Now the Income-Tax Department has been encouraging taxpayers to file their returns online, email fraud is bound to proliferate and trap the gullible
It is probably a test mail as yet, but several people received a missive, ostensib
ly from the Indian Income Tax (I-T) department receipt for tax payment. The email id was a giveaway. And surprisingly, it uses '[email protected]' email ID for sending this spurious mail.
Two things, both I-T department and NABARD-National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, are separate entities with completely difference functions.
A mail, which bears an email id like this, "Income Tax Department 
This not only is funny for those who know how the Income Tax department and its processes. The subject line of this fraud mail reads, "Your Tax Payment of INR 70,000 is Successful" and
body text says, "Your recent tax payment is successful. The tax amount has been deducted from your netbanking access..
Please Follow the link below to download and view your Tax Challan." But more about the link later.
Basically, a challan is used for filing taxes, so why would anybody need it after the tax payment, and that too of INR 70,000. Read again INR 70,000. Nobody, at least no government body uses INR for rup
ees, which is denoted either Rs or with the new symbol.
Second clue about the fake nature of this mail is use of NABARD. As mentioned above, NABARD is an apex institution in India, which looks after the development of the cottage industry, small industry and vi
llage in
dustry, and other rural industries. NABARD refinances the financial institutions, which finances the rural sector. In short, NABARD has nothing to do with the Income Tax department and any individual taxpayer.
Third clue is the link, which the mail asks you to click in order to "download and view your Tax Challan". As mentioned above you do not need to download and view your tax challan, after making a tax payment! You get challan before paying your taxes, if any and not afterwards.
Now, coming back to the link. The link is related with an URL from TCRC Group. When clicked, it asks the user to download a .zip file, which probably may not be safe and contain malware or virus or a form seeking your personal details. So in any case, do not click on the link and download any file.
The TCRCGroup.com domain is registered by one Noopur Patel from TCRC, with an address from Mumbai. Its telephone numbers are not in service. The registrant for this domain is Compcaregroup.in, again a Mumbai-based entity. Both the owner and registrant of TRRCGroup.com may be genuine, but someone may have been using their domain for this fake mail to host the so-called challan download.
The mail addresses you as "Dear Sir"; however, our own I-T Dept refers the taxpayer by full name like "Dear xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx".
Another point, the authentic email ID or server, our own I-T Dept uses is incometaxindia.gov.in so the mail id would be like [email protected] and not like "Income Tax Department"
Lastly, while the copyright shows as Income Tax Department, the signature image and links are used from NABARD with authentic link. In fact, except for the download link all other links used in this mail are authentic.
If you receive such mails, do not pay any heed and simply mark it as "spam" and press delete.
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