"Client only wants to receive information by email not post or fax"; "Do not mail anything to this client, send all communication via email".
These are some of the classified notings that have baffled Indian tax investigators after a trove of hidden bank accounts in various tax haven nations was recently made public in a global expose on secret offshore accounts.
Instructions like these have been posted on a number of names and addresses that have a link to India, sources said, adding that this is a clever modus operandi to keep the identity of the stash holder under wraps.
India has already approached over half a dozen foreign jurisdictions, including Singapore and some tax havens, for banking and other details of more than 500 individuals and entities who are suspected to have 'secret offshore accounts' at those places.
There is a variety in writing these instructional messages that the sleuths have found on suspected Indian entities.
"Email client first before sending documents. No communication via mail, only via email. Correspond by email or call if address is required (to the account holder). Do not mail anything to this client, send all communication via email," are some of the similar instructions banking agents have coded on the account holders name and these are to be followed when the owner is to be intimated about activities in his or her accounts, sources said.
Sleuths have already put the forensic laboratories of the Income Tax department and those belonging to the cyber security units to track down the identity of these account holders.
