Indian Taxpayers Warned of Fraudulent Tax Refund E-mails

The Central Government of India has cautioned tax payers that they should watch out for fraudulent e-mails making rounds online.

The scam messages falsely inform recipients that a tax refund awaits them, but they actually steal identification details like credit card or bank account numbers.

People, who hand over this information to the fraudsters, face the risk of filching their credit card limits and bank accounts robbed. The victims are further endangered that their private credentials sold to additional Internet fraudsters.

Vivek Gogia, Additional Commissioner of Police (Economic Offense Wing, Delhi), said that the ongoing cyber fraud resembled to phishing attempt, as reported by The Times of India during the 3rd week of January 2010.

According to security analysts, 'Phishing' refers to a term that cyber criminals have coined for websites that impersonate legitimate ones - like the IT Department site in the present instance. These illegitimate websites' links are sent through fake e-mails to lure consumers.

Other EOW officials stated that they were making efforts to track down the server that dispatched the e-mails. Such kind of e-mails emanate from websites which last for 20 minutes after which they switch to a new domain name. The Officials also requested the ISP in writing to provide the e-mail account's login credentials through which the fake messages were dispatched.

A Police Officer said that the ongoing cyber fraud was the first such attack reported to them. According to him, they suspected that the scammers were operating for several months and became active with the approaching of 'tax return' dates, as reported by The Times of India in the third week of January 2010.

The Officer further said that the Police had also requested the IT Department in writing that it should act to raise awareness among people regarding such fake messages.

The Officials probing the fraud, however, said that the Income Tax Department didn't issue e-mails about refunds. It didn't ask for any taxpayer details such as username, password, credit card, bank account or ATM information through e-mail. Besides, scam e-mails frequently had weak grammar and spelling mistakes that indicate to the fakeness of electronic message.

Related article: Indian Financial Industry Facing Rising Online Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 2/4/2010