25 June 2018
5 Ways For Company Directors To Avoid Fraud
If you’re a company director, you are an attractive target for fraudsters. Not only are you seen as fairly wealthy, your personal details such as name and date of birth are often readily available. Directors form 20% of all victims of identity theft, and it’s easy to see why. It’s possible to obtain a range of services – including loans and other credit agreements – with only a name, address and date of birth.
How should you should protect yourself as a director?
- Keep personal and professional lives separate – don’t reveal too much personal information in your business’ online presence
- Sign up for Companies House’s ‘Proof’ service, which notifies you if someone tries to change your records
- Train staff and colleagues to recognise the risk of ‘false director fraud’, where a con artist poses as a director and orders a junior employee to provide sensitive bank details
- Ask Companies House to publish only the company’s registered address online, not your home address
- Use the new right not to put your home address on documents filed at Companies House (in the Companies (Disclosure of Address) Regulations 2018), when it is brought in later this year
Notes
New regulation: Companies (Disclosure of Address) Regulations 2018