Directors are more vulnerable to identity theft

Posted in 'Identity Theft' by Barry Stamp

23 January 2012

Directors have a hard time of keeping their personal affairs confidential, and that leaves them wide open to attack from identity thieves. The law requires them to disclose their full names and addresses to Companies House. When accounts are lodged annually, these can also reveal the signatures of some directors and also salary details.

Under EU law, everyone has a right to privacy, and a few years ago Companies House permitted directors to lodge a ‘service address’ rather than their home address as a contact address. Companies House still knows the director’s home address, but the contact address put on view for every Tom Dick or Harry to see can now be a service address.

This can be done relatively inexpensively by using a service such as ScanMyPost - which costs just £11.50 a year.

ScanMyPost gives users a unique address that can be given to Companies House as a service address, and if post is received for the director at that address it is scanned, the director is notified by email of receipt, and the director can then view the item online, all as part of the service.

It’s important to know that the company behind the provision of service addresses is reputable, and ScanMyPost is run by Credit Reporting Agency – the same company behind checkmyfile.

With a long reputation of maintaining personal information securely, and delivering it safely via the Internet, directors can relax in the knowledge that their home address and family are now private once again.

For more information about ScanMyPost, click here.