1. IT REFUND SCAM
Compiled by Fine Advice
We continue with our series 'Scam Alert'……
Internet scams have become very common these days. We often receive
mails from someone wanting to transfer money from Eastern Europe or
some widow of a war lord in Africa asking for our help in return for a
fortune.
Well this is the season of Income Tax refunds……..
The latest internet scam targeting Indians specifically is in the form of an
email that tells you about income tax refund, but is actually trying to get
your online banking log-in ID and password so that your account can be
emptied!
This is phishing!
Phishing is an e-mail fraud designed to steal your web identity and capture
your personal data like Credit/Debit Card numbers, bank account
information, or other sensitive financial information.
The scam starts with an email. In your inbox, it looks like this:
The sender of the email is “Income Tax Department”, and the subject is
“Tax-Refund Notification...”
On opening the email, you would see this:

2. It looks quite legitimate and even has the logo of the Income Tax
Department! It tells you that you have some income tax refund, and you
need to click a link and submit a “tax refund request”.
If you see carefully, you would see that the sender of the email is:
ref-dept01@incometaxindia.gov.in
Depending on the email provider you use, you would also be able to see that
the message has been sent via (see the red box in the image above):
eigbox.net
It means that it has not been sent directly from the website
incometaxindia.gov.in! This is the first red flag for the fraud.
Also, the email is addressed to “Valued Taxpayer”. If it a genuine email with
a refund amount that is unique to you it would have been directly addressed
to you.
This is the second thing that doesn’t seem right on this page.

3. When you click on the link on the email, you are taken to the website of the
Income Tax Department of India, which looks like this:
This website too looks quite legitimate! After all, it has the right logo and all
the menus!
But when you see the address bar of your browser, you would see that
instead of having the address of the website, it has numbers followed by
letters. (See the red box in the above image). This is the IP address of the
computer on which this scam website is hosted.
Also, if you move your mouse on any of the menu items in the left menu,
you would again see that the links point to the same “number”, and not to
the income tax department website.

4. The page then asks you to select your bank and click on “go”. This is what
you see when you select the bank and click on the “go” button:
This page looks like the login page of your bank’s internet banking facility.
In fact, it looks quite genuine as well.
But there are a few red flags here as well.
First, why should you need to log into your bank’s online banking to claim
income tax refund?
And second, the address bar of your browser for even this page has
numbers followed by letters instead of having the address of the website (See
the red box in the above image).
So this is definitely a fraudulent website. But what happens if you end up
entering the log in / password here?
For one, the scamsters now know the log in details for the internet banking
facility for your bank account. But it doesn’t stop there. Here’s the next
page:

5. This page asks for your debit card / ATM card number, and many other
relevant details of your bank account.
As you would see, the address bar of your browser for even this page has
numbers followed by letters instead of having the address of the website (See
the red box in the above image).
Once you enter the details here, this is what you see:

6. It is a confirmation that your “Tax refund request has been submitted
successfully!”
As we saw above, there are many red flags that identify this whole thing as a
scam. But what if you are not alert and fall for it?
You can be lured by the “income tax refund” money, and would end up
giving the scamster your internet banking log in details. Not just that, you
would also give him your debit / ATM card number and all other relevant
details of your bank account.
Internet banking gives us a lot of convenience. But at the same time, we
have to be on the lookout for things that are suspicious and don’t look right.