Cybercriminals siphoning off money sending I-T return links

Cybercriminals siphoning off money sending I-T return links

Pune: As the deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) is coming nearer (March 31), fraudsters are duping people by sending fake links of Income Tax (I-T) Department and accessing their bank details. The links are being sent on WhatsApp or emails to siphon off the money from the accounts of victims.

In a recent case reported to Cyber Crime Cell of Pune police on Saturday, the tricksters have siphoned off Rs 4,51,000 from the account of a retired Army personnel based in Khadki. An ex-Army man Krishna Kumar received a link on his email id from an unidentified account on March 23, with a link which stated that his income tax return has been received and to check it he has to click on the link.

Kumar in his complaint informed the police that he clicked on the link but he didn't find anything substantial related to ITR. However, a day later, he found that Rs 4.51 lakh was siphoned off from his State Bank of India account.

Kiran Aute, Police Sub Inspector, Cyber Crime Cell, Pune police, said, "These types of fake links are widely sent and circulated in March as it is the last month to file ITRs. Once the person receiving the links click on it, his bank details get accessed by the cybercriminals. The cybercriminals gain access to account numbers, card numbers, pins, OTPs and other details and using them they easily take out the money from the account of their victims."

"People should be careful while they click on unknown links because you never know who is getting access to your data. One should strictly avoid clicking on the link coming through unknown sources," added Aute.

Rohan Nyayadheesh, a cybercrime expert, said, "Many such cases of similar nature have been observed in which fictitious emails representing I-T Department or RBI have been sent to people to dupe them of their money. These fraudsters make slight changes in the email ID which exactly looks like the original email address of government organisations. Most of the time, the person receiving the mail doesn't pay attention to it and clicks on the link which provides access to their details."

Nyayadheesh informed that a click on the link many times takes you to a page that asks you for your personal details including banks details. Most of these fraudsters operate across the country from Delhi-NCR.

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