Scammers hijacking limited companies

Fraud prevention advisors Early Warning are urging employers to take note of a new scam that focuses on businesses registered on the Companies House database.

The fraudster will search the internet to find details of a particular limited company, such as the postal address of the head office and its registered company number.

Accessing Form 287 on the Companies House website, the scammers can then amend a firm's information in order to have goods delivered to a bogus address or short let residential address.

Andrew Goodwill, managing director at Early Warning, said: “Every Limited company should check their registered office details on the Company House website and this should probably be done every month or so.

“It is our belief that Companies House has no responsibility to validate the details contained in Form 287 and that it may even require legislative changes to get them to do so.”

Companies House has responded to the threat of ‘company hijacking’ with the introduction of two electronic services.

Protected Online Filing (PROOF), introduced on 17 January, accepts specific statutory forms in electronic format only, refusing paper submission, which increase the threat of fraud.

The Companies House Monitor service also allows customers to check which documents are being filed with the group, alerting them to any unauthorised changes to their company records.

Tom Smith, director of customer delivery at Companies House, said: “This kind of fraud is still rare, but is still growing. That is why we are offering our customers a simple plan to protect themselves.”