Every hour, more than 4,600 people in Brazil are targeted by attempted financial scams through messaging apps or phone calls, usually with criminals posing as bank employees.

In the same period, about 2,500 people pay for products online that end up not being delivered, and another 1,680 victims have their cell phones stolen or robbed in the country.

The numbers were estimated by Datafolha and the Brazilian Public Security Forum, based on a survey of 2,508 respondents across all regions of the country.

"A quarter of the population aged 16 or older in Brazil has experienced this phenomenon of attempted scams," says the president of the Forum, Renato Sérgio de Lima.

The calculation takes into account the proportion of people who report having been victims of property crimes over a 12-month period and the total population size.