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The Central Bank has issued a warning about fraud attempts related to its unclaimed money recovery service. Scammers have been sending messages via WhatsApp or SMS, pretending to be from the agency and offering help to recover money from the SVR (Sistema de Valores a Receivable).
The Central Bank clarifies that it does not send messages via messaging apps or SMS regarding the amounts to be received. Furthermore, consultations with the SVR are currently suspended, and there is still no set date for the start of the second phase of the program.
Anyone who receives such messages should delete them immediately and avoid clicking on any links, which could result in data theft or lead to fraud.
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The service, which has been suspended since April this year, still has R$4.6 billion forgotten in financial institutions awaiting return. Of this amount, R$3.6 billion belongs to 32 million individuals, and R$1 billion to 2 million companies.
“Consultation with the SVR is temporarily suspended. The schedule, estimated values and other information regarding the new phase of the SVR will be disclosed duly and in advance,” the institution said in a statement.
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Updates
According to the Central Bank, new information received from financial institutions will be processed and made available to customers as soon as the SVR is reactivated. The institution also revealed that it is working on improvements to the system, such as adding new types of amounts and the possibility of withdrawals by heirs and legal representatives of deceased individuals.
When the system is resumed, heirs, executors, administrators or legal representatives of deceased individuals will be able to check for unclaimed amounts and receive guidance on how to recover the money. They will need to accept a liability waiver before making the query.
The inclusion of deceased people in the SVR was announced by the Central Bank at the beginning of the year, but was interrupted due to a strike at the institution, which lasted from April to July.
Another innovation will be the introduction of a virtual queue to access the SVR. This feature will replace the scheduled access system (with a set day and time), which was in place in the first version of the system.
What are unclaimed amounts?
The SVR (Values Receivable System) informs you if you have any outstanding amounts in banks and other institutions. In the first phase of the SVR, it was possible to check amounts of:
- Closed current or savings accounts with available balance.
- Fees and installments or obligations related to credit operations charged unduly, provided that the refund is provided for in a commitment signed by the bank with the BC.
- Capital quotas and distribution of net surpluses of beneficiaries and participants of credit cooperatives.
- Unsought resources relating to closed consortium groups
What the system doesn't show
- Adjustments of economic plans;
- Agreements or amounts in legal dispute;
- Financial institutions or consortium administrators that have been liquidated or closed;
- Salary bonus amounts (PIS or Pasep);
- FGTS account balance;
- Open accounts that are inactive;
- Accounts without complete identification and that were not re-registered until December 1994.
