match on this deal before marking it sold." The deal's Compliance step shows as blocked with "Resolve the OFAC match."
A deal that is Clear, Cleared (false positive), or was never screened is not blocked by OFAC.
"Never screened" does not block the sale — so it's on you to actually run the screening on every retail buyer. The deal checklist nudges you, but it won't force it.
Resolve a potential match
You can only resolve a Potential match — review. (Clear results need nothing; Cleared (false positive) and Confirmed hit are already resolved — 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).
FAQ
Who can run and resolve screenings?
Owner, Manager, and Sales roles, on all plans. If your Run screening or resolution buttons are missing, your role can't edit the deal.
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 — the system refuses to report a false "clear" and asks you to try again shortly. Wait a bit and click Run screening again.
Does this check DOB, address, or driver's license?
No. OFAC screening matches on name only. The Red Flags — identity verification card on the same Compliance step is where you record the ID check (license reconciliation and your attestation).
A common name keeps flagging. Is screening broken?
No — that's expected. The matcher errs on the side of flagging. Review the listed entry against your buyer's ID and, if it isn't them, click Mark false positive with a note explaining why.
Can the AI assistant mark a deal sold past an OFAC match?
No. The same block applies to the dealer AI's mark-sold action — it's 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.