Last Thursday (30), journalist Mônica Siqueira, from Brasília, used Google to search for the address of the registration page for the National High School Exam (Enem). She would sign up for her daughter.
Mônica found a website that pretended to be official. It was, however, a fake page.
“I looked and the design and layout were exactly right. The page was the same, it said 'Registration Enem 2024', there was a little robot (artificial intelligence chat) that teaches you step by step”, remembers Mônica, highlighting the similarities.
After following the procedure and providing some information, the student arrived at the billing page, for R$85, which offered the option of paying by bank slip or Pix. Mônica made the payment, including with a small discount, for choosing the pix option.
Without receiving any confirmation email, mother and daughter began to suspect that it was a scam. In fact, the daughter noticed that the supposed registration website didn't even ask whether the test would be taken by a “training” participant, which is her case, or “for real”.
After seeking more information from friends and on social media, Mônica saw similar reports and understood that she had really been the victim of a scam.
Website taken down
On social media, there have been similar reports in recent days of people who were almost deceived or who fell for the scam. The reported website is the same, inscricao-2024.com, which has already been taken down. Users mention that the link appears as an ad on Google.
The case is being investigated by the Federal Police. The National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), an agency of the Ministry of Education responsible for Enem, reinforced on social media that registration for the exam must be done exclusively via the address enem.inep.gov.br/participant.
“After completing the registration, the system will generate a bank slip from Banco do Brasil to pay the fee. This invoice is only made available to the registrant after accessing the exam system through the unique Gov.br login.”, he warns.
In fact, another difference for the fraudulent website is that correct registrations can be paid by credit and debit card and not just by bank slip and Pix.
When contacted, the Federal Police reported that “it does not comment on any ongoing investigations”. Google reported that it adopts strict policies that limit the way in which people and companies can advertise products through Google Ads, the search engine's advertising platform.
“When we identify a violation of our policies, we act immediately by suspending the ad and even blocking the advertiser’s account,” says the statement.
According to the company, in 2023, 5.5 billion ads and 12.7 million accounts were blocked or removed globally due to violations of the company's policies.
“If any consumer suspects or is a victim of a scam, we offer a tool to report violations of our policies”, he concludes. Reports can be made at this address.
Evidences
Registration for Enem 2024 is open until June 7th (students from Rio Grande do Sul will have the deadline extended, due to the calamity caused by the rain). The fee is R$85 and must be paid by June 12th. The deadline to request an exemption ended in April. The tests will take place on the 3rd and 10th of November, in the 27 units of the Federation.
In addition to evaluating students' academic performance at the end of basic education, Enem has become the main gateway to higher education in Brazil, through the Unified Selection System (Sisu), employed by public universities, and initiatives such as the University for All Program (Prouni) and the Student Financing Fund (Fies), used by private colleges.
Source: CNN Brasil
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