Scams applied to Pix by criminals can be avoided – Mix Vale

2023-08-15 00:34:38

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Blows applied to Pix by criminals can be avoided Have you ever heard of the PIX coup? Unfortunately, this method of instant transaction, created to facilitate people’s daily lives, has been used by criminals to apply online scams. Learn how to prevent yourself from risky situations and be careful not to fall into this type of trap.

How it works

In the PIX coup, the victim is convinced to transfer money to a bank account controlled by criminals. To do this, they use social engineering techniques, such as impersonating employees of banks or financial institutions, or even creating fake profiles on social networks to borrow money. Once the transfer is made, the money is quickly withdrawn or transferred to other accounts, making recovery difficult.

In some situations, scammers send SMS messages informing that transactions via PIX or card operations are under review and that to cancel it is necessary to call the service center, whose phone number does not correspond to the official numbers of financial institutions.

CAIXA’s national fraud prevention manager, Renan Correia, warns of the importance of good practices and gives tips on how to avoid more frequent bank scams. Check out!

Discover the stories of victims of financial scams

Feelings of vulnerability, naivety, and anger are common among scam victims. Bruna Santos (fictitious name) and her mother were victims of the PIX scam. “An unknown number contacted my mother, with a picture of my brother saying it was his new number. She immediately added and started talking to the crook, who asked her to perform a PIX. As she didn’t have PIX, she asked me to do it and I did it “, told Bruna.

Despite the frustration, Bruna wanted to share the story to help other people identify the signs of crime and not fall into traps. “The emotions that prevailed for three days straight were anger (at the criminal, at me and my mother) and sadness, both of which were very intense. I mourned those days, but not for the loss of money itself, but for the ease with which I had fallen for such a common scam. I hope it can help people protect themselves,” she said.

Now, imagine the following situation: a retired lady receives a call on her cell phone. On the other end of the line, a voice that identifies itself as an employee of her bank and offers supposed help to prevent fraud that would be happening in her account.

“I received a call claiming to be from my bank’s restricted area to inform that my cell phone had been cloned. After much talking, they persuaded me to download an app that was supposed to fix the problem. I downloaded the app and gave it access, thinking they would help me. I could see them browsing on my cell phone and, when I asked what was going on, they simply answered: ‘keep calm, that’s how it is’”, said Dona Maria da Conceição Alves.

Then, they asked Dona Maria to enter the bank application password to verify the transactions. And that’s when the nightmare began: ′′ They started making transfers via PIX and loans. When they were finished, I realized that I no longer had access to my account from my cell phone. It was then that I called the number on the back of my card and found that they had made two transfers via PIX and a loan in my name.”

Recent Central Bank changes

The Central Bank is improving PIX security mechanisms to prevent fraud in the financial system. With the changes, banking institutions will have better subsidies to improve their own fraud prevention and detection models. “Bacen regulates financial transactions and shares information about fraud. All financial institutions must exchange details about PIX operations, including CAIXA. With this information, CAIXA can improve its monitoring of fraud and scams”, explained the national manager of Fraud Prevention at CAIXA, Renan Correia.

The changes improve two functionalities available to PIX users: infraction notification and consultation of information linked to PIX keys for security purposes. With the new measures, financial institutions will be able to tag keys and users whenever there is suspicion of transaction fraud. In addition, the reformulation of data made available to institutions will be carried out, allowing access to information, such as the number of infractions such as the orange account or ideological falsehood related to the user or PIX key. The new measures will come into force from November this year.