Data held at Companies House

Data held at Companies House along with Lost Benefits data may aid Sophisticated ID Fraudsters

It has emerged today that sophisticated identity theft fraudsters may be able to use a ‘triangulation’ method to build up fake identities with the recently lost child benefits data and information held at Companies House.

Identity theft has always been a big issue, especially in the modern digital age, as criminals are using more and more sophisticated methods to capture personal information from the unsuspecting public to fund a host of other criminal activities. It has therefore come as a big shock to the public when it was announced that a junior employee of HM Revenue and Customs had placed two CDs containing personal information of 9.5 million parents and 15.5 million children into the post, unregistered and unrecorded. It is further revealed that the CDs were not encrypted – only password protected and therefore easily hacked into. These CDs sent over a month ago have not been found. Those that are affected are children and parents that receive child benefits, and the information on the CD included: names of parents and children; dates of birth; addresses; National Insurance numbers and bank account numbers. If these CDs find their way to identity theft criminals, it would result in a catastrophic wave of fraudulent activity.

This information could be carved up and sold to criminal gangs and paedophiles. The public are also worried that the information may be used in conjunction with other public data such as Companies House to commit more fraud.

Companies House is a public body whereby information on companies and directors and secretaries are held. Information held by Companies House on directors include addresses and birthdates, they are therefore very aware of fraud and have put measures into place to combat this.

Recently Companies House have experienced a wave of fraudulent activity as company members have received calls claiming to be from Companies House asking for verification of their Webfiling Authentication Codes. Companies House have said that they don’t contact members via telephone and have placed a notice on their website stating this. Another fraud that Companies House has experienced recently are websites that offer escrow services claiming to be “licensed and bond at Companies House”. Fraudsters take payments for items that are never sent and then close down the email address associated with the service – making them untraceable. Companies House are actively combating these types of fraud by working with the Metropolitan police.

Experts have said that if “triangulation” methods are used (with data available from other public bodies as well as Companies House), the effects of this catastrophic blunder may not arise for years, as criminals will hold onto the data, using it intermittently and ruining the chances of the victims in getting hold of credit.