Overview

• An organised crime ring used phishing tactics and stolen identity data last year to masquerade as PAYE taxpayers and extract £47 million in bogus rebates
• HMRC detected the scheme in late 2024 and has since locked down around 100,000 affected personal tax accounts, deleted compromised login credentials and purged false information from records
• Letters are being dispatched to those customers between June 4 and June 25 to confirm that their accounts are secure and to reassure them that no personal funds were lost
• John-Paul Marks and Angela MacDonald told the Treasury Committee the breach did not involve a hack of HMRC systems and highlighted that anti-fraud measures protected £1.9 billion of taxpayer money in the last tax year
• An international investigation into the fraud led to several arrests in 2024, and HMRC is continuing to work with UK and overseas law enforcement to bring further suspects to justice