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Judicial Decision In Santos Recognizes Fraud In Payroll Loans, Points Out Failures In Bank Data Security And Determines Double Restitution Of Amounts Deducted From Disability Pension, As Well As Compensation For Moral Damages Against Itaú Consignado And Banco Pan.
A retiree due to disability living in Santos, on the coast of São Paulo, obtained in court the annulment of five payroll loan contracts attributed to him without authorization.
The decision ordered that Itaú Consignado And Banco Pan refund, in double, the amounts deducted from the pension benefit, in addition to paying compensation for moral damages.
Together, the penalties amount to nearly R$ 100 thousand.
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The sentence was issued by the 8th Civil Court of Santos.
The court recognized that there was no valid manifestation of the consumer’s will in contracting the loans.
Nevertheless, installments began to be deducted monthly from a pension benefit of a subsistence nature.
This situation led the judiciary to intervene.
The deductions reached R$ 2,051.41 per month.
The charges occurred between April 2022 and February 2024.
During this period, the retiree maintained that he had not signed any payroll loan contract.
The deductions were only halted after the granting of a preliminary decision during the process.
Justice Annuls Contracts And Determines Double Refund
Upon analyzing the case, Judge Gustavo Alexandre da Câmara Leal Belluzzo declared the five questioned contracts nonexistent.
In his reasoning, the magistrate emphasized that the absence of consent invalidates the transactions.
For this reason, all deductions made from the benefit were considered improper.
Based on this understanding, the sentence determined the double restitution of the amounts subtracted.
The measure follows what is stipulated in the Consumer Defense Code in cases of undue charging.
According to the court records, the refund exceeds R$ 86 thousand, considering the entire period during which the benefit was impacted.
Additionally, the judge set compensation for R$ 10 thousand for moral damages.
The decision registered that the repeated withdrawal of amounts from an income intended for subsistence is not limited to an administrative inconvenience.
The understanding was that the situation constitutes an injury subject to compensation.
Deductions From Benefit Led Retiree To Seek Justice
The case began when the retiree noticed deductions he did not recognize from his pension benefit.
Faced with the situation, he sought legal guidance.
According to the records, the retiree consulted lawyer Fabrício Posocco from the Posocco & Advogados Associados firm.
The initiative occurred after realizing that the charges persisted without clear explanation from the financial institutions.
Upon reviewing the documentation presented by the banks, the defense found that the loans were purportedly formalized by banking correspondents located in other states.
The records also contained detailed information about the account holder.
This information reinforced the argument that the operations did not originate from the consumer’s initiative.
From this finding, the lawsuit began to question both the validity of the contracts and the mechanisms used to authorize the loans.
False Calls And New Loss After Attempt To Cancel
After attempting to cancel the loans directly with the banks, the retiree reported being the target of a new fraud.
As described in the court documents, he received calls from people presenting themselves as employees of the financial institutions.
These contacts included protocol numbers and information related to already registered complaints.
According to the records, this context helped lend an appearance of legitimacy to the calls.
In light of this, the retiree believed he was following official guidance to resolve the issue.
Convinced he was participating in a regular procedure, he made bank transfers.
The transferred amounts exceeded R$ 52 thousand.
The money was sent to accounts linked to companies that, according to the scammers, had ties to the banks.
This dynamic was described in the lawsuit.
Use Of Internal Data Weighed In Banks’ Responsibility
In the ruling, the magistrate emphasized that the use of internal and confidential information by the fraudsters had significant weight in the analysis of the case.
For the judge, access to data that should be protected indicated a failure in the security systems of the financial institutions.
This understanding led to classifying the situation as internal fortuity.
The legal concept is applied when the damage arises from risks inherent to the economic activity itself.
Under these circumstances, the responsibility of the institutions is objective.
This means that it does not depend on proving direct fault.
The decision also assessed the claim that part of the loan amounts would have been deposited into the retiree’s account.
The judge dismissed the compensation sought by the banks.
According to the ruling, the evidence indicated that the consumer did not effectively benefit from the transactions.
The loss, according to the judicial understanding, arose from the fraudulent scheme itself.
Debate On Data Protection And Payroll Loan
Throughout the process, the defense argued that the case highlights weaknesses in data protection in the banking system.
The discussion particularly involved contracts made by banking correspondents.
According to the retiree’s lawyer, the fraudsters demonstrated access to information such as payroll margin, financial history, and service protocols.
The ruling did not delve into potential administrative or criminal liabilities related to data protection.
Still, the use of this information was considered relevant to characterize the security breach.
This point reinforced the obligation to compensate recognized by the court.
The episode also calls attention to the role of banking correspondents in payroll loan operations.
The topic has been a target of regulatory and judicial discussions.
The debate occurs amid an increase in complaints involving fraud and unrecognized contracts.
Moral Damages And Direct Impact On Pension Income
Another central point of the decision was the impact of the deductions on the retiree’s pension benefit.
When addressing moral damages compensation, the judge highlighted that the reduction of an income intended for subsistence causes significant distress.
The understanding was that the situation goes beyond common inconveniences of daily life.
The history described in the process indicated that, in addition to monthly deductions, the retiree faced difficulties in halting the charges.
In this context, he suffered additional losses by being induced to transfer amounts during the cancellation attempts.
Given this set of factors, the court concluded that moral reparation was warranted.
The decision maintained, cumulatively, the restitution of the amounts improperly deducted.
As frauds combining the use of personal data and approaches simulating official customer service increase, how can consumers, banks, and regulatory bodies act to reduce occurrences of this type in payroll loans?
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