If you’re a freelancer operating under a limited company, more than likely you’ll have had some kind of dealing with Companies House. The organisation are the record keepers for all public companies in the UK, and as such are what you might call a fairly widely used service.
As with most Government organisations, Companies House are a sort-of gentle giant, lumbering through life issuing vague and non-offensive advice as required, which is why it’s surprising to see them launching a campaign that seems to rely mostly on FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) tactics to get people to sign up.
The new PROOF (Protected Online Filing) Scheme is an effort by Companies House to cut down on fraudulent company activity perpetrated by those pesky identity thieves. The current scam du jour involves “hijacking” a company by means of forged forms physically posted to Companies House, allowing people to essentially take over a Limited Company without the actual proprietors knowledge.
The PROOF Scheme will move the forms in question online, and only allow selected individuals from a Company certain powers, so no one person can take over – forgery or no. A sound proposition, to be sure. So how do you think Companies House would go about promoting their new initiative? Perhaps an email newsletter explaining the situation, or a poster campaign? Or, how about a scary interstitial message on their website -
Get it? The mask? Identity theft! Terror! Here’s a nice note for the UX designers out there – the “Do Not Join Proof” button is not clickable – it’s just text.
Everybody knows identity theft and fraud prevention are important issues, but is this really the best way to promote it? Is it, Companies House, is it really?
