The Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" revealed a major scam that took place in 2020 and 2021, victimizing a group of wealthy individuals and celebrities. The method was novel and unique, as it involved stealing tax refunds. Some of the victims are well-known wealthy individuals in Sweden; one of them lost a total of 14.5 million Swedish kronor (1.6 million dollars), while another lost around 9 million kronor.
The scammers exploited a loophole in the system between the Swedish Tax Agency and a major bank, where they presented themselves as tax refund agents for these victims. Through this scheme, the scammers managed to change the bank account information for tax refunds from the Swedish Tax Agency to accounts that belonged to them, leading the Tax Agency to deposit the victims' tax refunds into these accounts.
What are tax refunds? One of the functions of the Swedish Tax Agency is to collect income tax from each individual, with collections being made monthly based on previous income records. At the end of the year, the Tax Agency reassesses the actual tax owed based on the individual's real income over the year compared to what had been collected. If it has collected more than the actual owed tax, it refunds the difference.
This is the point that the scammers exploited, as they changed the account information for some wealthy individuals, allowing them to receive the tax refunds instead. To complete the scam, the scammers also changed the official addresses of the victims, so when the Tax Agency sent official correspondence regarding their refunds or changes to their bank account information, it did not reach them but instead went to the address specified by the scammers, allowing the fraud to continue for a period without detection.
