Organized criminals stole 47 million pounds (US$63.76 million) from Britain’s tax office last year by using phishing tactics to access more than 100,000 customer accounts and falsely claim payments from the government.
A notice posted by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on the government website on Wednesday disclosed the unauthorized access and said no customers had suffered financial loss.
HMRC deputy chief executive Angela MacDonald, speaking to lawmakers in parliament, said fraudsters masquerading as customers had managed to extract three payments, totalling 47 million pounds.
“That is a lot of money, and it’s very unacceptable,” she said.
Chief executive John-Paul Marks, speaking alongside MacDonald in what was a scheduled committee hearing on the work of the tax office, said a criminal investigation into the incident had taken place last year, leading to some arrests.
“This was organized crime phishing for identity data outside of HMRC systems,” Marks said.
HMRC said it had written to affected customers, locked down their accounts, deleted login details and removed any incorrect information from tax records. Taxpayers did not need to take any action, it added.
“This was an attempt to claim money from HMRC, not an attempt to take any money from you,” the tax office notice said.
In a separate statement emailed to Reuters, HMRC said the incident was not a cyberattack.
“It involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC,” the statement said.