When you conduct banking operations, either in person or through digital channels, you may be subject to different types of financial fraud:

• Fraudulent schemes, like:

  • proposals for the application of remunerated money well above the market average, by means of contacts at home, by telephone, by email or by other means;

  • credit offers made by individuals or other entities not authorised to carry out the activity;

  • pyramid schemes, where an initial cash application is usually proposed, whose remuneration depends on the applications that the person can get in the future from other people;

  • the “Letters from Nigeria”, with proposals to transfer monetary funds from or to abroad, in which an initial amount is requested with the promise of a high gain resulting from the transfer;

• Unauthorised use of payment instruments, such as:

  • card cloning – misappropriation, in an automatic payment terminal, of data relating to a payment card;

  • fraudulent filling in of a cheque – for example, changing the amount payable by cheque;

  • use of counterfeit banknotes and coins;

• Online fraud, such as:

  • Phishing – This occurs when an unknown entity (hacker) passes themselves off as an institution or company, and through emails, telephone calls (vishing), or SMS messages (smishing) attempts to persuade a bank customer to disclose personal information, such as security card coordinates, passwords, and bank account numbers.

  • Pharming – This occurs when a computer virus that is installed on a computer, tablet or smartphone redirects the hyperlink (link) entered by the customer to a false web page (the so-called ‘mirror page’), in some cases identical to the official page of the credit institution, allowing third parties to obtain all the confidential information written by the user on this false page.

  • Spyware – This is a malicious program that installs itself on the customer’s computer, tablet or smartphone without their being aware of it. Once installed, the program detects if the customer is accessing a protected internet page, such as homebanking pages, and records the data entered by the user.