THOUSANDS of taxpayers have had their online accounts locked and login details deleted after “organised crime fishing” scams targeted HMRC in a £47million fraud sting.
Up to 100,000 personal tax accounts were shut down after it detected unauthorised access by criminal gangs in an elaborate bid to extract repayments from the tax authority – not from individuals.
Thousands of HMRC online personal tax accounts have been locked down[/caption]
Security systems detected unauthorised access to some accounts[/caption]
Officials told MPs that the threat, which has not been classified as a cyber attack, was carried out over an extended period last year by multiple crime syndicates running phishing campaigns.
Angela McDonald, deputy chief executive of HMRC, told the Treasury Committee: “At the moment, they’ve managed to extract repayments to the tune of £47 million. Now that is a lot of money and it’s very unacceptable.”
The tax office said the breach was identified nearly a year ago but it has only now begun informing affected customers by letter.
Letters are being sent from today until June 25.
Anyone hit will need to re-register for online services with new Government Gateway credentials.
In a statement, HMRC said: “We have written to affected customers and taken action to protect these accounts.”
“This was an attempt to claim money from HMRC, not an attempt to take any money from you,” the statement added.
The agency said it has locked down affected accounts, deleted login details to prevent future unauthorised access, removed incorrect information from tax records, and checked to ensure no other details were changed.
John-Paul Marks, the newly appointed HMRC chief executive, told MPs: “It’s about 0.2% of the PAYE population, around 100,000 people, who we have written to, are writing to, to notify them that we detected activity on their PAYE account.”
Asked to confirm this affected individuals not companies, Marks replied: “That’s right, individuals. To be clear, no financial loss to those individuals.
“This was organised crime fishing for identity data outwith of HMRC systems.”
He also revealed that the criminal probe into the breach has included “jurisdictions outside the UK” and led to “some arrests last year.”
HMRC’s phone lines were also plunged into chaos today as a major system outage knocked out all call centres — just as worried taxpayers may be trying to call.
Anyone dialling HMRC is currently met with a recorded message stating: “This phone line is temporarily unavailable due to technical difficulties but normal service will resume as soon as possible.”
Marks said: “Something has disrupted those telephony lines and expecting them to be back up and available in the morning.”
McDonald added: “The system will be up and running by tomorrow morning.”
Anyone concerned about their account is urged to wait for the letter or email the Fraud Prevention Centre at FraudPreventionCentre@hmrc.gov.uk.
It comes as Brits are being urged to check their tax codes immediately as thousands could be due a £700 refund from HMRC.
HMRC will also issue urgent letters to 1.5 million parents to avoid having a £1,354 payment stopped ahead of the new school year.
Back in March 2022, HMRC had warned of a rising wave of phishing attacks seeking Government Gateway logins to file bogus tax refund claims.
Despite the breach, HMRC stressed: “This was not a cyber security breach… HMRC is always facing these kinds of attempts on the organisation, it is a constant battle.”
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