KENT businesses are being warned to be on their guard against a growing scam involving the theft of a company’s identity.

The fraud allows criminals to divert mail to a bogus registered address, enabling them to illegally obtain goods and services without a victim’s knowledge.

Nick Austen, of Kings Hill-based Vertex Law, which specialises in corporate and commercial legal issues, explained: "The scam works by submitting a bogus 'Form 287' (change of registered office address) to Companies House, changing the victim’s registered office address to one under the criminals’ control.

"Once Companies House has implemented the requested change of registered office address, the fraudsters are able to use the company’s identity to obtain goods and services or even set up new bank accounts.

"The fraudsters typically target the most recently incorporated companies on the Companies House database as these are less likely to notice their mail being diverted from their registered office address.

"Although Companies House is aware of the scam and is taking steps to tackle it, it remains a relatively straightforward – yet effective – way for fraudsters to steal a company’s identity.

"The victim only becomes aware of the fraud when it notices that it is not receiving any post or checks its details on the Companies House website."

Vertex Law advises businesses to sign up to the more secure online filing service recently introduced by Companies House and to consider a company monitoring service, which keeps track of a company’s details and highlights any changes.

Mr Austen added: "Although it may be the most recent development, the Form 287 Scam is not the only way a company’s identity can be hijacked.

"Some of the more common problems include trademark infringement, passing off damage to reputation and hijacking domain names.

"Once again there are often simple steps that companies can take to prevent these problems but unless companies are aware of the risks, they will not know what they need to do to protect themselves."

For further information, please contact Nick Austen on 0870 084 4040, nick.austen@vertexlaw.co.uk.