How to protect your limited company from fraudulence?

Company Identity Theft is a far more realistic problem as it leaves a company exposed to further fraud. Fraudsters are known to hijack and change certain important details of a company such as the director’s information or registered address. Identifying the potential threats and knowing how to deal with the risks can go a long way towards protecting a business. Below are a few steps to safeguard your company’s identity.

Safeguard your Company authentication code

A webfiling authentication code is a six-character alphanumeric code given by Companies House at the time of your company incorporation. It must be provided every time you try to make any online changes to your company’s information. It should be handled with utmost care and accessed only by trusted authorities as it acts as a Director’s electronic signature.

Corporate hijack protection or PROOF(PROtected Online Filing)

To combat frauds, Companies House has introduced a built-in safeguard system called PROOF or Corporate hijack protection. Once activated, you will receive an acceptance email from Companies House in a day or two. From then on, Companies House will accept certain statutory forms only in electronic format and will reject any paper version of the forms.

The below submissions can only be done online:

  • Changes to officers appointment, resignation, and personal details
  • Changes to a registered office address
  • Annual returns filing

Protecting your registered office address and director’s service address

Public register of Companies House has both the registered office address and director’s service address of all the companies registered in it. This means that everyone can find it free on the Companies House website. Using your private address as either one of these addresses will lead to receiving unwanted junk mails (or fraudulent mails) and unsought visitors.

At Mint, we offer both Registered Office Address service and Director’s Address service which allows you to use our prestigious London address. When you avail our address services, we will receive all your mails from HMRC and Companies House at our office and in turn, forward them to your registered email address. Our director’s address service helps you prevent unwanted customers from showing up at your residential address.

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