While refusing to call it hacking, a IT official said, 'We are still not aware if it is an insider's job or there is any involvement of outsiders."
The Income Tax department suspects that hackers broke into its computer system in Mumbai and siphoned off several crores of rupees meant for refunds using bogus TDS credits and has sought a CBI inquiry into the matter.
"We are in talks with CBI for investigation, while IT department has also initiated an inquiry," chief commissioner of Income Tax RK Singh told PTI today. He said the total refund claims under suspicion involved Rs14 crore.
"We cannot say that the entire amount went into fraud accounts. Some of them may be genuine. Anyway, we have asked State Bank of India, which issues refunds through Electronic Clearance System (ECS), to stop making further refunds into suspicious accounts," Singh said, adding the number of these doubtful accounts was less than 100.
While refusing to call it hacking, the official said, "we are still not aware if it is an insider's job or there is any involvement of outsiders." Singh said the passwords of all concerned officers
were changed immediately after the fraud came to light.
The IT department started 'Refund Bankers Scheme' of issuing refunds through ECS this year. The new practice was adopted following complaints of corrupt practices for securing refunds and to cut down on tedious paperwork.
The fraud surfaced when a senior IT official posted at Bandra-Kurla Complex noticed unexpected amounts meant for refund to assessees missing from the system.
He took up the matter with higher authorities and an internal probe was initiated, the official said.
The modus operandi of the scamsters was to break into the ECS system using the password of an assessment officer. They would then enter bogus returns using the PAN of some people and process the returns in the system.
The refund amount was then transferred to bank accounts specially created for this purpose and subsequently withdrawn from there, Singh said.
Normally if refund is generated while processing a return, the system automatically instructs the bank (SBI) to transfer the amount to assessees' account.
The fraudsters took advantage of this and siphoned off the money to the bogus accounts they created for this purpose, the official added.
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