The money doesn't sit in limbo—it flows back to the state treasury, gone for good.
No Paraná, 460 pessoas ganharam R$1.000 cada uma em um programa estadual de incentivo fiscal — e ainda não foram buscar o prêmio. O tempo corre: créditos não resgatados expiram após doze meses e retornam automaticamente aos cofres públicos, uma regra que já consumiu mais de R$57 milhões apenas nos primeiros cinco meses de 2026. É a história recorrente de como a fricção cotidiana — senhas esquecidas, aplicativos não verificados, dias que passam — transforma vitórias concretas em oportunidades perdidas.
- Centenas de ganhadores do Nota Paraná estão a semanas ou meses de perder R$1.000 que já lhes pertencem por direito.
- Só em janeiro a maio de 2026, R$57 milhões em créditos expiraram sem que ninguém os resgatasse — e Curitiba concentra um terço dos prêmios esquecidos.
- A barreira não é desconhecimento do programa, mas o atrito silencioso do dia a dia: senhas perdidas, e-mails trocados e a ausência do hábito de checar o aplicativo.
- O estado intensificou a busca ativa, com visitas domiciliares e suporte presencial nos postos Poupatempo para ajudar vencedores a recuperar o acesso às contas.
- Para quem ganhou em julho de 2025, o prazo fecha no próximo mês — tornando cada dia sem verificação uma aproximação silenciosa do ponto sem retorno.
Em algum lugar do Paraná, 460 pessoas estão prestes a perder dinheiro que já ganharam. A Receita Estadual corre contra o calendário tentando encontrá-las: são vencedores do Nota Paraná, programa que sorteia prêmios entre consumidores que informam o CPF nas notas fiscais. Cada um tem R$1.000 esperando. Nenhum foi buscar.
A lógica do programa é simples, mas há uma armadilha embutida: os créditos expiram após doze meses. Quando isso acontece, o valor não fica suspenso — retorna direto ao tesouro estadual. Para quem ganhou em julho do ano passado, o prazo vence no mês que vem. A coordenadora do programa, Marta Gambini, tem tentado alertar os ganhadores. O estado chegou a enviar pessoas para bater às portas. Mesmo assim, centenas permanecem ausentes.
Curitiba concentra 159 dos prêmios esquecidos — cerca de um terço do total estadual. Londrina aparece com 31 casos, Guarapuava com 17, Ponta Grossa com 13. Ao longo de 159 municípios, o padrão se repete: as pessoas ganharam e simplesmente não voltaram. Entre janeiro e maio deste ano, mais de R$57 milhões em créditos expiraram. Em todo o ano de 2025, foram quase R$150 milhões revertidos ao estado.
Gambini aponta uma causa prosaica: a maioria das pessoas não acessa o aplicativo com regularidade e não sabe que o dinheiro está lá. Outros esqueceram senhas ou endereços de e-mail cadastrados. É a fricção ordinária da vida moderna — você ganha, se distrai, segue em frente, e quando lembra, o prazo já passou.
O estado montou uma saída: os postos Poupatempo podem ajudar a recuperar credenciais perdidas e verificar saldos. Pelo aplicativo Nota Paraná, basta acessar Conta Nota Paraná e consultar o Meu Extrato para ver os créditos disponíveis e suas datas de vencimento. A transferência para conta bancária pode ser feita a partir de R$5. O que falta, agora, é que 460 pessoas espalhadas pelo estado lembrem de verificar suas contas antes que o relógio chegue ao fim.
Somewhere in Paraná, 460 people are about to lose money they've already won. The state's tax authority is searching for them now, racing against a calendar that runs out in weeks for some, months for others. These are lottery winners from the Nota Paraná program—a system that rewards people for providing their tax ID when they shop. Each of them has R$1,000 waiting. None of them have claimed it.
The program works simply enough: include your CPF on a receipt, and you enter a monthly drawing. Win, and credits appear in your account. But there's a catch built into the rules. Those credits expire after twelve months. Once they do, the money doesn't sit in limbo—it flows back into the state treasury, gone for good. For anyone who won in July of last year, that deadline is next month. Marta Gambini, who coordinates the program, has been trying to warn them. The state has even sent people to knock on doors. Still, hundreds haven't shown up to collect.
Curitiba alone accounts for 159 of these unclaimed prizes—roughly a third of the statewide total. The winners there had their names drawn between June 2025 and May 2026 and simply never came back. Londrina follows with 31 forgotten winners, Guarapuava with 17, Ponta Grossa with 13. Across 159 municipalities, the pattern repeats: people won and walked away.
The scale of what's being left behind is staggering. In just five months—January through May of this year—more than R$57 million in credits expired. That's seven percent less than the R$61.2 million that expired in the same window last year, but it's still a massive sum vanishing into the state's coffers. Over the entirety of 2025, nearly R$150 million went unclaimed. These aren't theoretical numbers. That's real money, already allocated to real people, simply reverting because they never bothered to check.
Why? Gambini points to a simple truth: most people don't regularly visit the app or website. They don't know the money is there. Others have forgotten their passwords or the email addresses they used to register. The friction of access—the small barriers that stand between winning and claiming—turns out to be enough to stop most people cold. It's not malice or indifference so much as the ordinary friction of modern life. You win something, you get distracted, you move on. By the time you remember, the deadline has passed.
The state has set up a workaround. Poupatempo offices across Paraná can help people recover lost access credentials and check their balances. For those who do manage to log in, the process is straightforward: open the Nota Paraná app, navigate to Conta Nota Paraná, and look at Meu Extrato. There you'll see each month's credits and when each one expires. On the website, the same information lives under Minha Conta Corrente. The money can be transferred to a bank account anytime, in amounts as small as R$5.
But time is the real constraint now. For July winners, that window closes in weeks. For others, it stretches into the fall. The state is doing what it can—visiting homes, sending notices, maintaining the infrastructure to help people reclaim what's theirs. What happens next depends on whether 460 people, scattered across a state, remember to check their accounts before the clock runs out.
Notable Quotes
Many consumers don't regularly check the app or website and don't realize they can claim their winnings— Marta Gambini, Nota Paraná program coordinator
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone win money and then just... not get it?
Most of them probably don't even know they won. You enter a drawing when you buy something, then you have to actively go check an app or website to see if your name came up. A lot of people never do that.
So it's not that they're ignoring the prize—they're ignoring the app entirely.
Exactly. And if you haven't logged in for a while, you might not remember your password. Or the email you registered with. Suddenly there's friction between you and your money, and friction wins.
What happens to the money if they don't claim it?
It goes back to the state treasury. It's built into the rules—twelve months, and then it's gone. The state has already counted on it, in a way.
Has the state tried to reach these people?
They've sent people to visit some of them in person. They've set up help centers. But you can't force someone to care about money they don't know they have.
And the amounts are significant?
R$57 million expired in just five months this year. Over R$150 million went unclaimed in all of last year. These are real sums.
So the state is actually hoping people will remember before the deadline.
Yes. And for some of them, that deadline is weeks away.