Business fraud prevention tips
Extra help and guidance for our business customers
It’s a sad statistic - Companies House recently estimated that corporate ID theft alone could be costing businesses as much as £50m every year.
Corporate Identity fraud is stealing the identity of a company and fraudulently trading under that name without the knowledge of the legitimate company to obtain goods, including credit and finance in the legitimate company's name.
As a business owner or employee responsible for security, finance or IT, there are some key ways you can reduce the risk of identity fraud:
- Check the identity of every new customer. Use reputable credit reference agencies.
- Introduce and stick to strict procedures for disposing of documents containing any company information.
- Store sensitive documents in a safe place and limit access to only the employees who need it, to ensure information is not falling into the wrong hands.
- Sensitive and private information relating to the company, such as bank account details, should be kept out of the public domain as far as possible, prevent an attack by impersonation.
- Update information security regularly, using the latest versions of computer firewalls and anti-virus software. This is crucial in staying one step ahead of corporate fraud.
- Encrypt important information for extra security, this allows only authorised users to access them. This can be a powerful method of ensuring privacy and security.
- Have a clear and robust process to ensure that requests to alter payment details are genuine and not someone impersonating your customers.
- Make all staff aware of the risks of corporate fraud, and the procedures in place to tackle them.
For more information Companies House provides useful guidelines on how companies can protect themselves.
