Income Tax payer? BEWARE! To steal your money, criminals using SMS linked modus operandi - Don't do this

As technology is improving and intruding into every facet of life, moving us all ever quickly towards a completely digital lifestyle, the number of ways to rob innocent people of their hard-earned money are also increasing. Yes, shockingly, that is true! Scammers keep finding new ways to trick innocent people and if you are not careful, you may end up facing a lot of trouble. IT security solutions provider Quick Heal has found new ways of carrying out fraud in which cyber criminals are using fake SMS pretending to be from Income Tax Department to trick innocent victims into sharing bank account details. In this new kind of fraud, people are sent messages as given below, confirming a refund and asking them to verify your bank details that seem genuine -

The security provider claims that the message opens on a good note to instantly attracts people's attention, immediately followed by a wrong bank account number. "The message continues to smoothly trick you into verifying your account number if wrong, simply by clicking the link, ultimately making you an unsuspicious victim of the fraud," it said. 

The message is sent to dupe tax payers with the wrong bank account number and force them to click the website link, in an attempt to rectify the error. The fraudulent link takes the users to a website similar to the genuine I-T department website. Here, the victims are asked to provide login details created on the actual I-T department website. This information can be accessed and abused by cyber criminals.

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How to stay safe? Don't do this!

- Do not share your financial details like bank account number, PIN, OTP, etc. by responding to SMS, emails or phone calls.

- Do not open such links received through SMS or emails unless absolutely sure, as these may be malicious.

- Do not share personal information even if you accidentally open these links. 

- Keep your eyes open for errors like bad grammar or spelling mistakes in such SMS or emails. Usually the letters in the URL also appear jumbled.

The scam doesn’t stop at accessing your details. The fraudsters also access your correct login details on IT department website and easily transfer I-T funds from victim’s account to their own account or may simply modify their details like phone number, email ID, etc. which are often used for validation purpose.