CNPJ

If a website claims to represent an established business, investigate that legal entity independently.

In Brazil, for example, you can query a company's CNPJ, Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica, through the Receita Federal system using the Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral.

This provides public information such as the company's legal name, razão social, primary economic activity, CNAE, registration status, address, and corporate structure.

Greater than key takeaway: A valid CNPJ does not prove that a website is legitimate.

Greater than fraudsters frequently scrape public corporate information from real companies greater than and use it to impersonate them.

The critical question is not simply does this CNPJ exist? It is: Does the entity associated with this CNPJ actually operate this website and conduct this auction? Check the CNAE.

Verify whether the company's registered economic activities match the services being advertised, e.g., operating vehicle auctions versus unrelated retail.

Verify the payment recipient.

So a fund now has classes.

And what's the problem? A lot of CNPJs, a lot of structures of funds, have classes.

Funds, inside the funds, like subclasses.

So it's hard to pull this data together and find the data of the industry.