Brazilians lost around $54 billion to fraud last year, GASA warns

Fraud is harming millions of Brazilians, according to the recently published State of Fraud in Brazil 2024 report, produced by the Global Anti-Fraud Alliance (GASA) in collaboration with ScamAdviser and Whoscall. The report showed losses of about BRL297.7 billion ($54 billion) due to fraud over the past 12 months, painting a sobering picture of the prevalence of fraudulent activity targeting citizens.

The GASA report states that the average loss per victim is $1,000. The GASA report highlights a surge in fraud attempts.With 94% of respondents claim that they encountered an attempted fraud at least once a month. Most alarmingly, the impact of financial losses has taken a heavy toll on victims of fraud, with only 4% of victims saying they have fully recovered their lost funds.

Here is a list of the most common types of fraud affecting Brazil, according to GASA:

• Purchase Fraud and Identity Theft: Shopping scams are widespread and often involve fake e-commerce sites or fraudulent transactions. Identity theft is also widespread, leaving victims exposed to further financial abuse.
• Fraud using phone and SMS: Phone calls and SMS are the main methods of fraud. Notably, SMS scams are up 23% this year, demonstrating scammers’ strategic use of direct communication to reach victims.
• Social media manipulation: Platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram are often targeted for scams. Fraud on WhatsApp alone increased by 15%, indicating an increase in fake messages and impersonation of accounts on the platform.

Connected: Phishing attacks: how to recognize and avoid them

Scams in Brazil are characterized by speed and efficiency: 61% of scams are carried out within just 24 hours of first contact, leaving victims with little time to recognize the scam or seek help. In addition to financial losses, fraud also has significant emotional consequences. Some 45% of victims reported a strong emotional impact, up 25% over the past year, with many Brazilians citing a decline in trust in digital interactions.

Although 62% of Brazilians are confident in their ability to recognize fraud (more than last year), this awareness has not effectively reduced fraud. The report shows that 66% of victims do not report scams to authorities, often due to perceived ineffectiveness or complexity of the reporting process. Those who report fraud contact banks and local law enforcement.

Recommendations for strengthening the fight against fraud in Brazil

The report also outlines key strategies to combat the fraud crisis, emphasizing a coordinated approach that includes public education, simplified reporting and technology solutions. Some of the report’s key recommendations include public awareness campaigns, streamlining the reporting process, the use of anti-fraud technologies such as AI-powered detection tools, and strengthening victim support resources and recovery mechanisms.

“A number of measures are needed to combat the growing threat of fraud in Brazil: strengthening public awareness campaigns, simplifying reporting mechanisms, cooperation between the private and public sectors, improving victim support and recovery processes, and the use of technology such as anti-fraud apps . and AI-powered fraud detection,” said Yorey Abraham, Managing Director of GASA.

How Bitdefender can help

How member of the Global Anti-Fraud Alliance (GASA), we play a key role in protecting online users from fraud. Bitdefender uses advanced cybersecurity technology and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent fraudulent activity in real time across multiple platforms, including:

• Web protection to protect your browsing and block malicious or fraudulent websites.
• Email protection to protect your mailbox from phishing attempts
• Fraud Alert to monitor SMS and chats for fraud and malicious links
• Scamio: Our FREE AI-powered fraud detector helps users identify fraud across multiple channels, including web browser, Facebook Messenger, whatsapp And Discord.

The Fraud Detection Tool is free to use and offers a user-friendly interface where users can check whether a suspicious message they receive is a scam attempt, or they can describe a conversation or scenario to get a verdict in seconds. You can also help others stay safe by sharing Scamio with them on France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, AustraliaAnd United Kingdom

• Co-pilot of the scam: An AI-powered platform designed to detect and protect against the latest types of fraud, along with a personal fraud chatbot, proactive fraud alerts in your region, real-time page-view fraud detection, and remote fraud protection access, among other things.

You can read more about Scam Copilot Here.