Beware! Email claiming an unprocessed I-T refund could be fake

Cyber criminals are using this trick to get your bank details

Next time you get an email from the Income Tax department stating that it wants to refund you some money, don’t be delighted — be cautious. In all likelihood it’s a message from cyber criminals trying to trick you into revealing banking details.

Taking note of rising cyber frauds, the Income Tax department recently referred over 100 such instances to the country's premier cyber security agency, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), to block these hackers.

The department is particularly worried after taxpayers recently brought to its notice certain emails with cleverly ‘spoofed department's identity’, by using almost resembling addresses to cheat gullible taxpayers. To make it look original, these criminals use a technique called as email spoofing that help them change their email address. Many victims received emails from the noreply@incometaxindia.gov.in.

“There’s a rise in such emails and they are often sent during the income tax filing month,” says Amit Jaju, Executive Director, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services, EY India.

He explains, victims usually receive an email that informs them of an unclaimed refund. To make it believable, the amount is kept low — between Rs 20,000 and Rs 35,000. To verify details and to process the refund, it provides a link in the email. Once the person clicks on the link, he is taken to a website that looks like it belongs to his bank. A HDFC Bank or an SBI Bank customer will be taken to the respective fake websites.

After putting in the bank account details, a message is displayed that says processing successful. “Surprisingly, most people are taken to their respective bank. This means, the fraudsters have a database of people, their email addresses and bank accounts they use,” says Jaju.