Pix: Criminal pretends to be a bank employee in a coup – 09/02/2023 – Market

Another blow involving Pix, the Central Bank’s instant payment system, has gone viral on social media in recent days.

According to the report, a person pretending to be an employee of the bank where the victim has an account contacts him by telephone. The novelty is that criminals know details of bank transactions.

In the case that went viral, Marcella Centofanti, an Itaú account holder, says that she almost made a transfer of R$ 10,000 to the criminals, but, after a while of conversation, she became suspicious of the scam.

She says she got a call from someone claiming to be a bank employee. According to the report, the scammer knew details of financial movements made by her in recent days.

During the conversation, he even put her on hold, simulating a bank service. “He quoted what came out and entered my account in the last few days. Pix that I made and received, with names and values, in addition to automatic debits accurate in cents. My balance. Everything EXACT”, he wrote.

In the comments, customers of other banks claim that they have also been approached in the same way by criminals recently. On the networks, users claim that the scam is known to managers.

In a note, Itaú Unibanco states that the results of the investigation analyzes involving the case “did not point to internal flaws, nor the possibility of participation of bank employees”.

According to the company, it is part of the “modus operandi” of this type of scam to somehow obtain information from the victim. The bank’s guidance is that, if the customer receives a call with this type of approach, they should hang up and look for Itaú’s service through another telephone.

Action is known as fake employee scam

Although new in approach, the scam is not so new. Known as the false employee coup, the action of criminals has already been described on other occasions by Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks) in alerting bank customers against the action of scammers.

According to the federation, approaches of this type are known as crimes that use social engineering, “which consists of psychologically manipulating the user so that he provides confidential information, such as passwords and card numbers to criminals, or makes transactions in favor of gangs. “.

According to Febraban, bank applications have maximum security from development to use by the user. Among the top tips from internet security experts are never providing passwords and personal data in contacts by phone, email or WhatsApp.

Learn how to protect yourself from the fake employee scam

• If you receive such a call, notify the bank immediately through official service channels
• Don’t make transfers during calls, especially to unknown names
• Never provide your account, card or application details. A real employee usually doesn’t need more information about a customer they already have.
• Do not follow the step by step suggested by the suspicious link
• Do not access your account when receiving calls on behalf of the bank
• Never speak or type your password on the phone keypad
• Circumvent the sense of urgency passed by the scammer with questions to attest to the authenticity of the call