The income tax department has warned people to be wary of a fraudulent email using its official logo asking for sensitive details like PAN card and credit card numbers.

The Department has put up a warning on its website saying: "It is clarified that the Income Tax Department does not send e-mails regarding refunds and does not seek any information regarding credit cards of taxpayers. Taxpayers are, therefore, cautioned that they should not respond to such mails and if they do so it would be at their risk and responsibility."

The fake mails from unidentified cyber criminals have come at a time when most tax payers file for refunds.

The attackers are successfully using the name and the logo of the Income Tax Department to lure people into a trap, Rajat Khare, CEO and Director, Appin Technologies, an IT security management firm said.

The cyber criminals usually send e-mails with the logo of the Income Tax department to tax payers asking them to share their PAN number and other details such as credit card numbers.

Once, they get the details, they use the information to commit financial frauds.

When contacted an IT official confirmed that they are aware of such incidents.

The hackers have also been using the PAN card details for filing income tax return on behalf of the victim, Khare said.

In the past few days, thousands of individuals and companies have received emails from the Income Tax Department with a form to be downloaded and filled for TDS refund.

"This is an usual trend, every year hackers target the IT dept website during this time of the year," he added.