The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has issued a critical warning about a fraudulent email, sent out in the name of the Income Tax Department. It is a fraudulent email that is used to defraud the receiver into clicking on suspicious hyperlinks or sharing personal information and banking details.
The PIB has come out deftly in condemning the use of the email, thus, "This email is FAKE! Do NOT open when suspicious linkages or share personal information, financial information, or sensitive information, through email, SMS, and/or phone." This stern caution is a reminder to the entire population to be extremely cautious whenever responding to unsolicited messages that require personal information.
The phishing activity aims to investigate the trust people express towards official government messages and those concerned with financial issues. The scams cook up identity theft, financial fraud, and other grave cybercrimes. The bogus mail usually requests a manual verification, and this is a strategy to give a false impression of urgency and authenticity of the mail to induce the receivers to act without much scrutiny.
Law enforcement actors are also pleading with the citizenry to be observant and to identify the validity of any communication that purports to be official communication of government agencies. No official of the Income Tax Department or any other authentic financial establishment can ever seek such sensitive data as bank account number, password, or credit card numbers over any means of communication, whether it is through email, SMS, or even over the phone.
In order to rise against these nasty attempts, the PIB also availed an important tool for reporting such occurrences. Citizens who get such suspicious email messages should report them instantly by logging into the official Income Tax India website, https://incometaxindia.gov.in/pages/report-phishing.aspx.
Income Tax India and PIB have a message, and it goes, "stay alert, stay safe." With the help of these rules and knowing the typical phishing methods, one would avoid becoming a victim of these widespread cyber scams.
Check twice the email address of the sender, be aware of the grammatical and unfamiliar language, and never follow the links or download attachments when you are unsure of their source or suspicious of them. In case of doubt, it is always better to land directly on the official website of the given department or concerned organization.
