ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has advised taxpayers to avoid responding to spam emails.

FBR official spokesperson Shahid Husain Asad in a statement said that it has been brought to the notice of the board that some taxpayers have received emails, supposedly sent to them by the offices of the FBR.

The emails are being sent from efbr_system@news-letters-4u.com which is not an official email address of the FBR. All such emails sent from this account may be discarded and not treated as correspondence from the FBR, he said.

Taxpayers are also reportedly receiving emails about Active Taxpayers List (ATL) where the email informs the taxpayers to avail last chance to file their returns through a fake link given in the mail.

“This is a phishing mail and can lead to identity theft and misuse of online financial systems to deprive unsuspecting people of their money. All taxpayers and general public are requested not to trust such emails and never disclose their bank account numbers, passwords and other details,” the spokesman further said.

Taxpayers and the general public are also advised to always validate the FBR’s official domain www.fbr.gov.pk in the address bar of the browser to avoid phishing attack.

The official URL to file Income Tax Return is https://iris.fbr.gov.pk/infosys/workflow/inboxworkflowview.xhtml

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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