Phishing E-Mail Purporting to be from IT Office Reaches Software Engineer

A software engineer named Rajesh based in Bangalore recently got an e-mail, which the IT (Income Tax) Office apparently sent telling him that on reviewing his March tax fiscal submission along with his returns filed over the Internet, the IT Office determined that he should get a tax re-imbursement amounting Rupees 40,135.50. But, Rajesh was curious when he read that his returns were filed online for that wasn't true. Business-standard.com reported this on April 21, 2011.

Moreover, there was a web-link embedded on the e-mail giving additional information. That, however, didn't convince Rajesh so he inspected the sender's e-mail id and found that it resembled the IT Office's id. He also clicked the web-link when he felt that some cyber-assault had targeted him.

Rajesh said that when he hit the web-link, he saw a few Brazilian advertisements on the ensuing site and that made him suspicious. Fortunately, he did not disclose any vital detail, he added.

Actually, there are many people in India paying taxes who encounter the above kind of phishing assaults during the start of a fresh financial year which also coincides with the IT returns filing season, and Rajesh is one.

Remarking about these scams, Analyst Paul Wood at Mountain View, California headquartered Symantec Corp stated that they grew during mid-February-March every year. Itworldcanada.com published this on April 6, 2011.

Wood added that phishing frauds altered for adapting to the tax-season, getting increasingly widespread as the financial year closed during April-end.

Reportedly, the mode-of-operation of the above tax-related scams involves one authentic-appearing agency like the IT Department as in the incidence in question that attempts at enticing a taxpayer via talking about a rebate he's entitled to. But the e-mail subsequently directs him to provide his credit card details.

Ultimately, anyone receiving the phishing message must realize it's one kind of scam incase it directs him to enter personal card details since legitimate institutions such as the IT Department doesn't distribute re-imbursements in the manner just seen. Incidentally, these scams have language with grammatical errors, while producing authentic-appearing websites for defrauding recipients into divulging their private details, remark security specialists.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 4/30/2011