Spot the Fake Notice — Can You Tell a Real Tax Notice from a Scam?

Why this game exists

Tax scams in India have stopped looking like scams. The refund SMS quotes your real PAN. The summons carries the department’s logo and a Document Identification Number. The portal you are sent to is a pixel-perfect copy. People who are careful, and who know better, are losing money to these every week.

So the game is built the only way that survives: half the specimens are genuine. Learning not to panic at a routine section 143(1) intimation matters just as much as learning to delete a fake one — and the fear of a real notice is exactly what the fraudsters are renting.

The checks that actually work

1Verify the reference number on the official portal. A printed DIN proves nothing — fraudsters print fake ones. Only a DIN that verifies proves anything.
2Never click the link. Type the portal address yourself and log in. Every genuine notice is already sitting in your account.
3Read the sender’s domain from the right. Only incometax.gov.in, gst.gov.in and cbic.gov.in are the department.
4The department never asks for an OTP, PIN, card number or password. That request alone is conclusive proof of fraud.
5Tax is paid only through a portal challan. Never to an account number, a UPI ID, a QR code or a payment link.

One rule has changed and most published advice has not caught up: “no DIN, therefore fake” is no longer safe. A GST notice served on the portal with a valid RFN needs no DIN at all (Circular 249/06/2025), and CBDT Circular 4/2026 replaced the old “deemed never issued” rule. Absence of a DIN is now a reason to verify — not a verdict.

If you have been targeted

Forward the message to phishing@incometax.gov.in and delete it. If money has moved, report it at cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 — the first few hours matter more than anything else you will do.

Specimens here are modelled on campaigns documented by PIB Fact Check, the Ministry of Finance and published security research. This is general awareness material, not advice on a notice you have actually received. If a real one has landed, speak to a professional rather than to the internet.

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