Thousands of income taxpayers were flummoxed by ‘fake’ emails received from ‘phishers’ and ‘hackers’ on Monday seeking their personal and financial details ahead of refunds payment.
Fake mails also lead the taxpayers to links that are mirror images of the income tax (I-T) department’s website and seek sensitive information including bank accounts details, among other financial details. The mails in circulation are regarded by a huge section of I-Tax department as nothing but ‘spam mail’. But, others do see the vulnerability of the I-T department’s large database and its website that links crores of taxpayers, both individual and companies.

Gulshan Rai, director general, CERT-IN at the department of information technology, told Financial Chronicle, “Online security has been a huge concern for the industry. With the growth of websites, emails phishing and hacking has increased to a great extent. We do see a lot of spam emails being circulated for financial gains. We need to educate individuals on online security.”
These emails, which have their origin from a web address not related the I-T department, have led to confusion and anxiety on the security of financial data uploaded by individuals and companies.

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