Legal news
Cyber crime team to tackle organised tax fraud
A new cyber crime team to tackle tax fraud by organised criminals more proactively was launched recently by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The intention is that the newly-created specialist cyber crime team will protect the exchequer from attempted fraud by cyber criminals who are using increasingly sophisticated ways to target HMRC’s repayment systems. The team is designed to protect both HMRC and taxpayers from organised criminals and is a key element of HMRC’s Cyber Crime and Security Strategy.
It is expected that the new cyber team will provide HMRC with a better awareness of the nature of the threat by using specialist forensic tools to exploit intelligence.
“As more and more of HMRC’s systems move online, cyber criminals will look to exploit any opportunity to attack the repayment system,” said the Exchequer Secretary, David Gauke. “HMRC is getting ahead of the curve – taking forward what it is already doing in a better way. In the last year alone, customers reported over 200k bogus emails purporting to come from HMRC and, as a result, HMRC shut down close to 1,000 bogus websites.”