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Risky Business

A blog by Martin Williams, external affairs spokesman of Graydon UK, focusing on business risks - from fraud to late payment. Martin has has spent the last 35 years in the credit information industry, and has been with Graydon UK, one of the top five commercial credit agencies in the UK, for the last 20. Apart from his PR duties, he teaches credit analysis to risk professionals and helps educate SMEs on the importance of maintaining a good credit rating. Martin is a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Management and is a sitting member of the Institute's Think Tank. He was also honoured by Credit Today, after being included on their Credit 100 list of people who have had the greatest impact in the credit industry during 2008, 2009 and 2010.

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SILLY ME- I thought Companies House data was authoritative!

03 Dec 2008

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Last month, the Business and Enterprise Committee appointed by the House of Commons, and made up of a number of MPs, published its report on the workings of Companies House. Like most people, the MPs seemed to be somewhat surprised that the data filed there by companies, accountants etc was not checked and validated in some way. Therefore, a strong recommendation was made that Companies House should take steps "as a matter of urgency" to explain to the public that it cannot guarantee the accuracy of information there. They go on to say "It is understandable- but wrong- that some users of its services assume that, because CH is an agency of government,its data can be relied upon to be authoritative- it cannot".
Fraudsters have known about this lack of validation at CH for some time now, and have bombarded the agency with fictitious balance sheets,directorships, and registered office changes in order to fool the public and unsuspecting suppliers. Some credit agencies like Experian, D&B and Graydon do run checks for fraud/unusual filings received from Companies house, but there are several low cost credit agencies that don't do this and literally take Companies House data in good faith and attach a credit rating to it. Don't be fooled !! It could cost you thousands!!

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Visitor comments

I echo the concerns concerning the validity of data. Last year a company I am involved with was subject to a fraud in which the company suffered a bad debt. Credit was agreed (after a series of cash with order transactions) to a company which had filed 2 years accounts at CH and looked reasonable. Following delivery the company disappeared and further investigation disclosed that the "auditors" did not exist, the directors' addresses were fictitious and so it went on.



Posted by: Frankly , 10 Dec 2008

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