An SMS early in the morning at 4.17 AM (screenshot), Income Tax department has issued me a refund of Rs. 86,250.09. Wow, that is a hell lot of money early in the morning. SO let’s see, what am I supposed to do with it, click on the link and then it will be asking for you to fill out some details and woops, you will get a refund!!
NO!!! A BIG NO!!!
Don’t even think of clicking on such kinds of links!! These are a PHISHING messages, which will ask you to fill the details in the link and voila, instead of a refund, immediately the amount mentioned in the SMS will be deducted from your account, you won’t even get a second to think that what just happened.
BEWARE!!!
You know how these people get your information? It’s you who give them. I will tell you a small incident which happened just yesterday, and since then I had a really bad feeling. A frail looking girl came and visited out office yesterday, posing as an ICICI bank intern and asked me if she could take a minute of mine and I said I am a little too busy here to give her any time. So, very politely, she said that madam, I am an intern with ICICI bank and I am not selling anything, I am also looking for customer satisfaction, therefore, if you have any issue with our bank kindly let me know. As a matter of fact I did have an issue which was unresolved for the past 20days, so I told her, to which she asked me to share me name and contact number with her and no other details. Mind you guys, no other details apart from Name & contact number.
A little while later when i finished my work, I realised she didn’t as me which card I had a problem with, I started to have an off feeling about the whole incident. This made me, really uneasy and overtly cautious. Further, now this morning, I get a message for refund, and surprisingly IT department is being generous enough to issue me a refund of the amount which has not even been deducted from my salary, now isn’t it just amazing?
Mind you, the amount is in paisas, IT department never issues a refund in paisas, also, my ITR had a refund of JUST RS. 500, Why on earth would I get a refund of that amount? Interestingly, there are people who would click on it, share all the details and then come crying to their bank for return of the amount.
PLEASE NOTE: NO BANK WILL RETURN THE AMOUNT YOU JUST LOST IN THIS INCIDENT, NO BANK.
While dealing with these kind of cases, please note that you might not even get a proper response from your bank, or might get a cold one. It’s your money, you have to save it. Please be cautious while sharing your details, I’ve got my lesson.
Be safe.
Good, you were smart enough to avert a bad experience.