Are you receiving email
requesting your PAN, TIN and bank account details for processing of IT refund?
Then you had better delete them forthwith or complain to the Income Tax
officials as they are fraudulent email sent by unidentified persons.
With several taxpayers lodging complaints about fraudulent email flooding
their mail boxes seeking their bank account, PAN and TIN details for transfer of
tax refund, the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Hyderabad, Radha Srivastava
has ordered an inquiry into the matter.
The Chief Commissioner told Expresso that a number of customers had
received such email, some of which had sought to know even the credit and debit
card details of customers.
“An investigation by the Income Tax officials revealed that customers
received fake mails from email IDs like lhxbkw@accounts.net, cvfvs@accounts.net
and onozml@accounts.net,” she said.
Apart from using e-mail IDs that were similar to that of the Income Tax
department, fraudsters were also including a few images copied from the official
website of the Income Tax department.
“Even as the investigation into the cyber fraud is at an initial stage,
we have learnt that several such e-mails have been sent to tax payers, whose
addresses can be obtained easily from social networking sites,’’ Radha
Srivastava said.
Reiterating that the Income Tax Department never sought such details
through online mails, the Chief Commissioner said refunds are issued through
refund banker scheme wherein the amount is either credited directly into the
bank account mentioned by the taxpayer in the return or a cheque is sent by post
to the taxpayer’s address.
“Customers are cautioned not to click on any link that has come through
email from unexpected sources. There is no need to provide any information on a
page that might have come up as a pop-up window. Always remember that
information like password, PIN, TIN are strictly confidential and should not be
even disclosed to employees or service personnel of the IT department,” she said
By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com
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