Datafolha: 1 in 3 people in SP says they have a family member who is a victim of bank fraud

One in three residents of the state of São Paulo has a close family member who has already suffered bank fraud or had money embezzled from their account.

According to a Datafolha survey carried out at the end of June, 33% of respondents say they know someone in this situation. However, the majority (65%) had never had a family member who was a victim of this type of scam.

Datafolha 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.

The youngest were the ones who most reported having family members in this situation. Of respondents between the ages of 16 and 24, 43% know someone who has suffered bank fraud. The same percentage was seen among people with high school education.

The incidence of the problem also seems to be more frequent in the capital than in the interior of the state. Of the residents of the city of São Paulo, 40% say they know someone in the family who had money embezzled or suffered bank fraud.

In the metropolitan region (which encompasses the capital and other municipalities), this number drops to 38%. In the interior of the state, only 28% of respondents say they have a family member who has gone through this situation.

During the pandemic, a greater portion of the population needed to use digital means to carry out banking procedures, such as transfers and bill payments.

The process of banking with emergency aid also helped to create a more favorable scenario for fraud.

In this context, coup attempts exploded. In May 2022 alone, 331,000 people were victims of attempted fraud in Brazil, according to the Serasa Experian Indicator that maps these actions. The number represents one attempt every 8 seconds.

According to the survey, the main target of fraudsters was the banking and card segment, with 53% of the total invested.

In addition to frequency, the diversity of fraud has also grown. Criminals use everything from job postings to Pix scams to embezzle money from victims’ accounts.

Another crime that has become more recurrent in recent months is the “clean it all” scam, which mixes the digital and physical environments.

In these cases, after stealing or stealing the victim’s cell phone, criminals are able to discover the passwords of bank applications and other financial institutions to make transactions and take all the money.

Minority says they have been hit

Despite the growth in cybercrime occurrences, the majority of those interviewed by Datafolha (84%) say they have never experienced bank fraud or had money diverted from an account.

Among the 16% who have already been through such a situation, more than half managed to receive the amount back. And only 3% say the crime happened after having their cell phone stolen.

According to the survey, most victims (22%) were between 35 and 44 years old. The second age group with the highest recurrence of these crimes was people over 60 years old. In this group, 18% said they had suffered some fraud.

Observing the income cut, the incidence falls according to the salary. Among those interviewed who earn more than ten minimum wages (above R$ 12,120), 26% have already been victims. It is the group with the most cases, followed by people who earn between five and ten minimum wages (21%), which corresponds to a range between R$6,060 and R$12,120. Following, with 17%, are those with income between two and five floors (between R$ 2,424 and R$ 6,060) and those who earn less than two minimum wages represent 14%.

How to avoid bank scams and fraud

In some situations, the victim of financial crime is able to get their money back. In cases involving Pix, for example, the customer can request via a special return mechanism.

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.

However, the best strategy is to prevent yourself. 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 value transfer requests via Pix.