It’s published
An organized crime gang posed by taxpayers stole £47 million (€55.8 million) from the UK tax office.
HMRC released details on the UK government website on Wednesday about the phishing scam that occurred last year.
UK tax authorities said they would write to affected customers, but stressed that they had not lost their money.
“This was an attempt to charge money from HMRC, not an attempt to take money from you,” HMRC said.
After accessing the account, the scammers were able to fraudulently charge government payments.
“It’s unlikely that your account will be affected, but you can see your recent account activity,” HMRC told customers.
In the meantime, UK citizens have been urged to remain vigilant, such as phishing attempts or texts, as these may be linked to similar scams, such as suspicious emails and texts from the HMRC.
The scam was kept quiet
HMRC’s deputy chief executive Angela McDonald told the MPS of the Treasury Selection Committee on Wednesday that “a lot of money” was taken, which was called “a lot of money” and “a lot of money” called “very unacceptable.”
She pointed out that the HMRC had not been hacked because it had not been extracted from the system.
The HMRC has confirmed that criminal investigations have already been underway, including “outside the UK jurisdiction” that lead to several arrests.
Parliamentarians rebuked HMRC representatives for not writing letters to the committee about fraud when it happened last year.
Committee Chairman Meg Hillier said she and her colleagues only heard about the fraud when they were reported on the news.
The scale of the violation raised questions about the security of personal information when fraudsters were becoming more innovative in that way.
McDonald claimed that the agency’s broader efforts would prevent the attacks similar to last year from £1.9 billion (EUR 2.25 billion).
“We live in an environment where all organizations face some kind of cyber threat,” she said.
The Deputy Chief Executive added, “It’s an ongoing job to invest in our system… to overtake criminals.”
