Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Company Identity Theft

Identity theft is not, it seems, just limited to individuals having their bins rifled. According to a warning on the Federation of Small Businesses there have recently been a spate of calls from people claiming to be from Compnaies House.

The fraudsters are apparently calling small businesses and attempting to get hold of their Companies House authentication details. Once they have them they can login and steal files which could be later used to set-up companies and secure money, good and services.

These kind of hacking social engineering tricks are not particularly new but it is really is amazing the number of people who trust the person at the end of the phone asking for their secure details. Apparently Companies House have put a notice saying they will nevr ask for people's details. Personally I think it's rather sad that they even have to do such a thing.

If someone knocked on your door and said "I'm fron the Gas Board, can I have the key to your house so I know you really live here" you wouldn't give it to the, The same applies on the phone.

2 comments:

Tapestry said...

My ID was stolen from Companies House without anyone calling for details by phone. They worked out who my bank was from details shown on accounts, and obviously paid off someone inside the bank to reveal my secret codes etc and began trying to splurge funds.

They began spending money in London, but bank staff in my branch spotted this and realised it was odd as I was not in the UK and they knew that.

I only have a privileged personal banking service because my mortgage is over £250,000. Without that I doubt the theft would have been spotted and they would got away with it.

The moral of the tale is if you want a secure persoanl banking service, borrow lots of money. The bank then have to keep an eye on your account to ensure you are still a good risk - to protect themselves. If I had been in credit, I doubt anyone would have noticed.

dizzy said...

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