Electrical energy losses, chiefly, commercial losses, constitute an important and complex problem for energy distribution companies worldwide. However, only in developing countries the problem becomes acute because theft losses are large, and coupled with social, legal, political and cultural issues. This explains why Brazilian energy distribution companies dedicate sizable investments for mitigating the problem, and stresses the importance of a theme still largely unexplored in the technical-scientific literature. This thesis, of exploratory nature, addresses the problem and assesses the effectiveness of technological solutions by investigating the case of a recent project developed in a Brazilian company. At the time of the research, the company was implementing a new and original technology, whose main objective was to identify pilfering clients, and later on, to make the billing process more automated. The study started with some questions judged more relevant, including: How large was the gain yielded by the new technology? How does the energy consumption behave after the technological change? Is there a correlation between the gain obtained and the areas of lesser purchasing power? Is there a demonstration effect upon neighboring areas? Starting from these questions, series of historical data on measured consumption before and after the new technology were analyzed. The results indicate the feasibility of the technology as an effective shortterm palliative for the problem whose ultimate solution involves the concurrent treatment of the social, legal, political e cultural aspects.