Imagine, a fraudster with false identity, enjoying tax refunds of your hard-earned money. Or someone enjoying holidays in Europe by emptying your life time earnings from your bank account (where you thought your money is secured!). Horrifying?
Well, identity fraud can happen in numerous ways. Even the smallest piece of your personal information can be misused to claim fraudulent tax refund or to obtain credit card loan.
In one such case, a woman filed her tax returns online in the last week of February 2014. But she received a notification that two refunds were filed under her name. After making an inquiry she found out that her PAN card number was stolen in a data breach and was misused to file a fake tax return!
Mechanism of filing tax return, online, has benefited taxpayers a lot. But on the other hand, fraudsters take disadvantage of it. Tax refund fraud could happen in such a way that you may receive emails from addresses which look like original email address. Through this phishing e-mail, hacker may ask your bank and credit card details. Once you provide details, hacker will hack all your personal data or financial accounts and will make fraudulent activity.
In another case happened in 2017, a man from Delhi was waiting to get his tax refunds. He received an email from ‘noreply@incometaxindiaefiling.com’ requesting some sensitive information such as name, PAN card number and banking details for processing refund. After providing few details, the email asked him to click on a link for further process and requested for his credit card details. At this moment the man got suspicious. He consulted his friend who later found out that it was a phishing email sent from wrong address and warned him not to share any information further. Fortunately, this man was saved. But not all the taxpayers could detect the threat and they end up falling victim for such phishing attacks.
How to authenticate an email?
The first and foremost thing you should remember is, the messages and emails sent by any government agency or authority, are ‘system generated’ and they are not required to be replied. The very reason why an original email address (donotreply@incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in) of Income Tax India indicates, ‘no need to revert back’ through local-part (do not reply) of an email Id.
Income Tax India or any other government authorities never ask for sensitive information such as PAN / Aadhaar number or financial details like bank account numbers, by sending an email. If at all you are required to revert back, you will be asked to login to your e-filing account instead of directing you to any other web page using hyperlink.
The protocol for any website link should be ‘https’ and not just ‘http’. The ‘s’ in the protocol stands for ‘Secure’ which means the communication between browser and website is encrypted. Also, spellings in an authentic email address are always accurate. Small differences, like ‘filling’ instead of ‘filing’ or ‘http’ instead of ‘https’, are indications of potential phishing threat. These differences in spam email IDs could be extremely minute but it could make an adverse impact if one fails to recognize its authenticity.
What to do if you receive phishing email?
If you receive an email claiming to be from Income Tax India or any other government authority or financial institution, and ask for any sensitive information, do not reply and do not provide any details, especially financial details. If an email or a message asks you to click on any hyperlink for further process, do not click. There are chances that it could be malicious.
You can inform Income Tax India by forwarding suspicious email or website link to ‘phishing@incometax.gov.in’ and delete it from your inbox.
Any email or message or a call, requesting for personal data and financial details in an urgent or desperate manner are most likely to be a fraud.
Preventing identity theft completely, is impossible. But protecting your identity is in your hands. Cyberior Digital Identity Protection gives comprehensive protection to your identity so that you can lead a secured life.