New Delhi: The Income Tax Department has issued a fact-check to alert citizens against fake e-mails asking people to download e-PAN card, an official said on Sunday. The fact-check, issued with the help of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), said, “Beware of Fake Emails asking to download e-PAN cards.”

The PIB also circulated a screenshot of showing the phishing e-mail which offered “A step-by-step guide” to download e-PAN card online. The Income Tax Department clarified that it does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.

“Do no respond to any emails, links, calls and SMS asking you to share financial and sensitive information,” the department said. The Income Tax Department added it does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts, a statement said.

The Department, in an advisory, said that if people receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the authorised by Income Tax Department or directing you to an Income Tax website then do not reply and do not open any attachments.

“Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer,” it added. The advisory said, “Do not click on any links. If you click on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing website then do not enter confidential information like bank account, credit card details.”

It also cautioned citizens against cutting and pasting the link from the message into their browsers as the phishers can make the link look like real, but it may actually send you to different websites.

The Department also said, “Use anti-virus software, anti-spyware, and a firewall and keep them updated. Some phishing e-mails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus and Anti-spyware software and firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files.”

Encouraging tax-payers to report phishing mails, the I-T Department said, “If you receive a phishing mail not pertaining to the Income Tax Department, forward the same to incident@cert-in.org.in.”

“If you receive an e-mail or find a website you think is pretending to be of Income Tax Department, forward the e-mail or website URL to webmanager@incometax.gov.in​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. A copy may also be forwarded to incident@cert-in.org.in,” it added.

You may forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail, the advisory said. The Internet header has additional information to help us locate the sender. After you forward the e-mail or header information to us, delete the message, the advisory added.

The chief executive officer of the water company involved in a major supply issue in Kent should not resign as issues in the industry go “far wider than individual people”, a director has said.

South East Water (SEW) has issued a “boil water notice” for 24,000 homes in and around Tunbridge Wells who have experienced a loss of water or low pressure since November 29.

On Wednesday the company said the “water quality issues” which caused the initial shutdown had returned.

They have decided to continue pumping water so that people can flush their toilets and shower, but the water cannot be drunk without being boiled first.

Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin told the BBC earlier this week that it had been “a total failure of leadership” and called for the chief executive of SEW, Dave Hinton, to resign.

Douglas Whitfield, SEW water supply director, said resignation demands “fundamentally misunderstand the challenges that we’ve been facing in this incident as a company over the last few years, as an industry going forward, I don’t think that’s helpful”.

He told BBC Radio Kent: “I would point you to the independent Water Commission that sets out the challenges the water industry are facing and the changes it needs to make.

“They’re far wider than individual company and individual people.”

Mr Whitfield apologised to customers and said the precautionary boil notice was in place for 10 days because “public health is our key priority”.

But he said he was unable to guarantee the problem ensuring water quality would be solved within the 10 days as he was unable to provide a “definitive answer” as to why the water was not responding to normal treatment.

He said: “For the last 24 hours, the treatment process has actually been operating within all of the water quality parameters.

“Until we’re confident that we’ve resolved the issue and that it won’t reoccur, we’ll be working to keep that boil notice in place, until we are confident we can take it off.

“I can confirm all the water we supplied up to the point we put the boil notice on fully complied with all the regulations.”

Mr Whitfield apologised for “overly optimistic” messages put out to customers since the problem started but said this was “one of the most complex events that we’ve ever had”.

He added: “I can only apologise to the customers for the last week and the communications that we gave during the incident were on what we thought was going to happen at the time.

“The incident has changed from what we thought was happening at the weekend to a much longer, much more complicated issue that we’re trying to resolve.”

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW), an independent body representing water consumers across England and Wales, has called for a thorough investigation into the incident.