Data leak could lead to new scams, says expert

In an interview with CNN This Saturday (5), expert Wanderson Castilho, a specialist in digital crimes, said that the leak of bank data, such as the one released this week, could give rise to new blows against people who had their information exposed irregularly.

On Thursday (3) the Central Bank reported that information was leaked on 2,112 Pix keys that were linked to a means of payment company. The BC guaranteed, however, that no sensitive data was exposed.

Castilho informs that, after having access to customer information, such as full name, address and name of family members, the gangs get in touch with the victims and pretend to be employees of banking institutions to carry out scams.

“They [criminosos] end up improving new types of scams with this information to give a certain security to the victim, who thinks he is talking to someone from the institution [financeira]”, says Castilho. “Pix itself has no vulnerability, but the sensitivity of the information puts it at risk.”

For this reason, the specialist warns customers so that when they are contacted by someone who claims to work in a bank, they are sure about the veracity of the information. “You have to be absolutely sure that you are talking to the bank”, he guides.

Faced with the leak of Pix information, Castilho gives a recommendation to the clients of financial institutions: “it is very important for each citizen to go after it and find out if their data has been exposed in order to take security measures, such as hiring a CPF monitoring service to that there is no registration in stores in your name, for example.”

According to Castilho, the citizen who had the data leaked should look for his bank and collect reimbursement.