Fake Income Tax Emails Target Taxpayers With Refund Scams, Warns PIB Fact Check Unit

Taxpayers At Risk

The Tax-Filing season is here, and taxpayers are at risk of being defrauded. An email, falsely claiming to be from the Income Tax department, is asking taxpayers to "manually verify" attached documents or click links so they can receive refunds.

Press Information Bureau

The Fact Check Unit of the government's Press Information Bureau (PIB) has flagged these emails as fraudulent. They have requested the citizens to be aware.

Phishing

These types of emails are phishing emails. They are designed to mimic the tax department. They read:

"Dear Taxpayer,

This is an official notification regarding your Income Tax Refund for Assessment Year 2024-25. Amount eligible: Rs 60,000…all refunds above Rs 25,000 require recipient confirmation to prevent unauthorised payouts and protect taxpayers."

Recipients are prompted to click on the link or fill in their financial information. The Income Tax department stated it never asks for personal financial information, PINs or passwords.

To identify fraudulent emails:

One must scrutinise emails asking for personal or banking information.

Poor grammar, unusual formatting, or suspicious domain names in the sender’s address.

Attachments that one didn’t expect to receive.

Links that redirect to websites resembling official portals but with slight changes in spelling or design.

After receiving a fraudulent email, one must forward the suspicious email to webmanager@incometax.gov.in and incident@cert-in.org.in for further investigation.

Income Tax India

On X (Formerly twitter), Income Tax India posted a fraudulent mail which read" Found an error in your AIS? Submit feedback directly on the portal. Your input will be verified with the information source. Based on verification, the status will be updated as: Accepted or Rejected."

It further explained" Received an email about an ''Income Tax Refund" requiring urgent "manual confirmation"? This is a #phishing scam! The IT Dept NEVER asks for bank details or personal information via email. Always verify refund status ONLY on the official website

Advisory from Income Tax Department

“Use anti-virus software, anti-spyware, and a firewall and keep them updated. Some phishing e-mails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus & Anti-spyware software and firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files,” the IT department’s advisory states.