In a letter to the Registrar of Companies, FSB National Chairman
Carol Undy warned that a growing number of small businesses are
falling victim to the corporate version of identity theft,
sometimes known as a Form 287 scam, a reference to the name of the
Companies House form that is completed when requesting a change of
registered office.
The crimes follow a similar pattern. Gangs “hijack” details of
registered companies by filling in a Form 287, forging a director's
signature, and sending it to Companies House – the agency
responsible for the registration of companies. They then
impersonate the companies, using their details to order goods. The
first thing the genuine business owner normally knows about it is
when bills for the goods arrive.
The issue was highlighted earlier this year by the Metropolitan
Police Service, which warned that the loss to industry through this
type of fraud was thought to be in excess of £50 million per
year.
The Met and Companies House have introduced electronic filing
and e-mail alerts to notify companies about the receipt of
documents, but the FSB believes that the system is still
fundamentally flawed because Companies House only keeps a record
that documents have been received, rather than checking the
accuracy of those documents.
The FSB letter warns that companies cannot get fraudulent
information removed from their file without a legal judgment, “even
if there is overwhelming evidence that identity theft has taken
place.”
