The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), which made the arrests, reported that the gang had used the internet to find information from which they could make false identities.
These identities allowed the men, aged between 21 and 39, to open bank accounts and obtain credit cards and loans from Lloyds TSB, the Halifax and the Co-operative Bank. Lloyds was worst hit, losing £315,000.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department reported last week that over 125 individuals have been arrested in an ongoing campaign against internet criminals.
Operation Cyber Sweep is being coordinated by 34 US Attorneys' offices nationwide, the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service, the FTC, the Secret Service, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with a variety of state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies.
The operation targets a variety of on-line economic crimes such as fraud, software piracy and the fencing of stolen goods.
"On-line criminals assume that they can conduct their schemes with impunity," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "Operation Cyber Sweep is proving them wrong, by piercing the criminals' cloak of anonymity and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law."