Hackers Opened 500,000 Fake Accounts with Leaked Emails in Brazil, Says Study
Taking advantage of frequent database exposures, hackers created 500,000 fake accounts with leaked emails in Brazil in 2021, the year in which the country recorded 3.7 online fraud attempts per minute. As personal information about payments, password changes and registration confirmations reside in emails, fraudsters are able to use them to create new accesses or recover existing ones, putting the user's privacy and finances at risk. The data are part of a study prepared by AllowMe, a company specialized in protecting digital identities. The survey, entitled Device Fraud Scan 2022, analyzed 155.6 million interactions of Brazilian users with applications and websites from different sectors to understand the behavior of a fraudster on the internet. Analysis identified account theft as the main online fraud practiced in Brazil last year.