If you have recently received an SMS on your phone about a tax refund then you should be careful. And if the amount mentioned in the message is ₹15,490 then you have all the more reason to be extra careful and even ignore it altogether.
The message that is sent to defraud people by making them share bank and card details reads: “Dear sir, you have been approved an income tax refund of ₹15,490, the amount will be credited to your account shortly. Please verify your account number 5XXXXX6755. If this is not correct, please update your bank account information by visiting the link below: http://bit.ly/20wpYK6.”
Now, the gullible recipient of the message will most likely share the original bank details in order to avoid the amount being sent to the ‘wrong’ bank account. Now since this entire thing is a scam, there is no money that is set to be transferred.
However, the assurance of receiving money is enough incentive for a number of people to share bank details.
The timing of this message i.e., soon after the last date of filing income tax return (ITR) ended is another reason for which it is striking a chord with regular tax taxpayers.
The income tax department has shared these details on its twitter handle by calling this message under “scam alert”.
Conversely, if you really want to check your tax refund status, then you can — and should — check the status online on the tax department’s portal.
To view refund or demand status, one has to follow the following steps:
1. At the outset, login to the e-filing website with user ID, password, date of birth/ date of incorporation and captcha.
2. Then one has to go to MyAccount and clock on refund/ demand status.
3. Moving forward, these details will be displayed: assessment year, status, reason for refund failure (if any) and mode of payment.
