MARLOW accountants Brewer Higgins has issued warnings to clients about a shady practice called company hijack.

Also known as the '287' scam, hijacking involves fraudsters forging documents filed at Companies House to order goods and services illegally.

They have found different ways to target data given to Government officials principally the 287 form and to re-register false information for existing legitimate companies.

Small companies are especially at risk from tricksters, says the High Street accountancy business run by Keith Brewer and Debbie Higgins. According to their latest newsletter, companies that use old-fashioned paper based systems are more at risk than those using new electronic systems operated by Companies House.

Conmen rely on the fact that Companies House registers millions of forms and have mountains of paperwork. They only complete basic checks and automatically process paper forms supplied. They don't always notice that details being given are bogus.

"The hijackers are then in a position to use the company to order goods and services, trading off its creditworthiness. Goods delivered to the bogus address are then sold on but the supplier never receives the payment. This can obviously lead to severe problems for the real company and its directors to sort out," said Mr Brewer The first the real directors may hear of the problem is when suppliers try to enforce payment for goods ordered in the company's name.

The latest saviour is a new online system called Protected Online Filing (PROOF), which, used in conjunction with a service known as Monitor, is expected to go a long way to help avoid tricksters. The computer system will help directors monitor changes to statutory documents that have to be filed. If changes are made unexpectedly the business will be alerted. This gives an early warning.

Mr Brewer added: "This area has always been a problem, but it has only recently been identified by fraudsters as a lucrative means of obtaining money.

"Without checking which documents have been filed at Companies House on a daily basis, the only practical way of protecting your company from this type of activity is to sign up to the Protected Online Filing system. We would therefore strongly recommend that all companies sign up to this service."

Availability of the new services can be found at the following website: www.companieshouse.gov.uk