The São Paulo Court of Justice upheld a ruling that denied a claim for material and moral damages by a consumer who fell victim to a so-called "fake payment slip scam." The plaintiff alleged that, while attempting to pay off a debt with a financial institution, he made a payment on a fraudulent payment slip provided by third parties, believing he was settling his account — when in fact it was a scam. He sought reimbursement for damages, alleging a security failure by the defendant institution, which was responsible for safeguarding his personal and financial data.
In the court's view, it was not demonstrated that the defendant failed to protect the consumer's data, nor that any information leak occurred from its systems. As such, no violation of the LGPD was found, given the lack of a causal link. The documents presented did not support the conclusion that the scammer obtained data through the financial institution; there were instead indications that the information used was obtained through a lawsuit filed just days before. The fraud was therefore attributed exclusively to the actions of third parties and to the victim's own lack of caution, ruling out the institution's strict liability as well as any LGPD violation.
The decisions cited case law from Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ), which establishes that a causal link between a banking service failure and the harm suffered is required for liability to attach. The payment was made to a third party through unofficial channels, without proper verification of the payment slip details, which constitutes contributory negligence on the part of the victim. Therefore, without evidence of a security failure or service defect, the institution is not required to compensate the consumer.
This post was summarized from the original ruling using ChatGPT version 4o, with human review.
TJSP/AC No. 1006211-90.2024.8.26.0229