What is Corporate Identity Fraud?

Is your company ID being used without your knowledge? Is your company’s good reputation being used to fraudulently obtain credit?

Company identity theft is a growing problem and threat in the UK and costs business millions of pounds every year. Criminals will fraudulently amend a company’s registered details at Companies House in order to obtain money, or goods and services fraudulently or to attack your bank account.
Having made changes, the criminal can even trade on the good name and reputation of the genuine company
It is easy for fraudsters to change the Registered Office for a limited company whose details they have obtained. Just as easy is the ability to appoint and resign officers of a company. These actions can happen without you knowing.

Armed with as little as a company name and number, a fraudster can submit a form to change the Registered Office address of your company. Directors can be appointed and resigned just as easily. The information to carry out this Corporate ID theft can be easily found on the internet.
The innocent company whose details have been altered by the fraudster will only find out about the scam when the debt collectors arrive, or when legal action is initiated to recover the goods that have been fraudulently obtained.

How can Company Formations 247 help protect against this?

Our FREE Corporate Hijacking Protection is included with every company incorporated by us.
This means you will receive alerts every time a change to your company is filed at Companies House.
Companies House cannot prevent hijacking. It does not have the power to investigate the contents and accuracy of forms sent to them for filing.

If you receive an alert, and have NOT knowingly filed a change, then you will need to investigate what the change was.
You can check your company details directly at Companies House, but we will also provide you with the opportunity to download a Company Report from our searches site, www.companysearches247.co.uk, for just £5.45 that will provide you with the details of the change filed.

If you are the victim of ‘Corporate Hijacking’, you can follow our simple links and instructions to ensure the necessary authorities are alerted.
Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. Action Fraud provides a central point of contact for information about fraud.
The service is run by the City of London Police working alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and helps to co-ordinate the fight against fraud in the UK. An online fraud reporting service is available 24 hours a day, enabling you to report a fraud and find help and support.

If our system identifies a change in your registered details you have not authorised we recommend you contact Action Fraud immediately. Action Fraud also provide help and advice over the phone through the Action Fraud contact centre. You can talk to fraud specialists by calling 0300 123 2040.
For more information on the different types of fraud and how you can protect yourself and report it, visit the UK’s national fraud reporting centre website: www.actionfraud.org.uk

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