Common money scams in Brazil, and what they cost you

This is the part that makes Brazil different from most guides on this site, so it is worth stating plainly. The US State Department's Brazil advisory says assaults including with sedatives and drugs placed in drinks are common, especially in Rio de Janeiro, and that criminals target foreigners through dating apps or at bars before drugging and robbing them. The local name is boa noite Cinderela, goodnight Cinderella. What follows is your phone, cards and cash going while you are unable to object, and sometimes contactless payments or withdrawals made with your own card. There is a genuine medical risk here as well as a financial one, which is the honest reason to treat it as more than a wallet problem.

The escapes all sit before the drink. Watch your drink being poured, and prefer something opened in front of you. Never accept a drink or food from a stranger, and never leave one unattended and come back to it. The advisory's own list adds two more that are easy to underrate: avoid going to bars or nightclubs alone, and be alert to date drug scams, since the dating-app route is named explicitly. Tell someone at home who you are meeting and where. And if a night does go wrong, the same advisory is blunt about the priority: do not physically resist a robbery attempt.

US security reporting describes the sequestro relampago plainly: kidnappers take ATM users at gunpoint to several machines to withdraw cash. The newer version matters more for your money, because it is faster and harder to undo. Criminals now force victims to open their banking app and transfer funds, primarily through Pix, Brazil's instant payment system. A Pix transfer settles in seconds and is not a card charge you can dispute later. Brazilians are the most frequent targets, but foreigners are vulnerable too.

In practice this reaches tourists through transport and through ATMs. Use Uber and 99 as the default, since the driver, car and route are tracked and the fare is set in advance, and never accept a ride from someone approaching you in a terminal. From the airport, use an app from the designated pickup area or the official prepaid taxi desk. The Brazil taxis and apps guide has the detail. US government employees are advised not to use municipal buses at all because of robbery risk, which is a useful signal for how to treat them. One more, worth knowing even though tourists rarely have Pix: it needs a local tax ID, so most visitors cannot use it, which quietly removes that exposure.

Two things meet at the cash machine. The first is ordinary card cloning and skimming, which is common in Brazil, so use ATMs inside bank branches or shopping malls, cover the keypad, keep your card in sight when you pay, and skip standalone street machines, especially after dark. Foreign-card withdrawal limits are low anyway, often 800 to 1,000 reais and lower at night.

The second is a single piece of preparation that is unusually good, and it comes straight from US security reporting: limit the number of bank and credit cards in your wallet, because that reduces both the potential loss and, pointedly, the duration of an incident. So carry one card and a little cash for the day, and leave the rest in the hotel safe. Lower your daily withdrawal limit with your bank before you fly for the same reason. It costs nothing and it caps the worst case in advance. If your phone is your bank, a lock screen and app-level authentication are doing more work here than you might think, and the advisory also notes phone snatching is bold and frequent, so keep it in a pocket rather than your hand.

Over a two-week trip, the quiet legal costs beat everything else on this page, and nobody warns you about them because nothing improper is happening. Brazil applies the IOF tax to foreign card transactions at around 4.38 percent. Separately, Bradesco ATMs have been reported adding a steep conversion markup of roughly 9.5 percent, so choose a different bank's machine. And on every terminal and ATM, choose reais rather than dollars, since the dollar option layers a marked-up rate on top of everything else. The mechanics are in the Brazil cash and cards guide.

Two more to plan for. Restaurants add a 10 percent service charge, the servico, so a tip is largely built in and you do not need to add more, which the Brazil tipping guide covers. And the e-visa is now required for US citizens and costs a fixed 80.90 dollars from the official government portal only, so any site quoting more is a middleman; see the Brazil entry and visa guide. On islands and in small beach towns, ATMs are unreliable and card machines lose signal, so carry enough cash before you go.

Vigilance is not the tool here, because you cannot watch a wallet carefully enough to beat a drink you did not see poured. So the list is short and every item is a decision made in advance: watch your drink being poured and never accept one from a stranger, use Uber or 99 rather than a street taxi, withdraw inside bank branches and malls, carry one card rather than your whole wallet, and lower your daily withdrawal cap before you fly. Then behave normally, because most of Brazil most of the time is exactly the country you came to see.

If something happens: emergency police are 190, and tourist police units, the DEAT in Rio and Delegacia do Turista elsewhere, exist specifically for foreigners and are used to handling reports in English. File the report even if you expect nothing back, since your insurer will want it, and call your card issuer immediately to freeze the account. For getting and spending money well while you are there, see the Brazil cash and cards guide and the Brazil cost guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Brazil

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Taxis in Brazil, and the apps to useIn Brazil, the ride apps are not just cheaper than street taxis, they are the safer choice, which is why locals lean on them. Install Uber and 99, and here is how to use them and leave the airport smoothly.
• Tipping in BrazilIn Brazil, a 10% service charge is usually already on your restaurant bill, so a tip is largely built in. Here is what you actually owe, and where a little extra makes sense.
• Do US citizens need a visa for Brazil?Short answer: yes, and it caught a lot of people out. Brazil brought back a visa for Americans in 2025, it is online only, and there is one official site. Here is the cost, the timing, and how not to overpay.
• Do I need cash in Brazil, or can I use cards?Short answer: cards cover most of a city trip, and you need less cash than you would think. The wrinkles are Brazilian: Pix has taken over informal payments but tourists mostly cannot use it, and foreign cards carry a local tax. Here is how to pay well.
• Staying connected in Brazil.Almost everything written online about Brazilian SIM cards says a tourist cannot buy one without a CPF tax number. That was a real obstacle once. It is now out of date, and correcting it happens to make our own eSIM look less necessary.
• What does getting sick in Brazil cost a visitor?Brazil is one of the most reassuring pages on this site, and we are going to say so plainly: Brazil's public system treats anyone in an emergency, tourists included, without a bill at the door. The money question here is not whether you will be treated. It is whether you choose the private tier, and who pays for a flight home.