🛁 Fraud and money laundering in Brazil🇧🇷: volumes, methods and countermeasures

🛁 Fraud and money laundering in Brazil🇧🇷: volumes, methods and countermeasures

Between March 2025 and February 2026, 34.5 billion digital fraud attempts were recorded in Brazil. According to a study by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), 16.5 million people fell victim to fraud, with WhatsApp, Gmail, and Instagram among the most frequently used channels.

⬇️ Main fraud methods: according to the estimates, 81% of Brazilians were exposed to some form of fraud during the period, while 34% of victims lost money more than once, a phenomenon described as a persistent vulnerability cycle. Online shopping fraud was the most common type, accounting for 22% of cases. Promises of unexpected money and fake job offers followed, with 17% of respondents mentioning each category.

⬇️ Scale of losses: the average loss per victim amounted to USD 249.42, while total losses reached USD 4.108 billion. These proceeds may subsequently be laundered to conceal their illicit origin.

⬇️ Methods most commonly used:

🔤 Use of intermediary accounts: this involves splitting large sums into multiple smaller deposits or transactions, often in an attempt to remain below certain monitoring or reporting thresholds.

🔤 Third-party accounts: an account holder provides their CPF (Brazilian taxpayer identification number) in exchange for a small payment, often without knowing how or why their account will be used. In a typical laundering scheme, funds may pass through three or four different accounts. In Brazil, these may include bank accounts used for Pix transactions, which can be used temporarily and subsequently closed.

🔤 Use of businesses to disguise illicit funds: restaurants, laundromats, and parking facilities may be exploited because they handle significant amounts of cash, making it more difficult to determine their actual sales volumes. In the digital environment, similar techniques may also be used through betting platforms and e-commerce, where transactions can be used to give illicit funds the appearance of legitimate business revenue.

⬇️ Regulation:

🔤 Law No. 9,613/1998 establishes money laundering as a criminal offense in Brazil and sets out prevention and reporting obligations for entities subject to the country's anti-money-laundering framework.

🔤 Brazil's Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) receives reports of suspicious transactions, analyzes patterns that may indicate money laundering, and shares financial intelligence with the competent authorities to support investigations.

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