Fake Tax Notice Email Scam over the phone

How it looks over the phone, the red flags and what to do.

A phone call lets the scammer talk fast, sound confident and keep you from thinking. The caller ID can be faked, so it proves nothing. Fake Tax Notice Email Scam is one of the ways this shows up: An email with a tax notice or demand pushes you to open an attachment or pay a penalty. See how fake notices steal logins and how to check real ones.

What fake tax notice email scam looks like over the phone

• Being told to stay on the line and not to tell your family.
• Instructions to install a screen-sharing app or to press keys on the phone.
• A second "senior officer" who takes over the call.

The scammer copies the style of tax department emails, with a case number and an official-sounding subject such as 'Final notice under verification'. The sender's address looks close to a real government domain. Salaried people, small business owners and senior citizens receive the message, especially around due dates when worry about returns is already high.

Red flags to check on the phone call

• A tax notice that arrives with a link or attachment and a deadline of hours.
• A sender address that is close to, but not exactly, a government domain.
• A login page reached from an email, asking for the OTP.
• A penalty demanded by UPI to a personal name.
• You are asked to move money to a "safe account".
• You are told to keep the call secret.

What to do

1. Do not open the attachment or link. Log in to the official portal by typing its address.
2. Check the notices and e-proceedings section of your own account.
3. Ask your tax professional to review any notice before replying.
4. Call the bank or office on the number printed on your card, bill or official app, not on a number the caller gave.
5. Never share an OTP or PIN. No genuine staff member needs it.
6. If you already installed an app on the call, uninstall it and switch on airplane mode, then call your bank at once.

Report the number on the Sanchar Saathi portal (Chakshu facility). If money moved, call 1930 immediately.

If money or a code is already gone

1. Change your portal and email passwords from a clean device.
2. Call 1930 and report at cybercrime.gov.in if you lost money.
3. Tell your bank on the number printed on your card if card or bank details were shared.
4. Check your registered mobile number, email and bank account on the portal.

National Cyber Crime Helpline: 1930; report at cybercrime.gov.in.

Safeavio's link check can look at the link in a tax email before you open it and warn about lookalike domains, shortened links and risky patterns, and the scam check on pasted email text marks the threat, the deadline and the penalty demand. It cannot open attachments for you or log in to the portal, so check notices only inside your own account.

Full guide: Fake Tax Notice Email Scam: how it works, signs and what to do. Other channels: email, SMS, WhatsApp.

Questions