Income Tax Return filers need to be very alert as the bogus messages of Income-tax Department is becoming run of the mill. A company which invents protection software for the computer and mobile has informed that the fake messages of income tax department are summing up these days. Cybercriminals send these bogus messages to steal the pockets of taxpayers.
CBIC Advice to Taxpayers Keep E-filing Account Safe
The income tax department has advised taxpayers to be more careful with their income tax e-filing account and in case of any suspicious activity and misuse by any unauthorized person report the account. The department said in an advisory that If you believe that your e-Filing account may have been compromised or accessed in an unauthorized manner, then you may be a victim of cybercrime. And should report the incident to the concerned police or cyber-cell authorities. Also the IT department stated that the taxpayer’s e-filing account access via unauthorized manner is a cybercrime. The also advised people to file an online criminal complaint or FIR by visiting https://cybercrime.gov.in/, which is an initiative by Government to facilitate complainants to report cybercrime complaints online.
Fraudsters Ask for Correct Bank Details
Cybercriminals send an incorrect bank account number through the message to the ITR filers along with an option to click on the link given there if the bank account number given in the message is wrong. When the taxpayer clicks on the link, a fake website whose layout and the font is exactly similar to the income tax department’s website, gets open.
Quick Heal told that on this fake website, a taxpayer is asked to enter the login details that he uses to log in to the original website of the Income Tax Department. When a taxpayer enters the login details through which he logs in to the original website, he/she is immediately asked to enter the correct bank account.
Example of a Fraud Message
Fair Warning for Fake Call
Official Alert From ITR Department of India
As soon as the fraudsters find the correct bank account, they call a taxpayer and act as a genuine employee of the IT department. Then these fraudsters ask taxpayers to pay the fine for filing irregular income tax returns. After this, they cleverly transfer the money from their victim’s account to their account through the real login details filled on the bogus IT department website. Apart from this, they also change the details like phone number, email id, etc of the cybercriminal account.
Alert for Refund
Pune-based company – Quick Heal Technologies told that cybercriminals wittily win over the confidence of the taxpayer that the message has been sent by the Income Tax Department and convince them to share bank details. The message can attract anyone because it mentions the amount to be refunded by the income tax department.
Read Also: Check Simple Steps for Refund Income Tax Online
Be Vigilant
We can not prevent such fake messages from coming into the phone’s inbox, but such frauds can be averted if we take some precautions. Quick Heal said that the taxpayer should repudiate telling his financial details like bank account number, PIN & OTP and should not click on any link or attachment which is given in such fake messages.
The government has recently asked the taxpayers to only go for the authentic websites and contact source while doing any kind of transaction related to income tax. The IT department has also entailed some guidelines to be followed while at the time of receiving any kind of emails from the concerned income tax authorities.
The government has requested that no one should give the identities as well as the credentials to the contacting email as the department do not ask the details. For further guidelines, the IT department has also released a complete point list for the taxpayers to check out from the infographic.
