A customer paid the fake customer service: what the company does about Pix and the MED

The customer service phone rings, or a message arrives: a customer says they talked to your brand's "customer service" on WhatsApp, paid a fee by Pix (Brazil's instant payment) to release a refund, and only then realized it was not the company. They are nervous, sometimes angry, and want to know what to do.

This article is for those who serve that customer: the customer service team and the legal team. It shows what to tell the customer in the first minutes, how a Pix dispute works and what the company does in parallel to stop the scam.

First: time matters

With Pix, the money arrives in seconds and, as a rule, the payer cannot undo the payment, as happens with a card chargeback. In scams, the amount is usually moved quickly to other accounts. That is why the most important guidance is also the simplest: the customer must contact their own bank now, not after sorting out everything else.

What the MED is

The MED (Mecanismo Especial de Devolução, the Pix Special Return Mechanism) is the Pix rule for fraud cases. In broad terms:

1. The customer tells their own bank that the Pix was a scam, using the dispute button in the bank's app or the bank's service channels.
2. The customer's bank registers the dispute, and the recipient's bank may block the amounts still in the account.
3. Both banks review the case.
4. If the fraud is confirmed and there is a blocked balance, the amount is returned, in full or in part.

Three points the customer needs to hear:

• The deadline: the request can be made up to 80 days after the Pix, but it is best not to wait. The sooner, the greater the chance that the money is still in the recipient's account.
• The return is not certain: if the money has already left the account, there may be nothing to return. Since February 2026, MED 2.0 traces money that was moved to other accounts, which improves the chance of recovering part of the amount, but the return still depends on there being a balance.
• They are the one who asks: the MED is triggered by the customer, at their own bank. The company whose brand was used does not request the MED on the customer's behalf.

What to tell the customer, in order

Short guidance in the right order helps more than a long explanation:

1. Contact your bank now and ask to dispute the Pix through the MED, using the dispute button in the app or the bank's service channels.
2. File a police report. Many banks ask for one, and it helps the investigation.
3. Keep and send us the Pix receipt and the screenshots of the conversation, with the number or profile that talked to you.
4. Do not make new payments to "cancel", "reverse" or "release" the amount. Whoever promises to return the money in exchange for another fee is usually the same scammer.

If the payment was made by boleto (a Brazilian payment slip), the guidance is similar: tell the bank as soon as possible and file a police report. If it was made by card, the purchase can be disputed with the card issuer, under its rules.

What the company does in parallel

While the customer talks to the bank, the company has work to do:

• Store the evidence. The customer's receipt and screenshots show what they saw. If the scam went through a website, an ad or a profile that is still online, also make a complete capture, with date and time, integrity code and timestamp, before reporting it.
• Report the entry points. The payment is the last step. Before it there was an ad, a fake profile, a lookalike website or a WhatsApp number. Each has its own reporting channel, and taking them down reduces new victims.
• Notify the recipient's bank through its fraud reporting channels, when available, with the key or account used in the scam.
• Record the key and the recipient. Repeated scams often use the same keys. When several customers show the same recipient, the cases connect and the reports carry more weight.
• Warn other customers through the official channels: how the company receives payments, what its official Pix key is and what the company never asks for, such as a Pix by message to release an order or a refund.

What never to do with the recipient's data

The name and part of the ID number of the Pix recipient are personal data when the recipient is an individual. It may be the account of someone who was used without knowing it. Therefore:

• do not publish the name, the CPF (Brazil's individual taxpayer number) or the key on the brand's social media, even as a warning;
• use this data only in the right channels: the bank, the police report, the takedown request and, if needed, the courts;
• keep only what is necessary, with restricted access, for as long as the case lasts.

The warning to customers can explain the scam and the official channels without identifying anyone.

Caring for the customer also protects the brand

A deceived customer often blames the company, because its name is what they saw. Fast service with clear guidance makes a difference: a customer who is well served tends to help with information, such as the profile, the number and the key used; one who feels abandoned tends to complain in public. Having a ready script for this situation, with the steps above, avoids improvising at the most tense moment.

How Patentiq helps

Patentiq searches for the entry points of the fake customer service scam that use the brand name, such as lookalike domains and profiles pretending to be customer service, and shows what deserves attention with a risk score and the reason. The evidence is stored with an integrity code and a timestamp. The takedown request is contracted separately: when the company hires the takedown service and marks a finding as fraud, Patentiq sends the request with the evidence. The decision to remove belongs to whoever receives the request; Patentiq makes sure it arrives complete and well documented.

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