Corporate hijackings, also known as corporate identity theft, involves a fraudster altering the details of a registered company on the ASIC register by completing Form 484 ‘Change to company details’, and lodging it by mail. The details changed are typically the address of the principal place of business, the registered office, the directors and shareholders. The fraudster will need to forge a director’s signature. The fraudster will also need the company’s corporate key and this can be found on the annual company statement. Fraudsters can also obtain a corporate key by applying online and then intercepting it in the mail of the company’s registered office. Unencumbered commercial properties and vacant land are particularly vulnerable. Accordingly, lenders should be alert for this possibility with these types of property. Fraudsters often bypass the need to create false identities by making themselves the directors of the company. This is something gambling addicts often do (‘I was going to put it back’) as the perpetrator is readily identifiable from a search. The fraudster plans to encumber a property, use the money to turn a profit and then repay the money and give the company back. Family companies are vulnerable to this sort of fraud because family members can claim it was agreed among the family that they could take these steps. Family members are also more likely to have access to copies of documents which have the corporate key on it.