A typical fake message, designed to look like an official message from the department, reads like this: "Due to Covid-19 outbreak, central govt. has decided to provide tax refund to ALL taxpayers, in order to provide them financial ease during lockdown. Click below to claim your refund. (Phishing web link)".

In an advisory, the income tax department warned taxpayers that they have not sent any such communication. "The department would like to advise tax payers, not to click or entertain any such communication that they receive. Please note, that these are phishing messages and not sent by the income tax department," it said.

To help taxpayers tide over the ongoing financial crisis during the coronavirus lockdown, the income tax department has expedited the process of issuing all pending income tax refunds up to 5 lakh. Till April 21, the department had issued nearly 14 lakh refunds involving an amount of over 9,000 crore to various taxpayers.

"Taxpayers Beware! Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by the Income Tax Department," the I-T department said in a tweet.

On its part, the department has also been sending emails to taxpayers asking them to make a confirmation before processing their refunds. All such confirmations need to be done only on the income tax department's official e-filing portal -- http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.