In debt from money-never-spent: financial fraud and scams in Brazil’s digital economy

The Department of Digital Humanities is delighted to invite Marie Kolling and invite you to join us for a talk + drinks.

Title: In debt from money-never-spent: financial fraud and scams in Brazil’s digital economy

Popularly known in Brazil as golpes financeiros or simply golpes, financial scams and fraud reached an unprecedented level during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. This article investigates struggles over debt derived from golpes in cases of digital credit-money that was intercepted from within a financial institution. The ethnography sheds light on illicit financial practices that occur in the financial sector as it tracks the life of the debt and the victims’ attempts to contest the debt from credit they never spent. Engaging with anthropological literature on fraud and illicit economies, it examines intricate questions of complicity, such as when banks and credit companies uphold repayment of scammed debt and appeal court decisions of debt repayment, that blur the boundaries between fraudsters and financial institutions.

Marie Kolling is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. She has conducted extensive research in Brazil on inequality, debt and digital finance, urban development and housing, and gender and violence. In addition to her research, she contributes to policy development, provides expert analysis for Danish news media and disseminates findings to diverse audiences.