Cybersecurity specialist Kaspersky is warning of a new type of criminal scheme involving payment by credit card proximity, in a system known as “contactless”.

According to what the company reveals to CNN Brasil, the scheme was developed by a group of Brazilian hackers, and is called “Prilex”.

The scam aims to prevent transactions through “contactless” payments and thus force the customer to insert the card into the machine. Then, using other methods, criminals can easily steal card data.

To install the virus on the device that allows the scheme, the hackers first contact the merchant who owns the device, and say a system update is required, which is actually a bug.

Kaspersky has already identified three versions of Pillrex capable of card blocking, the first of which was discovered in November 2022.

What leads to the obligation to insert the card into the machine is the payment guarantee by proximity, or “contactless”, where a unique identification number or card number valid for only one transaction is generated. When this process is identified and blocked, the following message appears: “Error approached. Insert card.

According to the company, criminals can even choose which types of cards they want “contact” blocks to block, such as “black” or “infinite” versions or business cards with higher credit limits.