Foreign-based criminals have been approaching shareholders using registers in order to persuade them to purchase worthless investments . Posing as affiliates of the companies involved, the fraudsters have also been stealing shares from overseas investors .

Company secretary of Balfour Beatty Christopher Pearson recently highlighted the extent of the crime in a letter to the Financial Times in which he described phonecalls offering dubious opportunities to buy shares, possibly in exchange for existing holdings.

The Financial Services Authority reports repeated complaints about such approaches, but mentions no losses. The City regulator describes fraudsters routinely using share registers have been sold to one another. A new clause being debated in the company law reform bill would allow companies to apply for a court order to withhold their register in cases where the request might lead to misuse – however there are evident fears that this on its own will not be enough to prevent criminals from accessing the required data .

Ministers are now considering whether or not they could remove the details of small investors from publicly accessible lists such as those held at companies house, in order to combat further cases of share register fraud.