CERT-IN WARNS ABOUT FAKE I-T REFUND SCAM

New Delhi, Aug. 8: The country’s premier cyber security agency — CERT-In — has cautioned against a malicious ‘SMShing’ fraud where fake messages are being sent to people in the name of the Income Tax Department saying their refunds have been approved, with an aim to steal the recipient’s vital personal details and put them on the dark net “for sale”.

The warning, that also acts as an advisory, comes at a time when the income-tax returns filing season is on and the CBDT has sometime back extended the deadline to do till August 31.

Recently, some people wrote on social media platforms that they had received such messages.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents, said once a person clicks on the SMShing (made of SMS and phishing) link, he/she runs the risk of either his/her personal details being “put up for sale on the dark web”, or even their I-T department records “altered” by misusing their e-filing credentials.

The advisory describes as to how such fake SMSes could be identified.

“There have been increased reports of incidents related to fake SMS purportedly from I-T Department as the filing of IT returns nears. This SMShing campaign uses popular URL shortening services such as bit.ly, goo.gl, ow.ly and t.co among others,” it said.

It then goes on to describe the modus operandi of such attack.

A senior official told PTI that the department is aware of these malicious SMS-based and online attacks on personal taxpayers and others and they are in touch with the CERT-In authorities and have also issued advisories in this context.