According to the FSB, fraudsters have targeted small businesses to try and obtain secure authentication codes for Companies House files. This information could then be used to take the firms details and set up fake businesses to steal money, goods and services. As a result, the FSB has warned small firms to exercise more caution when giving out company information.
Following the warning, Equifax, has urged firms to check the information held on record to ensure it is correct and has not been altered fraudulently. It said that in every case of company identity theft, there will be at least two victims; the company that is initially being cloned and any other company that then supplies goods or services to the cloned company.
Commenting, Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax, said: “Companies House has no legal right to question applications it receives to update business details. The result is that fraudsters could be changing vital information about a business, such as details of directors and registered office, and the company’s real owners won’t know anything about it until they start being chased for unpaid bills.”
Alan Lakey, partner at Highclere Financial Services, said: “While I haven’t been a victim of corporate identity theft or cloning myself, there is definitely a threat to small businesses out there. It is a sad fact that all these scams and this duplicitous behaviour is on the increase, certainly via e-mails and I have been the recipient of quite a few of those.”
