Business owners / contractors

[trendie]

hi,
Total randomness.
Any business owners, with limited companies, been asked by their accountants to provide Drivers Licence / Passport photocopies, for money laundering rules?

I got two emails, ostensibly from my accountant yesterday, Friday, insisting I provide above info by Monday, 29th.
They are usually quite efficient; been struck by this apparent urgency,

Will phone them up directly Monday in case its some scam. (email source checks out OK, etc)

Anyone asked similar?

 

[Trader333]

It is becoming a more common practice but as you said never trust any email even if it looks genuine as that can easily be spoofed. In my view the only way to check is to call them directly and it will be interesting to hear when you have if it was geniune.

 

[MasterOfCoin]

hi,
Total randomness.
Any business owners, with limited companies, been asked by their accountants to provide Drivers Licence / Passport photocopies, for money laundering rules?

I got two emails, ostensibly from my accountant yesterday, Friday, insisting I provide above info by Monday, 29th.
They are usually quite efficient; been struck by this apparent urgency,

Will phone them up directly Monday in case its some scam. (email source checks out OK, etc)

Anyone asked similar?

It smells of 'scam' to me.
I certainly would NOT provide this highly sensitive information on some unsolicited email request query.

Your accountants would in any case surely be able to verify you directly with the Inland Revenue if necessary.

My inclination would be to extract the originating IP from the address header and compare with your accountants actual IP address. I'm rather inclined to think in most cases they will differ, although I note you do say 'source checks out'.

In the unlikely event your accountants actually suddenly genuinely required and insist on this verification, I'd insist this were provided in an encrypted and safe manner, which would in itself exclude providing it by email.

Do let us all know how this plays out.




MOC.

 

[trendie]

It smells of 'scam' to me.
I certainly would NOT provide this highly sensitive information on some unsolicited email request query.

Your accountants would in any case surely be able to verify you directly with the Inland Revenue if necessary.

My inclination would be to extract the originating IP from the address header and compare with your accountants actual IP address. I'm rather inclined to think in most cases they will differ, although I note you do say 'source checks out'.

In the unlikely event your accountants actually suddenly genuinely required and insist on this verification, I'd insist this were provided in an encrypted and safe manner, which would in itself exclude providing it by email.

Do let us all know how this plays out.




MOC.

I will speak to them directly. They are just 10 minutes drive from me anyway, so could just pop in, so no biggie.
It was the urgency of it that spooked me, so unlike them.

 

[trendie]

All legit, as it turns out.
Some people are coming in to do some checks at my accountants, over next few days.

Sounds to me like one of those ISO-9000 quality audits, and someone went through the procedures as prep, and realised they weren't following them, and panicked.

 

[Trader333]

ISO9000 was only about following procedures that the company determined appropriate for the business they are in and not about what the process should be. So a way to address that is for them to say they have reviewd it and change the business process.

 

[trendie]

If you don't have any violations, you shouldn't be afraid of an audit. You'd better think about how to manage a crisis after the quarantine. I really don't know what to do. I thought about hiring a business analyst, but my colleagues advise me to try to collaborate with a factoring company. What would you if you were me? I found reliable specialists here at factorforyou.com. It seems to me that factoring is a developing field now, and my company can develop and improve and get more profit with its help.

I dont want to reply to this, but ......
This thread was about a presumed identity theft scam, which transpired to be all above aboard.
So, issue resolved.
The "audit" issue was a tangential supposition.
(the go-to office manager (lovely lady) recently left for pastures anew, and the role was taken over (by an equally lovely person).
Simple overlooking of a task as she finds her groove; no problem, just all-hands to the pump for this thing, and they got it sorted.)

Regards factoring: I dont understand how you make more profits!
Surely, when factoring, you are selling an invoice to an intermediary for cash.
You are selling an invoice with a high value in the future for a lower value in cash in the present.
This improves cashflow, not profits.

Any good advice on in-sample and out-sample datasets for back-testing purposes?