How can a fraudster hijack your company?

One way in which fraudsters can potentially hijack your company account is by filing a paper form with Companies House to request an office change, and then from there to request that the Companies House authentication code is posted out to the new address.

What is PROOF and how does it help me?

Setting up PROOF is a quick and simple way to protect your business from a specific kind of fraud where you 'lock' the ability to file paper returns. You can do this by creating an online filing account (often referred to as PROOF).

What you need before setting up?

• A Companies House filing account
• Your company number
• Your Companies House authentication code

Tip: If you don’t know your company number, search for it by typing the company name on the Companies House register.

Step-by-step guide to setting up PROOF

Go to Companies House here: https://ewf.companieshouse.gov.uk/. If you haven’t already, create an account. Once you have an account, sign in. You should be at this page:

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Click your companies and then click add a company:

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Input the details of the company you want to add. 

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Input your Companies House authentication code:

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Check that the details are correct and click ‘confirm and continue’

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You should now receive confirmation that your company has been added to your Companies House filing account.

Once you can see that your company has been added here, it should now be unable to file paper forms at Companies House, so should have an added layer of security against fraudsters.

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Accountants looking out for your business

We want to help where we can. Setting up PROOF is a really easy way to add a bit more safety to how you run your business. If you want help setting up PROOF or want help managing your ecommerce business' finances, get in touch.