Digital fraud grows the most among Gen Z and over 75s

Fraud in digital transactions involving people aged 18 to 24 and over 75 years old grew the most in 2021, according to a survey by the company LexisNexis Risk Solutions based on 5 billion transactions analyzed by it last year, two thirds of them in the Brazil.

The data includes transactions carried out with banks, retail chains, streaming services, e-commerce platforms, airlines, among others, in Latin America.

Among young people, a culture of excessive exposure of data on the internet prevails, which facilitates the action of fraudsters, according to the company.

In the older group, the actions of scammers and frauds involving relatives who use these people’s cell phones to borrow loans, make transfers and buy items without their consent stand out.

“The 18 to 24-year-old profile is almost tied in susceptibility to fraud with the elderly. Why is that? They are already so used to digital that they don’t care about security. They share and show all their life data in the online environment. , and that makes it easy for fraudsters. It’s a culture of exposure”, says Rafael Costa Abreu, fraud and identity director for the company’s Latin America.

In the youngest group, there was a 31% increase in the number of frauds compared to 2020. In the oldest group, 26%. When considering the value of losses, the second stratum is even more affected, as equity and income are higher.

The digitization of various economic activities because of the pandemic helped to create a scenario more conducive to fraud. There was also a process of banking and entry into the digital world for a large part of the population with emergency aid, via the Caixa Tem app, and the creation of Pix, which facilitated real-time transfers. The use of cryptocurrencies is another factor that tends to further reduce control over these flows of resources.

Much of this digitization took place through telephone devices. Cell phones accounted for 72% of attacks initiated by humans, that is, without the participation of robots, in Latin America last year, according to a LexisNexis survey in its database.

In the region, the number of digital transactions grew by 473%. Robot-initiated attacks saw a similar increase (455%). Those initiated by humans increased by 138%.

A highlight in the second half of 2021 was the use of password reset to steal data. This can happen from the use of a stolen and unlocked cell phone, in which email applications are always open to the user. Just check which shopping or banking apps are installed on your device and ask for a new password to be sent to your email.

Once the money is transferred from one bank to another or even to another country, through so-called mule accounts and networks, it becomes very difficult to recover it, according to the company.

The director of LexisNexis says that companies have invested in monitoring and creating various barriers to identity verification, sometimes increasing costs and disrupting the user experience in search of more security. “The main concern is identity verification. How do you know who is on the other end,” he says.

Companies also seek to find actions that deviate from the pattern of a given user, through artificial intelligence, for example.

He says education is also critical, especially for new digital users, to make them aware of the risks of clicking on links in emails and SMS messages.

Another survey by the company ClearSale shows that Brazilian e-commerce suffered almost 785 thousand fraud attempts in the first quarter of 2022 alone, an increase of 23.6% compared to the same period in 2021. % of total orders in digital retail.

“The greater the flow of users in e-commerce, the greater the number of fraudsters trying to apply scams and exploit the inexperience of market entrants”, says Rodrigo Sanchez, Chief Commercial Officer of ClearSale.

“The low percentage of potentially fraudulent orders shows a greater maturity of people and companies in relation to cybersecurity, as digital purchases increasingly become a daily habit.”

MAIN PIX CHANGES

How was

• Limits: Same as TED at any time
• Suspicious transactions: the bank could not withhold any transactions and the settlement had to be done on time
• Limit increase request: each bank had a policy
• Account registration: not allowed

how is it

• Limits: standard of R$ 1,000 between 8 pm and 6 am, which can be modified by the customer; measure also applies to TED and transfer on WhatsApp
• Suspicious trades: The bank may hold a suspicious trade on Pix for 30 minutes during the day or 60 minutes at night for risk analysis
• Limit increase request: the bank must fulfill the request between 24 hours and 48 hours after the request
• Account registration: the customer can register accounts in advance on Pix to carry out transactions above the established limit, but maintaining the value for other operations; registration on a digital channel must be done 24 hours before