Beware the latest fraud against innocent property owners
This is the second awful scam, targeting the homes of innocent strangers, which the BBC's Shari Vahl has managed to uncover in recent months: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-62494987?fbclid=IwAR3Af9GT73cuspLuY4VEn4Vv4pQXLT-ZLaXUEq0DDdqzdBWwrxaowOeD6Dc
Exposing the idiotic absence of any verification procedures at Companies House when a new company is registered, so that a fraud can claim that the company is based at a stranger's address without providing any verification at all, makes the British company system look extremely foolish and very vulnerable to fraud.
Getting one's address off the Register of Companies in these circumstances has been made extraordinarily difficult and time-consuming. Meantime, the new company and its fraudulent founders are free - indeed, they're being constantly invited by banks - to set up new bank accounts, run up overdrafts and incur debts which the banks assume can be recovered from the owner of the property at which the company has been fraudulently registered.
There's a White Paper proposing reforms to Companies House systems but that's six months old and apparently there's been no progress on implementing its recommendations at all. Meantime, the fraudsters are registering literally dozens of new companies daily.
So please don't ignore, or just return to sender, any strange letters addressed to an unfamiliar person or company at your home address. Open them up and take rapid action to stop this abuse continuing.
Exposing the idiotic absence of any verification procedures at Companies House when a new company is registered, so that a fraud can claim that the company is based at a stranger's address without providing any verification at all, makes the British company system look extremely foolish and very vulnerable to fraud.
Getting one's address off the Register of Companies in these circumstances has been made extraordinarily difficult and time-consuming. Meantime, the new company and its fraudulent founders are free - indeed, they're being constantly invited by banks - to set up new bank accounts, run up overdrafts and incur debts which the banks assume can be recovered from the owner of the property at which the company has been fraudulently registered.
There's a White Paper proposing reforms to Companies House systems but that's six months old and apparently there's been no progress on implementing its recommendations at all. Meantime, the fraudsters are registering literally dozens of new companies daily.
So please don't ignore, or just return to sender, any strange letters addressed to an unfamiliar person or company at your home address. Open them up and take rapid action to stop this abuse continuing.
