Every company registered at companies house in the UK is now facing a new threat to their business in the form of 'Company Hi-Jacking'. This is when a company's identity is stolen by fraudsters. These criminals simply submit a forged form to Companies House, changing a company's registered address to a new location.

Using the selected company's name and the new address, they are then able to carry out fraudulent activities, obtaining credit to purchase goods and services. This form of fraud is estimated to cost ?50 million a year to industry.

As company hi-jacking is on the increase, the Metropolitan Police Service and companies house are urgently advising companies to take simple preventative measures to minimise their company's identity from being hi-jacked, including:

1. IMMEDIATLEY check your company's registered details are correct and that they have not been fraudulently changed - Search for FREE now at creditgate.com.

2. IMMEDIATLEY subscribe to an online monitoring service that will alert you by email if any changes are made to your company's details at companies house in the future - Subscribe for this FREE service now at www.creditgate.com.

3. IMMEDIATLEY start using a Credit Reference Agency to satisfy yourself that each new customer is legitimate, as well as credit worthy - http://www.creditgate.com provide a full range of Credit Reports and Companies House documents, which are available instantly online.

Companies House have warned that a growing number of small businesses are falling victim to the corporate version of identity theft, sometimes known as a Form 287 scam, a reference to the name of the Companies House form that is completed when requesting a change of registered office.

Companies House have introduced electronic filing and e-mail alerts to notify companies about the receipt of documents, but Creditgate believe that the system is still fundamentally flawed because Companies House only keeps a record that documents have been received, rather than checking the accuracy of those documents. What is also very worrying, is that Companies cannot get fraudulent information removed from their file without a legal judgment, even if there is overwhelming evidence that identity theft has taken place.