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Scams in Brazil in numbers · Taken number or account

Cloned number: when the scammer talks as if they were you

The scammer gets the login code of your messaging app, or clones your number, and starts asking your contacts for money. People trust it, because the message comes from a saved contact.

The numbers

8.7%

had their number used by someone else to scam people (about 14.7 million people)

Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 · Source: Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública e Datafolha

R$ 815

was the mean loss of people whose number someone else used to scam people

Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 · Source: Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública e Datafolha

7.0%

had a social media or messaging profile taken over by someone else

Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 · Source: Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública e Datafolha

11.4%

had someone pose as them online

Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 · Source: Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública e Datafolha

How it works

  1. Someone contacts you saying they are from a shop, a marketplace or a survey and asks for the code that just arrived by SMS.
  2. With that code, the scammer signs in to your account on another phone. In another version, they move your number to their own SIM card.
  3. You lose access, and they start writing to your contacts and groups as if they were you.
  4. They ask for a Pix in a rush, from many people at once.

How to spot it

  • An SMS code arrived that you did not ask for.
  • Someone asks for that code by message or call.
  • Your messaging app signed out on its own, or your SIM card stopped working out of nowhere.
  • Friends say you asked them for money, and it was not you.

What to do

  • Do not give the SMS code to anyone, not even someone who says they are from the app.
  • Turn on two-step verification in your messaging app.
  • Lost the account? Tell your contacts another way and ask them not to send money.
  • If your SIM card stopped working out of nowhere, call your carrier at once. Then file a police report.

Where these numbers come from

Researched on 12 October 2026. We only use numbers that have a source. Surveys by a company or a private association are marked as such.