SBI warns customers of fraudulent income tax refund messages

The State Bank of India (SBI), has warned its account holders against fraudulent income tax refund messages which may end up compromising the safety of their bank deposits.

India's largest lender SBI said in a tweet, "Received any message from the Income Tax Department, requesting you to put in a formal request for your refund? These messages are from fraudsters at play! Ensure you ignore and report the messages immediately."

The bank also released a short animated video asking customers who have received any suspicious email, SMS or any other communication asking credentials for processing income tax refund to be careful before they click any such links. It said that you would redirect you to another website where the fraudsters will ask you for your details like ID and password to access your information and steal your money.

This is another case of phishing where fraudsters try to make you enter all your details at a fake website that looks similar to the legitimate one.

SBI advises its customers not to click on suspicious links nor share any personal information with anyone. It also asked to report all such suspicious messages.

Recently, a similar warning to taxpayers or assesses was issued by the income tax department also said that they should be aware about fraudulent SMSes and emails asking them to click on certain links to get a tax refund.

Whenever the income tax department issues a refund, it gets credited to the bank account of the taxpayer. One also has got the option to log in to the income tax e-filing portal to check the refund status.