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Comment by tompccs | Hacker News Reader

This is interesting, but as someone who has formed a UK limited company (and yes, it is as easy as the article claims), they've missed that the tricky part is getting a bank account. The onus is on the banks to carry out checks under "Know your Client", not Companies House. Registering a company in the UK doesn't really get you anything, other than a thin veneer of authenticity among people who don't understand how easy it is.

Not saying it's not a problem, but they should have looked into how easy it is to get banking for these "novelty" businesses.

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Getting business bank account is not that difficult. There are lots of new challenger banks that give business accounts easily, you just need virtual office and proof of UK residence (council tax for example). I have opened business bank account at the beginning of this year just after returning to UK from abroad, renting a place and getting council tax bill in couple weeks, getting some cheap virtual office for the company and then opening bank account is super easy.

Don't you also need a passport or some other ID? When I set up my business bank account I needed my passport and proof of address.

A passport might be just about forgeable if you have the skills but they can also look up the passport number, and there are identity verification companies that are able to do just this. That's a lot harder to get around.

Yes you need passport also. Some form of ID and proof of address (phone bill or council tax are fine).

But your council tax bill has your real name on it, right?

I'm pretty sure you just phone the council, tell them "I've just moved into 999 Letsby Avenue and need to pay council tax, my name is Mr I M Notafraudster."

I could of course be mistaken.

Ah yes, that highly secure document from the notoriously thorough organisation, UK local government. Nobody could possibly forge those.

Of course.

Why would you not use your real name?

All you need is proof of address (a utility bill). The article hints at it, but identity theft is rather easy in the UK.

A few years ago someone went to a Vodafone store, opened a contract and walked out with a new iPhone in my name. I'm not exactly sure what they used to do that, but shortly after I found bank accounts and other phone contracts in my name, so I assume they used the Vodafone contract as proof of address.

> All you need is proof of address (a utility bill).

Don't you also need passport/id card? I suppose they have to accept a birth certificate too, so maybe that's the easiest thing to fake

You don't need to fake a birth certificate, you just need to 'request a replacement' in the name you're using. I believe this was a big issue a few years ago, people requesting birth certificates for people who had died young, then leveraging those to get passports etc.

Mobile phone bills cannot be used as a proof of address.

So would this mean you need a partner such as HSBC to overcome the KYC?

Curious how this sort of high level crime can continue in the UK even after all these articles and investigations...

Because the uk is a haven for dirty money. Their usp is ‘no time for financial crime’.

How is that (HSBC) relevant? The KYC requirement is still there.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/dec/11/hsbc-bank-u...

Well, that's a 7-year-old article about past wrongdoings, so it's hardly a very relevant method just now.

A leopard can't change its spots

A company can reform, however.

At least: if you bring up the leopard as an example of animal having spots, be prepared to document it has them.

It's funny you should say that, when I moved to the UK for a couple of years I had a couple of months at the start were I was casually job hunting and no banks there would give me a personal bank account unless I had a full time job... I think I had about £10k I wanted to transfer over at the time too.

I knew I wanted to go contracting so I setup a ltd company and had a business bank account within a couple of days.

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