Speculative invoicing - legal

[Tom_C76]

Had a new Ltd company registered last week (when do I become powerfully built as a result?). This morning the postman brought me a lending offer, which is fair enough though a bit optimistic in offering £1million over 5 years...

The other item of post was an invoice for £190 to place my company on the electronic register. Clearly nothing to do with Companies House, and the small print does state it's an offer. But the big print sets out that failure to pay will mean omission from the register.

The sender appears to be a Polish firm, the address is a hot desking place in Hoxton. No VAT element in their charges or VAT number on the invoice.

I know it's a scam, but is it actually attempted fraud? Or does the fine print about it being an offer make it acceptable in a B2B transaction?

[Doofus]

If you look closely at the footnote, or the small print in the margin, it'll tell you that it is not an invoice. ETA: And you have done this.

So, scam: yes. Fraud: not so long as they include that disclaimer.

[Eric Mc]

Yep. These type of operations trawl Companies House for new companies and send out speculative "bills" hoping unsuspecting people will pay them. Bin it, shred it or even eat it - but don't pay it.

[Doofus]

Many years ago, I actually asked one of these (Spanish) companies if I could buy a copy of the directory.

They - very honestly - told me it hadn't been printed, and wouldn't be until they had 1,000 entries.

I very much hope they still don't, but sadly, I suspect they've fleeced more new businesses than that in the past decade.

[Tom_C76]

This one isn't even offering a printed directory. It's to go on a web directory, presumably to be used by other scam artists as a repository of mugs.

[Doofus]

Yeah, my anecdote may have been a little bit more than a decade ago...

It was back when the internet was all fields.