Romania arrests 13 in phishing scam targeting British tax office

Thirteen people have been arrested in Romania after phishing attacks against Britain's tax office, with suspected stolen data being used to allegedly obtain millions of pounds of tax payments.

His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said its criminal investigators had joined more than 100 Romanian police officers to arrest the people in the southern counties of Ilfov, Giurgiu and Calarasi.

Police also seized cash and luxury cars during the raids against the individuals aged between 23 and 53, and arrested them on suspicion of computer fraud, money laundering and illegal access to a computer system.

A 14th person, a 38-year-old man, was arrested in Preston, northwest England, earlier on July 10, HMRC said.

The raids follow HMRC's revelation last month that a criminal gang had stolen £47 million (A$96.6 million) by using phishing tactics to access more than 100,000 customer accounts and falsely claiming payments from the government.

The arrests are part of several HMRC investigations into phishing incidents, in which individuals are targeted with emails that seem legitimate, prompting them to unwittingly disclose passwords or credit card information.

HMRC had said last month the incident was an attempt to take money from the tax office, and not customers, although the authority had written to about 100,000 affected people.

Criminal gangs are suspected of having used stolen data to submit fraudulent tax repayment claims, including on income tax, value added tax and child benefit payments, the tax office said.

"We have already acted to protect customers after identifying attempts to access a very small minority of tax accounts," Simon Grunwell, operational lead in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said.

HMRC also said two other men had been arrested in Bucharest in November on suspicion of cybercrime and fraud.