The Social Security system filed a complaint with the Judicial Police (PJ) after discovering IBANs were altered on Social Security Direct without the involvement of beneficiaries. This case has already led to the arrest of more than forty individuals, and during the period in which the expected payments were not received, Social Security provided exceptional monetary support to the affected families.
“As widely communicated, the Institute of Social Security, having discovered that IBANs were altered on Social Security Direct without the beneficiaries’ involvement, informed the Judicial Police and has since been working closely with the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” explained a source from the Institute of Social Security (ISS) to Notícias ao Minuto.
These incidents, as the same source elaborated, “predominantly occurred in October 2024, with 90 cases detected,” and “by the end of January 2025, 169 criminal complaints had been filed.”
The PJ arrested 47 individuals under Operation ‘Constellations’, which does not rule out that the fraud against hundreds of pensioners may be rooted in a cyberattack, admitting that more victims may emerge.
The investigation revolves around a fraud scheme that affected hundreds of Social Security Direct users, who saw their social benefits redirected to bank accounts of the suspects.
The modus operandi of this scheme involved the recruitment of ‘money mules’, receivers of the money diverted from pensioners who received social benefits via bank transfer through the NIB indicated on the Social Security Direct platform.
Social Security provided exceptional support to 167 families
With many left without their due support, Social Security granted “exceptional support to 167 families“, with the “amount of each support determined within the framework of social action“, according to the same ISS source to Notícias ao Minuto.
“Despite these situations arising from the malicious interference of third parties, who allegedly used the Social Security Direct access credentials of these beneficiaries, the Institute of Social Security (ISS) — aware of the vulnerability situation of some beneficiaries resulting from the non-receipt of social security benefits — determined the provision of exceptional monetary support, upon submission of a criminal complaint proof to a criminal police body and IBAN ownership proof,” detailed that source.
The source further mentioned that the ISS “has been particularly attentive to fraudulent phenomena related to Social Security, acting upon them.”
“In this regard, besides adopting appropriate measures, it has acted in disseminating alerts to citizens. For example, consider the alerts to citizens regarding fraudulent SMS and their respective notifications to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as well as communications to SIBS,” it noted.
The same source concluded by explaining that the “ISS and the Institute of Informatics are continuing to develop structural solutions to provide greater security to the processes of initiating or altering IBAN in line with bank account ownership.”
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Notícias ao Minuto | 08:41 – 08/05/2025
