By Andy McCue, 10 May 2005 15:45
NEWS Police have launched a crackdown on an online identity theft scam targeting businesses registered with Companies House that is estimated to rake in more than £50m a year.
The loophole that allows criminals to access a form on the Companies House website and change the registered office for a limited company without them knowing was highlighted by silicon.com earlier this year.
Using the publicly available head office postal address and registered company number the fraudsters can change the address to a mailbox or a short let residential property, which they can then use to run up huge bills. The first the company is often aware of it is when the debt collectors arrive or legal action is initiated to recover goods.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has now launched an initiative with Companies House to warn businesses about the scam and advise them how to avoid falling victim to it.
The 'Sterling' project advises businesses to first check their registered details are correct at Companies House and have not been fraudulently changed.
But the main advice is to sign up for the secure online filing service offered by Companies House which uses a password to prevent fraudsters changing any details and an email alert system that warns the password-holder when any changes are made to the registered company details.
Assistant MPS commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said in a statement: "As a result of working together with Companies House this 'Sterling' initiative will have a significant impact by providing a method to prevent company identity fraud and protect businesses from considerable losses through this type of criminal activity."
Comments
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1. anonymous
The police should close down the Companies House web site until the problem is fixed, and companies suffering the scam should sue coho.
2. anonymous
So they are going to keep this loophole open and make companies pay to not become victims of it.
It looks like they are making a profit from the effects of criminal activity. Don't we have some laws about that?
3. anonymous
The companies house system just doesn't do what it is supposed to. If you try to join the online system - a password is supposed to be mailed to your registered office address. I have tried to join many times, but the pasword is nver received. I know other businesses who have given up also.
4. Richard
An Unnecessary Bureaucracy:
For the vast majority of companies, the small companies, Companies House is just another pointless and potentially expensive bureaucracy.
Companies House is also not needed for the large plcs.
Who but criminals and the terminally nosey actually need to view our out-of-date accounts or the private addresses of our directors?
But, if we miss any deadlines for filing this pointless data, Companies House can impose huge penalties.
Now we hear that Companies House is actually accepting fraudulent applications from criminals.
Simple solution: Shut Companies House, scrap its PFI deal and transfer the staff to something useful.
ps. The front-line staff are usually friendly and helpful.
pps. The on-line process does work but it is rather obscure and the directions are misleading.