Seven people have been arrested in Romania on suspicion of tax repayment fraud linked to the 'phishing' theft of data from UK tax professionals.
The arrests are linked to an attempted fraud against HMRC of almost £200m.
The six men and one woman, all Romanian nationals, were arrested this week in a joint HMRC operation led by the Romanian National Police’s Economic Crimes Directorate, with support from the Crown Prosecution Service.
The individuals are suspected of mounting sophisticated phishing attacks against UK-based tax professionals to steal their client data. This data was then used to submit fraudulent tax repayment claims to HMRC.
HMRC said the majority of the suspected fraudulent claims were detected and blocked by HMRC systems.
The investigation saw 21 properties searched across Romania.
Investigators linked fraudulent tax repayment claims in the UK to attacks on tax authorities in Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Simon Grunwell, operational lead in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “HMRC has acted to protect customer data and support tax accountants to better protect themselves from this type of attack. We encourage any business which has concerns to contact us. Suspicious activity happening in an HMRC account can be reported online.
“Our investigations are ongoing and we continue to work with other law enforcement agencies both in the UK and overseas to bring those responsible to justice.”