The short answer
A sanctions false positive is a screening hit that matches a listed name but is a different person or company. Because lists are matched on names, most raw hits are false positives; tiering hits by the evidence behind them is how screening separates real matches from namesakes.
At a glance
- Term
- Sanctions false positives
- Also known as
- match tiers · name-matching false positives
- Category
- Screening & risk
- Where it matters
- Company and founder due diligence
Sanctions false positives in practice
Common names, transliterations and partial matches all generate hits. Treating every name hit as real either buries a genuine match in noise or wrongly brands an innocent company.
The fix is to grade each hit against the identity you already hold: identifiers, dates of birth, nationalities, countries and aliases.
Why sanctions false positives matter
- Too many false positives waste analyst time and erode trust in alerts.
- Treating a namesake as a hit can unfairly damage a company or person.
- Treating a real hit as noise is the costliest mistake of all.
Sanctions false positives in MarketPrior
MarketPrior tiers every watch-list hit. Confirmed: an identifier match — LEI, registration number, CIK or a list id — or, for a person, date of birth plus nationality or exact name. Probable: an exact name or listed alias with a matching country or nationality and no conflicting identifier, flagged for verification. Possible: partial or name-only matches, or a conflicting identifier.
Only confirmed and probable hits count toward the risk score and the verdict. Possible hits are shown for review and excluded from scoring.