Corporate Identity Theft
Corporate Identity Theft. Stop Pretenses! Secure your
Company from Corporate Identity Theft.
 |
| Corporate Identity Theft |
Corporate Identity Theft. The maniacal cruelty and audacity of identity theft
criminals have now reached into the corporate world of business companies. In
November 2005, the corporate identity theft crime wave reached the UK
businesses.
Corporate Identity Theft. According to brief reports last November, the corporate
identity theft cost UK businesses up to £50M a year. Why? What is the modus
operandi of these corporate identity thieves? Actually, it has been going on
for years now.
Corporate Identity Theft. Believe it or not, there are criminals posing as company
directors on certain companies! Each year, as they see how gullible some people
could be, there has been increasing number of them. They order goods that they
never pay for and then sell those products for profits thus ripping off
suppliers.
Corporate Identity Theft. As a smokescreen to make them seem legitimate, they register
through government agency handling company registrations, change company
records and run up credit using company’s name.
Indeed, there are rouges that claim/pretend to be the
manager or other illustrious title of a company and check that company’s credit
rating. When he/she see that it's good, he starts his game. By forging and
filing forms at the government agency where companies are registered, he
notifies the appointment of a fictitious new director. He then implies that there’s
a new registered office address for the company.
Since the Registrar of Companies cannot check the validity
of the documents, and is not obliged by law to check them, they proceed to
register them. Afterwards, the thief orders high value goods and services on
credit. He/she may use false IDs and then pretend to be a company director.
To countercheck, the supplier may search at Companies House.
Since the accuracy of the thief’s claim has been established there already, the
supplier will not see anything amiss. However, once the goods are delivered,
the fictitious company directory disappears, without paying. The company he
represented then suffers the set back.
As of now, according to reports many companies are suffering
from this kind of corporate identity theft. It has become a present problem
since even smaller companies are as vulnerable as large ones.
A company who has become victim of a corporate identity
theft may even find out long after the rouge has taken off. Once they need a
loan, they may be surprised of being denied credit and learn that they cannot
obtain credit because they already have significant financial obligations.
Until they can clear up that these are made by somebody else has accumulated
these debts using the company’s name, their business may suffer terribly.
Beware, for this may happen in your company. You must know
that it's the medium sized and smaller businesses being targeted.
Security and trust are very important aspects in corporate
ethics code. Corporate identity theft seems to have broken the barriers of
these ethical bounds.
Whether your business is in UK or in any other part of the
globe, avoid falling victim to corporate identity theft. There are simple
precautions that you can make sure to make sure corporate identity theft does
not taint your company’s good name.
Here are protective measures recommended for companies to
prevent other people from pretending to be you.
First, make sure that the thief has not targeted your
business. You need to frequently check with the government agency handling
company registrations to see if your company’s registered office is accurate.
You can do it online by finding out the website of the government agency
mentioned.
You can also sign up proof service in order to pre-empt the
thief. If your business is in UK, you can file online for PROOF service.
Filing for proof service means that certain changes in the
information about your company should only be filed electronically. This must
include the changes of company director’s name and your business address.
Once you file for proof service, filing through paper forms
will be rejected. There are user name, password and authentication codes used
in these electronic forms wherein your documents will be protected and no one
else who does not know these codes can access them.
Do not let the tentacles of corporate identity theft get
into your company. Stop pretensions of thieves and fight back. Aside from the
preventive measures given, companies can find other means of preventing and
eventually, stopping the insidious attacks of this crime.
I thought you may be interested in reading some of the
bullet points contained in this post about Corporate Identity Theft.
No comments:
Post a Comment