Datafolha: Majority in SP manages to recover money after bank fraud

Even with an increase in cybercrime cases and the greater sophistication of criminals, most people who were victims of scams involving the bank account in São Paulo recovered their lost money.

According to a Datafolha survey, 57% of respondents who have already suffered fraud or had some value embezzled reported that they managed to get the amount back.

Datafolha shows that the incidence of this type of crime is still an exception among those interviewed. Only 16% said they had already been through this situation.

The survey heard 1,806 people in 61 municipalities in São Paulo, between June 28th and 30th. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

Although the majority managed to recover the money, the education and income cuts show that the most educated and highest paid people were the most successful.

Among respondents with complete elementary education, for example, only 39% claim to have received their money back. Of those who completed high school, 55% had the same outcome. Among those with higher education, the success rate was the best: 69%.

The same goes for salary. The higher the income, the higher the percentage of success.

Of the people who earn up to two minimum wages and suffered some fraud, 42% recovered the lost money. This proportion rises to 59% in the group of those earning between two and five salaries. In the upper income bracket (between 5 and 10 salaries), most had the amount returned: 86%.

Fraud is more common among those earning more than 5 salaries

Datafolha’s research also indicates that the incidence of scams drops according to income. Among respondents who earn more than ten minimum wages, 26% have already had money diverted from their bank account or suffered fraud.

Of those who earn between five and ten salaries, 21% have already been victims of similar crimes. It is the second group with the most cases, followed by people who earn between two and five salaries (17%) and less than two minimum salaries (14%).

The survey also shows that, of the 16% who were victims of fraud or embezzlement, 3% claim that the crime happened after having their smartphone stolen. The scheme is known as the “clean-up scam” and has been more frequent in recent months.

After stealing or stealing the victim’s cell phone, criminals are able to discover the passwords of applications from banks and other financial institutions to make transactions and take all the money away.

In these cases, the person can ask for the amounts back to the financial institution. However, you need to act fast.

In addition to erasing the data online after being stolen, it is necessary to immediately call the bank, ask for all accesses to be blocked and note the service protocol, the time and, if possible, the name of the person who answered you. Then file the incident report. If, even so, the bank authorizes transactions that take the victim’s money, there is a way to ask for the amount back.

How to avoid bank scams and fraud

There are other situations where the victim of financial crime can get their money back. In cases involving Pix, for example, the Central Bank informs that there are mechanisms to increase the chance of reimbursement. These are the Pix precautionary block and the MED (Special Return Mechanism).

In the case of MED, upon being notified of the fraud, the financial institutions in which the victim and the fraudster have accounts may open a notification to block the funds.

For this, it is necessary to register a report and immediately notify the institution through the official service channel, such as SAC (Customer Service) or Ombudsman.

Once the notice is given, both institutions must analyze the case and, if there is a fraud situation, the funds will be returned.

However, the best way to avoid it is to be cautious. Some tips to strengthen security are: protect the bank’s application password and do not write it down on paper; decrease the amount that can be transferred via Pix; check the data of who will receive the transfer; do not click on suspicious links to register or make payments; suspect benefits, discounts and earnings that need Pix.