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TAX SCAM ALERT: Hackers Are Sending FAKE Income Tax Emails to Steal Your Bank Details (Here’s How to Check)

A ThreatWire Special Investigation — Powered by CyberDudeBivash

CyberDudeBivash • cyberdudebivash.com • cyberbivash.blogspot.com

TL;DR — Hackers Are Impersonating the Income Tax Department to Steal Money

A massive phishing campaign is targeting taxpayers with emails pretending to be from the Income Tax Department. These emails contain:

Fake refund notifications
Malicious attachments (.html, .pdf, .xlxs)
Fraudulent login portals
Phishing links that mimic official tax websites

The goal: steal your PAN, Aadhaar details, bank account login data, and debit card information.

This is NOT an official government communication. It is a high-level social engineering attack targeting individuals and small businesses across India.

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What Is the Fake Income Tax Email Scam?
How the Attack Works (Step-by-Step)
What the Fake Email Looks Like
Technical Breakdown of the Phishing Infrastructure
How Hackers Steal Your Bank Information
Malware Variants Delivered in the Campaign
How to Check If an Income Tax Email Is Fake
Actions to Take If You Clicked the Fake Email
CyberDudeBivash Forensics Checklist
Enterprise Risk Impact (For Finance, HR, SMBs)
SOC & SIEM Detection Rules
CyberDudeBivash Mitigation Blueprint
CTAs & Affiliate Security Resources

1. What Is the Fake Income Tax Email Scam?

Hackers are sending professionally crafted emails that look identical to official Income Tax Department notifications. These emails may claim:

Your refund is ready for processing
Your PAN needs verification
Suspicious activity has been detected in your tax account
Your tax filing contains an error

Every link in the email leads to an attacker-controlled phishing website.

2. How the Attack Works (Step-by-Step)

The scam is executed in four stages:

Stage 1 — Email Delivery

Phishing emails are sent via compromised servers or abused SMTP relay networks.

Stage 2 — Fake Tax Page

The link opens a cloned Income Tax Department login page.

Stage 3 — Credential Harvesting

Hackers collect:

PAN
Mobile number
Date of birth
Bank account details
Netbanking credentials

Stage 4 — Fraud Execution

Stolen data is sold, reused, or used to drain bank accounts.

3. What the Fake Email Looks Like

Key indicators:

Sender domain similar to govt domains (e.g., incometaxrefunds@lnfo-india.gov.in)
Urgent subject lines like “Refund Pending Verification”
Attachments pretending to be statements
Buttons like “Click to Verify” or “Download Refund Form”

4. Technical Breakdown of the Phishing Infrastructure

CyberDudeBivash analysts traced the campaign to:

Reverse proxy phishing kits
Bulletproof hosting providers
Domain masking through Cloudflare
JavaScript-based keyloggers

5. How Hackers Steal Your Bank Information

The phishing site forwards your login session to the legitimate bank portal in real-time (Evilginx-style MITM). Attackers capture:

Session cookies
OTP tokens (if intercepted)
Netbanking password

This allows silent account takeover without password resets.

6. Malware Variants Delivered

Some emails deliver malicious attachments containing:

AgentTesla keylogger
RedLine stealer
JS-stealers embedded in PDFs

7. How to Check If an Income Tax Email Is Fake

Legitimate tax emails will never ask for:

Your bank login credentials
Your netbanking username/password
Your debit card number
Your OTP

Mandatory Checks:

Inspect the sender domain
Hover over links before clicking
Never download unsolicited attachments
Check for spelling inconsistencies

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8. Actions to Take If You Clicked the Fake Email

Immediately change your netbanking password
Enable app-based MFA
Call your bank to flag your account
Scan your device for keyloggers
Report the phishing domain

9. CyberDudeBivash Forensics Checklist

Our analysts recommend:

Browser history review
Network traffic capture
Session cookie extraction analysis
File integrity monitoring
Endpoint malware scanning

10. Enterprise Risk (HR, Finance, SMBs)

Employees receiving these emails may accidentally expose:

Business bank accounts
GST login credentials
Payroll systems
Vendor payment details

This attack can lead to severe financial fraud and reputational damage.

11. SIEM Detection Rules

event where email.subject contains ("refund", "income tax", "verification")
AND url.domain NOT IN approved.gov.in

event.device=windows AND process creates unknown .vbs/.js/.ps1 after email open

12. CyberDudeBivash Mitigation Blueprint

Enable DMARC, DKIM, SPF alignment
Deploy cloud email security filters
Use sandboxing for attachments
Block high-risk TLDs
Train employees using CyberDudeBivash modules

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