The Metropolitan Police service’s e-Crime unit has arrested six people in connection with a £1 million phishing scam that targeted students.

The scam involved sending emails to students that had received government loans,  asking them to update their bank account details. If they entered their details, scammers would steal between £1000 and £5000 from their accounts.

The arrested suspects were located around the country, in Manchester, Bolton and South London.  

"We have today disrupted a suspected organised group of cyber criminals and prevented further loss to individuals and institutions in the UK," detective inspector Mark Raymond said in a statment.

Detectives worked closely with the Student Loans Company, the banking industry and Internet service providers, the Met said. "Today’s arrests demonstrate what can be achieved when a partnership approach is adopted to investigate internet based crime," Raymond added.

He said that "a great deal of personal information was compromised and cleverly exploited for substantial profits". A Met spokesperson could not provide more information on how the scammers acquired the personal information of student loan recipients.