PETALING JAYA: The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has warned the public against clicking on suspicious links when conducting e-filing of tax returns, which started on March 1.
A total of 35 cases have been recorded of scammers impersonating IRB officers and causing RM3.48 million in losses to taxpayers between Jan 1 and March 31.
IRB spokesman Ranjeet Kaur said all genuine IRB links begin with “https” and taxpayers should visit its website at https://www.hasil.gov.my/ to file their tax returns.
“Last year, 93 cases relating to tax scams involving losses of more than RM11.96 billion were recorded, so taxpayers ought to be very careful.”
Ranjeet said misuse of IRB’s name occur almost every month and not only during e-filing season, adding that the scams related to tax evasion, illegal activities, tax investigation, share trading profits and tax refunds, among others.
“Victims are contacted by a syndicate through messages, phone calls, letters or emails. Posing as IRB officers or policemen, they claim there were issues with the tax arrears payment or other matters and offer a solution by way of transferring money into the scammers’ bank accounts.
“Since the e-filing season started on March 1, eligible taxpayers would also be looking forward to their refunds. Scammers take advantage of this situation to carry out their illegal activities and offer a fast track refund process.”
Ranjeet added that victims would normally receive fake emails instructing them to click on a link to fill up their banking details to obtain their tax refunds. They are then told to download a fake Bank Negara Malaysia app.
By providing their details in the app, the victims divulge their personal banking details, purportedly for “investigation purposes”.
Ranjeet reminded taxpayers to never reveal their personal and banking details, especially online banking passwords.
“Do not click on the links received via a suspicious email, and never download any app requested by unknown parties. Visit IRB’s portal for official phone numbers and ensure that any communication with an IRB officer is done through its official domain, @hasil.gov.my,” she said.
Meanwhile, IRB has announced that the due date to submit tax return forms for the 2021 assessment year is April 30 for manual filing and May 15 for e-filing.
Datuk Husin Jazri, a pioneer in the cybersecurity industry and founder of eSecurity and Privacy Channel said determining if a website is fake can be a little tricky.
“The application of digital signatures and other strong authentication methods such as passwordless and biometric adoption is very important to prevent scammer sites from being used extensively.”
Husin said the risk of personal data being misused is high and advised taxpayers to always verify links before using them.
“The trouble to check and verify the links is much simpler than the effort to get back what was stolen by scammers,” he added.
