Opinion – Ronaldo Lemos: Brazil has become a paradise for internet scams

You certainly know someone who has fallen for some internet scam recently. Maybe yourself. Brazil has become scammers’ paradise and online security hell for everyone else.

One of the most common scams comes via WhatsApp. The scammer takes a photo of the person on the internet and creates an account in the app with any phone number. From there, he sends a message to family members, usually his mother.

In the messages he says he is the son and that his cell phone broke, was stolen or that he had an accident, and he needs an urgent deposit.

The relative looks at the photo and, given the situation, doesn’t even think about it. He transfers the requested money, which goes to an orange account. The scammer is waiting in the cashier’s mouth and as soon as the money arrives, he makes the withdrawal and disappears.

Victims are left without support and with a total feeling of powerlessness. In the absolute majority of cases they do not recover the transferred money. The impact is financial and moral. A lot of people go into depression after falling for a scam like this.

Another scam is the withdrawal of FGTS in the Caixa Econômica Federal app. In this case, the scammer uses the person’s data (CPF, name, address, etc.) to sign up for the app. Once that is done, he can enter a fake email or phone number and from there, with simple additional steps, he can make the online withdrawal to the account of an orange.

If you have FGTS receivable, check your registration immediately. There’s a good chance that if you haven’t already, some scammer did it for you with a fake email and phone number.

You might be wondering how scammers get people’s data. How to know who is the father, the mother? Their address, CPF, full name, mobile number? There’s the problem. All the data of all Brazilians was leaked on the internet and is currently available to any scammer. I called this here in Folha “the end of the world leak”. Now we are seeing the reason.

It is easy to find out who is someone’s father and mother, their cell phone number, photo of the person, their relatives and all other registration information. In other words, the Brazilian identity and cadastral data system collapsed. We’re all exposed.

Caixa Econômica’s applications, for example, were designed as if Brazil were Europe, where data protection is extremely high. They ignore that today it is very easy to get all of someone’s data and literally assume their identity online.

What to do in this situation? One possible solution is to completely reinvent the country’s identification system, starting all over again and from scratch. The current has become a widespread problem. Leaked data cannot be “leaked”.

Another solution is to invest in additional, more sophisticated (and expensive) identity authentication mechanisms. Until then, whose fault is it? There are multiple factors, but it is mainly the negligent state. The public authorities should indemnify all victims of scams in Brazil originating from data leaks until the problem is corrected one day.

It’s over – personal data protected, controlled by the individual

Already – all data of all Brazilians exposed on the internet

It’s coming – a permanent, never-ending season of blows