Tvm: With the closure of the financial year, phishing mails are back again. Tax Payers, especially those who have filed their Income Tax Returns online are getting mails informing them about their refunds. This is a latest cyber crime activity where criminals are trying to get users’ bank account details in the pretext of tax refund notification.
Talking to Kerala IT News, Bijumon E S, DySP (Special Investigation) PHQ, Kerala Police said, “We hope Tax Payers will be alert about these mails. The ‘click here’ link in the mail takes you to your net banking site with the aim of collecting bank account details including user ID and password. This data will be immediately used by the criminals to withdraw money from the bank account. We request people to ignore such Income Tax Refund notification emails and not to click on any link in the email.”
Sources at the HiTech Crime Cell of Kerala Police said that even though they are aware of these phishing mails, they are yet to get any complaints regarding these mails. Many professionals in the IT industry have acknowledged the receipt of such mails. Xavier Prabhu, a Branding and Communication Entrepreneur who deals with many companies in Technopark Trivandrum said, “I received a refund mail purportedly from IT department so genuine and authentic, it took me some time to figure it was fake!”
The mail from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is sent from the Income Tax Department’s mail id ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with the subject: Tax Refund Notification (Submit Refund). The mail asks the valued taxpayer to read the message carefully and delete after submission of refund. “We have reviewed your tax fiscal payments for previous months and your filed returns online, with this effect we have determined that you are eligible to get a tax refund of INR 40,135.50. Please CLICK HERE and submit a confirmation refund request. Please also note that refund takes three weeks to get processed and refund to rightful owners account”, reads the mail. The mail also asks the Tax Payer to contact his bank or the refund banker SBI, in case the refund is not credited to the taxpayer account through ECS within three weeks.
Anil Philip
Kerala IT News
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