The rate of fraud in electronic payments remained low in Portugal in 2024, despite a slight increase, according to the latest data from the Banco de Portugal (BdP).
What are the most common kinds of fraud? As reported by DECO PROTeste, referencing BdP data, the most prevalent frauds are:
- Sending SMS, messages in chat applications like WhatsApp, and phone calls with offers of employment or high-return investments;
- Issuance of payment orders in favor of the perpetrator – usually through communications in the name of the victim’s bank. This type of fraud often occurs following the installation of malware on the victim’s devices;
- Urgent payments for services, through the generation of fraudulent payment references, a method that increased after the decline of the “Hello dad, hello mom” fraud scheme.
“Regarding different payment instruments, in the first half of 2024, direct debits recorded the lowest fraud rate, with only 0.4 fraudulent operations per million transactions,” stated the consumer protection organization.
Additionally, “in comparison, credit transfers experienced 16 fraudulent operations per million, and cards had 129. Nevertheless, in card operations where strong authentication was applied, the fraud rate remained significantly lower than in operations without this additional layer of security.”
