Datafolha: 72% of Brazilians know a scam victim – 04/12/2024 – Tech

With the widespread popularization of banking services via smartphone, seven out of ten Brazilians have heard of people who have been victims of scams on apps, according to a Datafolha survey commissioned by Nubank.

Among the 72% of the population who responded that they know a victim of a scam, 56% consider that lack of knowledge and naivety are the main reasons for committing the crime.

For 15%, the scams have to do with security flaws in financial institutions. Only 15% credited the expertise of the fraudsters.

The survey commissioned by fintech consulted 1,700 people with accounts at financial institutions via online interview with spontaneous responses between December 14th and January 3rd.

The survey’s margin of error is two percentage points, plus or minus, with a 95% confidence level.

The people interviewed also demonstrate a mismatch in the perception of individual and collective security: while 81% of those interviewed believe that people are not paying attention to their digital security, the same proportion (81%) say they pay the necessary attention to their own online security.

For Insper information security professor Rodolfo Avelino, this data is a sign of misunderstanding of the challenge of protecting yourself on the internet. “People still don’t have a vision of the complexity of the digital environment.”

The research differentiates the concepts of fraud from scams, according to a classification by the Central Bank.

In the scam, criminals deceive the customer into participating in money embezzlement. In fraud, the scheme targets the bank and needs to overcome the institution’s defenses.

In Brazil, there is an increase in the frequency of scams in relation to fraud, due to the strengthening of banks’ digital defense, according to Nubank.

In the event of a scam, banks claim to have fewer tools to protect themselves, since the crime begins outside the institution’s scope of service.

“Criminals exploit the victim’s vulnerabilities, either by simulating a false threat of loss or financial insecurity, or by making unfounded offers of prizes or employment”, says Fabíola Marchiori, general manager of combating fraud at Nubank.

In both cases, customers can ask for compensation.

When it is proven that the fraud was due to the fault of the financial institution, the bank must compensate. When the customer is deceived by criminals, the financial institution analyzes it case by case.

According to Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks), the refund policy is the responsibility of each financial institution and is based on “in-depth and individual analyses, considering the evidence presented by customers and information on transactions carried out”. The customer must go through a type of investigation before obtaining the values.

The entity aligns itself with those interviewed by saying that “the best way to protect yourself from an attempted coup is information.”

“Febraban and its associated banks have constantly and massively invested in awareness and clarification campaigns with the population through marketing actions on TV, radio and social networks”, he says.

The federation maintains a website with useful information against fraud and scams.

“In addition to carrying out educational campaigns, banks invest around R$4 billion per year in information technology (IT) systems focused on security — a value that corresponds to around 10% of the sector’s total spending on IT to ensure security. peace of mind for its customers in their daily financial transactions”, says Febraban.

Banks also say they work in partnership with police forces to help identify and punish virtual criminals.