I'm pretty sure at this point every tax ID (CPF) in Brazil is available on a database you can get on the dark web.

We've had a "CPF-ication" of everything in Brazil over the last few years. The vast majority of people have shared this number with their local grocery store, pharmacy, gym, etc. It's required for a lot of stuff and pretty necessary for others.

Given that, if that's all that leaked here that's a pretty good outcome. It's sad that I think like this but it's kind of how it is.

What makes me more pessimistic is that they claim no financial data was exposed but I wonder if that's really true. And that's where the gold is because then scammers know who to target.

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drdexebtjl 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Even if no financial data was exposed, scammers now know these people have/had life insurance with Caixa, which is enough to make them preferred targets and to make scams more convincing.

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gchamonlive 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Many restaurants and events require CPF to open a virtual tab with an RFC card and will refuse service if you refuse to give it

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alex43578 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Is this a Brazil law thing or businesses just using it as a readymade ID?

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matheusmoreira 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Both. Brazilian KYC/AML laws are based around the CPF number. It also serves corporations as a stable ID to identify people and track them. It's possible that it's a primary key in their databases.

For example, it's common to get cashback in stores in exchange for the CPF number. They track you, comply with regulations and reward you -- all with one government ID.

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alex43578 2 days ago | parent [-]

Man, seems like those two uses are self-defeating. KYC/AML, but used for things as banal as store rewards. Seems really easy to not know who the actual KYC user is then…

	▲	matheusmoreira a day ago \| parent [-]
		Correct. There are online CPF generators out there. If you ask someone for a CPF, there's a chance they'll simply make one up.

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Qem 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Until recently Brazil had no unified national ID document. Each state had theirs. It was possible to have IDs from more than one state. As the tax ID was unique for the whole country, people started using it as unique identifier of choice.

	▲	cesarb 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		You left out the ending: now we do have an unified national ID document (under gradual adoption, it'll be a few years until it's required), and its number is that tax ID (CPF).