Credit and debit card fraud doubles; here's how to avoid it
Card fraud, involving purchases and withdrawals on credit and debit cards, is keeping Brazilians awake at night during the pandemic. In the period from March to July this year, complaints related to unrecognized charges or withdrawals doubled compared to the same period in 2019.
Registrations jumped from 1,154 to 2,445, an increase of 111.8%, according to data from Consumidor.gov, a conflict mediation portal of the National Secretariat for Consumer Defense (Senacon), an agency of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
The number of card frauds led the federal government and nine private entities to launch the #FiqueEsperto campaign to alert users about security and attempted scams on the internet.
The initiative has the participation of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), the Brazilian Association of Banks, the National Telecommunications Agency and the Internet Steering Committee in Brazil.
Fraudsters have stepped up two types of scams
According to the director of Febraban's Fraud Prevention Executive Committee, Adriano Volpini, fraudsters have intensified two types of attacks taking advantage of the increased use of e-commerce: phishing, which has grown 80%, and the use of social engineering techniques, which are linked to 70% of fraud:
— In phishing, fraudsters employ techniques to obtain information through fake websites or pages, capturing data such as card numbers and passwords, which are later used in fraudulent transactions.
According to data from Febraban, the fake motorcycle courier scam, in which the service is offered to collect the card at home, increased by 65% during the pandemic. Frauds involving fake call centers, which pretend to be the bank when contacting customers, increased by 70%.
See 5 tips to avoid falling for card scams
- Protect your accounts with strong passwords. Avoid names of close friends, birthdays, and easy combinations like 1234. Include special characters like * and #;
- Do not use the same password across different services;
- Use a password management app or store your passwords in a safe place;
- Always enable two-factor authentication, especially in messaging and social media apps.
- Never give out security codes or passwords over the phone or via text message.
