Computer hackers in Bulgaria help retailers hide their revenues and deprive the State budget of millions in Value Added Tax (VAT), the Bulgarian daily Standard writes.

The police and the National Revenue Agency (NRA) are probing computer wizs, who were able to break the code of cash registers and manipulate their memory. For a monthly fee from merchants, the hackers can delete a number of transactions or reduce by 10% - 20% the value of each sale.

The scam is difficult to prove since when the revenue agents and the police make a surprise visit, they find the cash register functioning while a check would not show days and hours without registered sales..

The scam is common in big cities, the police say, because stores there have larger turnover. In order to deal with the crime, the revenue agents also use innovative methods such as making purchases from the same store in the course of several days and keeping their receipts. The probe is done a month later and the receipts are compared against the memory of the register. If the purchase had been deleted, NRA begins a full audit of the retailer.

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