The risks of fraud do not end after major retail dates, such as Father’s Day or Black Friday — fertile periods for cyber-attacks and digital scams. On the contrary, a growing trend is the increase in fraudulent activities in the months following these commercial events. According to Nethone, a digital fraud detection solution in 2025, suspicious fraud attempts remained above 400 million in January and February, indicating that fraudsters continue to target users even when the volume of returns, refunds, and claims is at its peak — making detection even more challenging.
From April to July, fraud attempts exceeded 500 million, demonstrating that the risk is no longer only tied to traditional shopping seasons but to opportunistic attacks during promotional cycles. These “invisible peaks” pose a challenge for retail, revealing that anti-fraud platforms and systems need to act with the same intensity even after events and throughout the year.
Furthermore, with the increasing adoption of global events like 8.8, 9.9, 10.10, Prime Day, and other international flash promotions, the Brazilian e-commerce calendar has become increasingly fragmented and distributed, creating multiple sales spikes that attract more attacks.
Among the most common crimes are chargeback fraud, in which stolen credit card data is used to make online purchases; the creation of fake accounts to take advantage of coupons and promotions improperly; and social engineering scams, where criminals impersonate company representatives to steal sensitive data or even money. The use of bots is also on the rise, carrying out automated attacks on login, registration, and payment processes. With the support of AI tools and stolen data, these methods are becoming more sophisticated, making it even more difficult to identify criminals, especially during periods of high operational demand.
“Fraudsters adapt and create their own calendar, intensifying their actions with each new high-traffic opportunity, whether global or local. This shows that companies need to adopt a strategy of continuous prevention, aligned with every marketing and sales initiative and not just reinforce defenses during classic events of the year, such as Black Friday or Christmas,” explains Thiago Bertacchini, Sales Head and fraud detection expert at Nethone.
To mitigate risks, companies should combine advanced fraud detection technologies with well-structured internal policies. Machine learning solutions and behavioral analysis allow for the identification of suspicious patterns in real-time, reducing false positives, and blocking attempts. It is essential to strengthen authentication processes, review payment flows, and implement additional verifications on high-value transactions or newly created accounts. In addition, continuous team training and regularly updated security protocols ensure higher resilience against attacks. Another important measure is clear communication with customers about best practices — such as avoiding sharing sensitive information and verifying the legitimacy of contacts — to complement the company’s prevention efforts.
In this scenario, solutions that offer accurate AI models without the need for manual review, analyzing user and device signals in each transaction, become essential. Technology must adapt to the specifics of each operation, trained with labeled historical data and continuous feedback, to prevent losses throughout the year and during every sales peak.
