Comment by hugocbp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hugocbp | Hacker News Reader

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Just a couple of notes:

Pix is not an app but a platform (like INTERAC in Canada). It works with most banks and most people with bank account now have it.

Not only that, it is not just a QR app. You can send money to any key, that can be:

- An email

- CPF (unique SIN / SSN number that in Brazil is not considered secret)

- Telephone number

- Randomly generated key

The transactions are also, for the most part, instantaneous (think 1-2 seconds) and irreversible (as far as I know).

Even if you only have in your phone apps for banks without a Pix key, it is trivial and fast to create one. Unfortunately the only way out of this is to never have on your phone a bank app (and they can even force you to download one on the spot if you are actually kidnapped).

Also, from someone who was carjacked in the past in Brazil: this has always happened here. I think it is simply the delivery method that is changing. Unfortunately, ban those apps and the bad guys will just go back to randomly kidnapping / carjacking people on the streets of rich neighbourhoods like they did in the past.

Agree with your comments, but as a Brazilian too, I feel the need to emphasize that although this kind of thing happens, it’s not that high of a risk that it will happen to you. I’m from Rio and personally don’t know anybody who has suffered such crime. I felt like adding this comment because “this has always happened here” could be interpreted as “this happens all the time to a lot of people”.

I think that the risk part is relative.

I've been robbed 8 times in 30 years in Brazil. From having my watch stolen at 14 by someone with a broken glass to the carjack I talked about previously. My family and close friends, for the most part, have been robbed, kidnapped or carjacked 0 times.

It is a numbers game. I, unfortunately, have been on the unlucky side. It is one of the main reasons I left for Canada.

So while I do agree that is not something that happens every day to your circle of known people, it does happen more often than it should even if you are not on the high crime zones.

And I'm not even from Rio or the most dangerous cities, I'm from Belo Horizonte which, for Brazilian standards, is actually considered more on the safer side for bigger cities.

>> It is one of the main reasons I left for Canada.

... where we have to remind people not to leaving their running, unlocked cars unattended or they might get stolen. Must have been quite a change for you!

can running cars be locked without leaving the keyfob inside?

Yes

Here in Rio already happened before by using ATMs in far away places to withdraw cash, and using credit card machines from "laranjas", people that is hard to trace, usually without their consent.

Nothing new. Didn't increased. São Paulo cases are a novelty because it's really a "well" thought/planned method with specific personas to attack. It's not just a random person in the streets.

And it shows that men are as fragile as women in these emotional tricks. (and we should understand them better as part of this increased awareness)

This varies a lot depending on where you live and your routine. If you’re middle class, lives in a nice neighbourhood and go out into posh areas, the risk is really really low.

This is why this Tinder scam is extra dangerous, as it’s baiting men to go alone to a non public location to meet an unknown woman.

São Paulo here, never been robbed, but i'm a very tall man, that helps a lot not being robbed

Do they not have Reg E and KYC in Brazil? Seems like taking a ransom by electronic payment should lead to very fast arrest when you try to move the money from that account.

They do and this and PIX payments are discussed in the article. Unfortunately with PIX and like with everything else enforcement is a snail pace compared to the move of the funds. You might get a money mole but you don't stop the underlying crime.

The person that received the money has some days (7 I think) to send money back with 1 button click on the his Bank App without knowing the account details it needs to send back.

So yeah, you need to contact the person on the other side.

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