The debt renegotiation program Desenrola Brasil launched this Monday (17) already serves as a bait for fraud circulating on WhatsApp and social networks. A search of Facebook’s ad library for the term “unroll” returns hundreds of sponsored links. Part of these addresses redirects to fraudulent websites.
One of them simulates a self-service chatbot that asks questions and answers them with misleading promises about the debt renegotiation program —promises, for example, 99% discounts.
Another link sells material called “Clean Name Guide” for R$27. Payment can be made via Pix or credit card.
As the posts identified by the report are sponsored, Meta, the company that controls Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, receives money to increase their reach. Sought by the report this Tuesday afternoon (18), the company claims not to allow fraudulent activities or any activities that violate its community and advertising standards.
“We use a combination of reports from our community, technology and human review to identify violating content and enforce our policies,” says the company. Meta encourages users to report scams on the platform itself.
According to a check by Agência Lupa, a link has been circulating on WhatsApp since Monday (17) instructing people to access a fake website, which supposedly belongs to Serasa.
The banks participating in Desenrola have their own channels for account holders interested in paying off debts acquired between 2019 and 2022 and it is the debtor who should seek them out to negotiate, not the other way around. Therefore, any link that is not from the financial institution is suspected of being a scam.
Sought after by the report, Serasa says that it renegotiates debts only through the company’s official channels — the Serasa Limpa Nome website, the Android and iPhone smartphone application and WhatsApp (11) 99575-2096.
It is common for scammers to impersonate representatives of companies that renegotiate debts on social networks to offer proposals that are incompatible with what is practiced in the market, according to Serasa solutions coordinator, Franciele Tiburcio. “They promise to remove the negativity at the time and increase the score [pontuação] credit in 24 hours, which is impossible.”
A fake video checked by UOL, for example, says that debts will be forgiven with a 99% discount. But the discounts offered by Caixa and Banco Inter reach a maximum of 90%, and only for certain conditions. The final amount is decided in negotiation with the bank.
The goal of criminals is to lead the indebted to the fake link. The site is a counterfeit of the Serasa platform, in a supposed special edition of Desenrola Brasil. Serasa clarifies that it is not responsible for the address.
According to a report by the cybersecurity company Kaspersky, Brazil is a global leader in fraud applied from false links – the practice uses a bait and is therefore called phishing, in reference to the verb to fish, in English. Scammers use this decoy to steal money and personal information, which can be used in other financial scams – online shopping, creating orange accounts, among other crimes.
Kaspersky identified 76,000 phishing attempts in Brazil in 2022 alone. To a lesser extent, scams also occur on Telegram and Viber.
A new Kaspersky report, released this Tuesday (18), still shows that 65% of Brazilians do not know how to recognize whether a website is legitimate.
To avoid fraud, the company recommends being wary of exaggerated promises, checking the website address, which may contain grammatical errors and exchanges of letters for numbers, and having an antivirus installed on the device – the software has a list of suspicious websites, which can prevent the blow.
Sought by the report, the Ministry of Finance reported that it disseminates guidelines on the program on social networks.
People can report fraud to institutions representing the banking sector —Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks) and ABBC (Brazilian Association of Commercial Banks).
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN DESENROLA BRASIL
Those interested in participating in Desenrola Brasil need to contact their banks by December 30 of this year.
The five largest banks in the country (Banco do Brasil, Caixa, Bradesco, Itaú and Santander) announced their adhesion to the program. Besides them, C6, Daycoval, Inter, PagBank and Pan also informed that they will participate. Banco Mercantil said it was evaluating membership, while Banrisul, BMG and Nubank did not respond to the report by the Sheet.
To participate in the current negotiation round, the debtor needs to receive up to R$ 20,000 per month and have entered the list of defaulters between 2019 and 2022. The debt cannot be related to rural credit, have a guarantee from the Union or public entity, have credit risk fully assumed by the financial agent, forecast public funds or interest rate equalization by the Federal Government.
A Sheet provides a step by step in this link.
SERASA TICKETS VALIDATOR
The company provides a means of payment checker on the Limpa Nome platform, available on the internet, Google Play and the App Store.
After logging in with CPF and password, the user must select the Solutions tab. Then, go to the Validate Payment Method option in the Payments section.
Finally, you need to add the Pix code or barcode in the indicated field.
If the slip is not from Serasa, check that the beneficiary field contains a financial institution authorized to renegotiate debts.
Fraud attempts can be registered in police reports at online Civil Police stations.
