Income Tax Refund: Is IT Department asking manual verification? Here’s all about this viral email intimation

Income Tax Refund Status : The Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check unit has issued a warning about fraudulent emails claiming to be from the Income Tax Department , which requests manual verification for refunds from recipients. These communications have been identified as scams aimed at deceiving individuals into sharing sensitive information.

PIB Fact Check has clarified that such emails are fake and urged the public not to click on suspicious links or disclose personal, financial, or sensitive information through email, SMS, or phone calls. The agency has also provided guidance on how to report these fraudulent communications to the Income Tax Department for further action.

The Income Tax Department on Friday cautioned the public against phishing emails relating to tax refund and asked people not to click on suspicious links.

• The Income Tax Department does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.
• The Income Tax Department does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the authorized by Income Tax Department or directing, you to an Income Tax website:

• Do not reply.
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Do not click on any links. If you clicked on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing website then do not enter confidential information like bank account, credit card details.
• Do not cut and paste the link from the message into your browsers, phishers can make link look like real, but it actually send you to different websites.
• Use anti-virus software, anti-spyware, and a firewall and keep them updated. Some phishing e-mails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus & Anti-spyware software and firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files.

Report such phishing attempts here: https://incometaxindia.gov.in/pages/report-phishing.aspx

Reporting:

• If you receive an e-mail or find a website you think is pretending to be of the Income Tax Department, forward the e-mail or website URL to webmanager@incometax.gov.in . A copy may also be forwarded to incident@cert-in.org.in
• You may forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail. The Internet header has additional information to help the department locate the sender.
• After you forward the e-mail or header information to the department, delete the message.
• If you receive a phishing mail not pertaining to the Income Tax Department, forward the same to incident@cert-in.org.in.

Source: ET NOW