Protect Your Business From
Corporate Identity Fraud

Your identity is one of your most valuable assets.With increasing digitalisation of financial services, ID theft has become a common problem and a serious threat. Information leaked through data breaches, phishing emails, and even documents thrown away and then discovered by individuals rifling through bins can all lead to the collation of enough data on a person to steal their identity.

Names, addresses – both physical and electronic – dates of birth, gender, telephone numbers, and more can all be used to impersonate victims.Fraudsters use this to open bank accounts, take out credit cards and apply for state benefits in your name.

This type of crime can have lasting implications for you and your business. For example a loan can be taken out fraudulently in your name, for instance, this could damage your credit rating and jeopardise your ability to get loans, credit cards or a mortgage.

Criminals are still able to “hijack” a business by changing information about its directors and registered office.

Using your stolen data, fraudsters can

• Open bank accounts, take out credit cards and apply for state benefits in your name
• Hijack your business and make fraudulent purchases in the company’s name
• Pretend to be you or one of your employees and trick your clients into diverting payments to a different bank account
• Pretend to be you to target unsuspecting members of the public and attempt to steal their data

Part of the problem is the availability of personally identifiable information (PII) on Companies House.

Companies House (CH) deals with up to 100 cases of corporate identity theft every month.

The UK government has made changes in recent years in response to increasing cybercrimes.

The Companies House now allows you to protect your identity, maintain privacy,follow activities and restrict certain actions.

How can you protect your identity and secure your business:

There are a few actions that you can take to protect yourself from falling victim to potential frauds

1. Sign up to Follow

   - Under this facility Companies House sends you an email alert every time something is filed with Companies House as soon as it’s been accepted.

   The email will contain a link to the filing history of the company where you’ll be able to download a copy of the document for free.

   Company director, accountant or auditor can conveniently keep track of changes in company activity. Instant alert will allow you to address any problems quickly.

2. Remove information from Companies House beta

   - If you used your home address as your service address (or ‘correspondence’ address), you can ask Companies House to:

   Remove your home address from the public register

   You can remove your home address and instead provide a correspondence address.CH charges £32 for each document. The client has to identity each document.

   dns provides personal correspondence address service (same as registered address for companies) for directors where dns address will be visible to publicand will be used for correspondence.

   Withhold your address from credit reference agencies

   You can only do this if you’re at risk of violence or intimidation because of your company’s work. You need to provide proof such as:

   A police incident number if you’ve been attacked

   Documentary evidence of a threat or attack, such as photos or recordings

   Evidence of possible disruption or targeting, such as by animal rights or other activists

   Evidence that you work for an organisation whose activities put you at risk, such as the Secret Intelligence Service

3. Proof scheme

   - This service lets you protect your company from unauthorised changes to your records. It prevents the filing of certain paper forms, including:
   • Changes to your registered office address
   • Changes to your officers (appointments, resignations or personal details)
   • Your annual return

Fraudsters are known to hijack a company by changing the details of the company’s directors and registered office. This leaves the company vulnerable to further fraud. Companies House will reject any paper versions of the forms and send them back to the registered office address.

can help you in making your identity secure and safeguarding your business against potential fraud threats.

Identity Protection Scheme

Under this scheme we will

• Sign up for Follow scheme - stay alert and updated real time.
• Remove Home address from public register - address change and removal from up to 3 documents*.
• Sign up for PROOF Scheme - prevents the filing of certain paper forms. Only online changes will be acceptable.
• Correspondence Address Service - Use dns address instead of your home address.

Please contact your account manager to know more.