More sales, more scams: how merchants and consumers can protect themselves on Mother's Day

According to the Identity and Fraud Report51% of Brazilians suffered attempted scams in 2024. By itself, this is already a terrifying number, but for those who buy and sell online, the situation can be even more complicated. Axur cybercrime is a 26-fold increase in credit and debit card exposure, and 13x more credentials leaked last year, compared to 2023.

It is common for seasonal dates with greater movement of commerce, such as Mother's Day, to cause fraud peaks, which requires increased attention from both consumers and retailers. Adilson Neves, Commercial Director of fintech digital payment solutions Paytime, remember that stores are the ones who deal with the scams: “When working with online sales, it is necessary to ensure the security of customer data. If a criminal makes a purchase using this data, the responsibility may fall on the store, especially in cases of chargeback, when the true cardholder disputes the purchase and the amount is reversed, generating direct damage to the store owner”.

Thus, Adilson highlights some important recommendations for those who work with e-commerce. The first is to work with robust and reliable payment systems, with updated security services, and with companies that offer fraud prevention systems, or double authentication such as 3DS. This greatly reduces the risk of not actually being the cardholder making the purchase. In addition, a good fraud prevention system can identify the possibility of the card being cloned, analyze behavior patterns and avoid a blow to the merchant and the consumer.

For example, it may be that a website consistently makes sales for an average value of R$ 50 and someone tries to make a purchase of a thousand. The system understands that the order has suspicious behavior, based on a real-time risk analysis that considers purchase history, location, time and other behavioral factors”, explains the director.

Another increasingly popular and safe option for online sales is the use of the payment link, especially for those who transact through social networks such as Instagram or WhatsApp.

And for customers, how to protect yourself? “There are several precautions to be taken during purchases, especially with the high flow of promotions and information on Mother's Day. You need to check carefully which site, where the links came from, and if the store history is reliable”, recommends Adilson. He indicates the use of the page siteconfiavel.com.br to do this kind of verification.

It is also critical to keep an eye on phishing attempts, a type of scam in which criminals try to trick and convince consumers to reveal their sensitive data Kaspersky, in 2024, more than 893 million phishing attempts were registered in the world 26% increase from the previous year. Brazil remains among the countries with the highest volume of attacks, especially on seasonal dates such as Mother's Day, when the volume of online transactions skyrocketed. And, according to the Axur report, this is the most common fraud modality in e-commerce: only in 2024, the volume of phishing pages doubled, reaching 72,455. Attacks can be simple or sophisticated, with the use of SMS messages, believing in the public products that even the public.

“It is essential that consumers redouble their attention with links received by SMS, email or WhatsApp, because scammers take advantage of the rush and volume of offers to deceive people”, warns Adilson. “It is important to check the authenticity of the sites, look for security seals, and avoid clicking on unknown links, even if they seem to be from trusted stores. Finally, consider using more the credit card, rather than Pix and debit, since, in the first case, there is the greater possibility of opening a dispute if the consumer identifies a suspicion, in addition, the credit card usually offers protection programs to the buyer and bank intermediation, which facilitates the professional recovery of fraud.