May 30, 2024 Reporting scams
In a hyper-connected world in which fraud or scams accounted for 41% of all crime experienced by adults in 2022 who do you trust? You might rightly be suspicious of calls coming out of the blue offering ‘too good to be true’ deals. If your internal fraud risk protocols are robust enough you will also phone known contacts before acting on any requests for confidential information, e-mails asking for urgent payments to be made, or messages advising of changed banking details.
But surely there is someone you can trust? Surely government organisations such as HMRC or Companies House are above suspicion? Well yes, but how do you know that the contact is genuine? You may think that you are responding to a genuine request, but are you? With this in mind, Companies House have recently updated their online advice on potential reporting scams that purport to come from them.
Their latest update highlights an e-mail which outwardly seems to come from Companies House; but hover over the link and the e-mail address shown is “@libero.it” This joins a long list of scam addresses including some which at first glance might look genuine including @companieshousecomplaint.co.uk and @companiesshouse.com. Check out other examples here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reporting-scams-pretending-to-be-from-companies-house. The advice from Companies House is that any phishing attempts should be reported to: [email protected] before being deleted.
Other scam attempts follow a common pattern used by fraudsters which tries to destabilise recipients by including an element of time pressure or referring to a complaint made against the organisation. Messages which threaten legal action or the withdrawal of Companies House services unless information is provided by a certain date should be researched thoroughly before being acted on.
Why messages such as these are so useful to the scammer is that they can play on the knowledge that by law there is a strict reporting timetable; and failure to meet legitimate reporting deadlines can lead to a fine or worse. In some cases, merely being aware of those reporting deadlines could help companies to shut down phishing attempts which may arrive at any time. However, scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and can check likely reporting timetables on the Companies House register before sending their phishing messages. And in a busy organisation it can be all too easy to be caught out.
Elemental helps companies to ensure that reporting deadlines are met. With annual compliance services such as preparing and filing annual confirmation statements and the maintenance of statutory registers, companies can have peace of mind that reports are up to date. Elemental also offers support such as Companies House document and e-mail monitoring to further help with fraud prevention.
