A nation-wide fraud involving fake
Income Tax Department websites, fraudulent emails and phising websites cheating
tax-payers by promising IT refunds has been detected by the Hyderabad’s Cyber
Crimes Cell.
Using proxy servers, the culprits
are sending emails that appear to have been sent from Income Tax Department,
but were actually online traps to dupe unsuspecting victims.
The Cyber Crimes Cell discovered
this fraud after a woman employee who had recently filed her IT returns lodged
a complaint. In her complaint, she stated that she had received an email purported
to have been sent from IT Department with email I’d
ref.trxn@incometaxindia.gov.in informing that she was eligible for a tax refund
of Rs 27,900. ‘
‘The email directed her to click on
a web link provided in the email to file a request to have the total sum
transferred into her bank account. There were instructions to ensure that all
details are entered correctly to avoid delay in the remittance of benefits. At
the end of the email it was mentioned ‘Regards, Income tax department, Ministry
of Finance, Govt. of India.’
