Brazil's scam exposure gap: what practitioners need to act on

TL;DR: Brazil loses more than R$21.2 billion a year to scams and 81% of adults are frequently exposed, according to Feedzai's summary of the GASA report, showing that rules-based, after-the-fact controls are failing in fast-payment environments. Precision prevention now depends on real-time behavioural signals, cross-sector coordination and intervention before a victim authorises the transfer.

Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Feedzai: “Predictive Prevention: How Brazil’s Banks Can Stop Pix Scams Before They Happen”.

Key questions

Q: How should fraud teams stop scams before a customer authorises the transfer?

A: Fraud teams should score the interaction before final authorisation, not after the transaction is complete.

Q: Why do faster payment rails increase fraud risk?

A: Faster rails compress the time between compromise, authorisation, and irreversible settlement.

Q: What breaks when payment fraud controls rely only on the transaction itself?

A: Controls fail when they treat the payment as isolated from the actor behind it.

Practitioner guidance

• Instrument pre-authorisation behavioural checks Score typing cadence, touch behaviour, hesitation and device movement before the payment is finalised so scam coercion can be interrupted in real time.
• Replace batch-only detection with low-latency intervention Move from end-of-day review to streaming signals and immediate decisioning for fast-payment rails where losses occur within seconds.
• Build cross-sector escalation paths Define how banks, telecoms, platforms and public authorities share intelligence on recurring scam patterns, false contacts and repeat infrastructure.

Bottom line: Brazil's scam exposure is widespread enough that transaction-only controls are no longer sufficient for meaningful prevention.

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