Bank of Portugal estimates that payee confirmation prevented €6.5 million in fraud
Since May 2024, payee confirmation services have blocked €6.5 million in banking fraud, according to the Bank of Portugal.
Bank of Portugal's anti-fraud mechanisms block €6.5 million in two years
Payee confirmation services for bank transfers prevented €6.5 million in fraud since May 2024, according to an estimate released by the Bank of Portugal. According to RTP, the data was presented by the governor of the central bank, Álvaro Santos Pereira, at a conference held today in Lisbon.
Santos Pereira was speaking at the opening of the event "Digital Fraud: detecting, responding and preventing", which took place at the Museum of Money. The €6.5 million relates to two years of operation of three features launched by the institution: payee confirmation, the SPIN system and the payee verification service.
The three features
The first feature became available in May 2024 and allows customers to see the name of the recipient at the moment they enter the IBAN, before authorising the transfer. In June of the same year, SPIN was launched, which facilitates the initiation of transfers via mobile phone number or tax identification number. The payee verification service was added in October 2025.
The three tools are provided by the central bank to banks and other payment service providers, which then make them available to customers.
Fraud involving manipulation of the payer falls by 21%
Santos Pereira highlighted that fraud in which scammers manipulate payers of transfers fell by 21% in the first five months of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024, when payee confirmation did not yet exist.
The impact is even more visible over a longer perspective: fraud involving manipulation of the payer — such as messages of the type "Hello, Dad" or "Hello, Mum" — represented 60% of fraudulent transfers in 2023. In 2025, that ratio dropped to 16%.
"Since its availability, the weight of payer manipulation in transfer fraud has been declining significantly", said the governor, emphasising that Portugal is showing a "downward trajectory" in fraud, contrary to the trend observed in the European Union.
Overall fraud figures in Portugal
Santos Pereira also presented broader data on the fraud landscape in the country. In the first half of 2025, there were four fraudulent direct debits per million transactions, ten fraudulent transfers per million and 66 occurrences per million card transactions.
"Between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2025, there was a decrease in fraud in transfers and card transactions", he added, considering that this development "results from a continued effort by the Bank of Portugal, other financial supervisors, financial institutions and public authorities".
Spoofing remains beyond the reach of the mechanisms
The governor warned that the confirmation mechanisms are not effective when citizens are contacted by telephone by someone spoofing an origin number — the technique known as spoofing — making it appear that the call comes from an official number.
Santos Pereira argued for the necessity of Portugal legislating on the fight against spoofing, recalling that the country is the only one in the European Union that has not yet done so.
New digital fraud monitoring platform
At the same conference, the governor announced the launch of a digital fraud monitoring platform in Portugal. The initiative brings together payment operators, communications operators, criminal investigation and justice authorities, with the aim of coordinating the response to the phenomenon at national level.
Source: RTP