One of the services offered by Companies House helps combat fraud and protect your company from fraudulent changes being made. The free service is known as the protected online filing (PROOF) scheme and means that any forms covered by PROOF can only be filed online. Companies House will reject any paper versions of the forms and send them back to the registered office address.

The use of the PROOF scheme prevents the filing of certain paper forms, including:

• changes to your registered office address
• changes to your officers (appointments, resignations or personal details)
• changes to your company name by special resolution

This can help combat fraudsters who try to hijack a company by changing the names of company directors and the registered address of the company. Once this has been done, the company becomes vulnerable to further fraud such as banks accounts being opened in the name of the ‘new’ directors.

An application to join the PROOF scheme can be made online using the Companies House online filing service.

Source: New feed