This email can take your finances off rail

You would have filed an income tax return and now you would be waiting for a refund. When you saw an email from the Income Tax Department in inbox, you opened it immediately. Since it’s a mail from a government department, you provide all your information. However, you need to hold your horses, because replying to this email without cross-checking could be risky. These days, fraudulent emails are being sent from email addresses that closely resemble the official email of income tax, with the intention of scamming you. Don’t share any of your details in these emails and avoid clicking on any links that ask for verification.

Cybercriminals are sending fraudulent emails and messages in bulk.

Sometimes it’s a refund, and sometimes it’s in the name of a notice. Fraudulent refund emails may ask you to click on a link to verify your bank account. As soon as you click the link, a page that looks like the Income Tax e-filing page will open. You’ll be asked to provide details such as your PAN, Aadhaar number, bank account number, and ATM card information. After that, the web page will ask you to install an app to complete the process. This app requests device administration rights and several other access permissions, and once installed, it could potentially hack into your bank account.

Instead of downloading the app, malicious files that steal data are also being sent in emails. Clicking on the link in these emails triggers the download. After that, the scammers gain access to the operating system of your laptop or mobile phone.

Be careful of another type of email. This email warns about blocking your bank account within 24 hours due to the absence of Aadhaar and PAN links. Those who haven’t linked their Aadhaar and PAN yet may fall for this deception. Along with these messages, there’s a link to download an Android package, an APK file. Upon downloading it, a third-party app gets installed, which prompts you to input your bank account information. As soon as you do this, your account will start losing money.

Similarly, fraudulent emails and messages are being sent in the name of income tax notices. They claim that you’ve made a mistake in filing your ITR and offer you a chance to rectify it.

To avoid falling for this kind of scam, what should you do? How can you verify emails related to refunds? For this, keep in mind that every message from the income tax department should come through their official website. The income tax department never sends messages via phone; they only communicate through email. Always cross-verify the email address. An official email ID should end with gov.in. There might be a slight difference in spelling or an extra hyphen or dot in the fake email’s address.

Check the status of your income tax refund on the official website of the Income Tax Department, which is www.incometax.gov.in. You can find all the information through the “Know Your Refund Status” tab. For this task, you don’t need to input your bank details anywhere or download any third-party apps.