Brazil identity fraud attempts rise 32.9%

Serasa Experian logged 2.86 million fraud attempts in registration and identity verification processes in Brazil from January to June 2026, a 32.9% increase from the same period in 2025. Financial services accounted for 61.1% of the attempts, and payment services for 42.6%. The company also described the "sósia" scam, which relies on facial comparisons to find people with up to 99% similarity and trick biometric systems.

How does the sósia scam work?

The scheme uses facial comparison engines to locate people who look very similar and exploit that resemblance to bypass biometric checks, according to Serasa Experian. The company said those systems can identify matches of up to 99%.

That figure sits within a broader picture of fraud that combines identity theft, remote verification and access to sensitive financial channels. The concentration of attempts in banks, fintechs and payment services shows that the main target remains access to services where impersonation can open the door to money transfers or account openings.

What do the other cases cited for Brazil show?

Computer Weekly Brazil reported that the use of synthetic content in fraud in Brazil rose 830% between 2024 and 2025, and that the country accounted for 39% of Latin America's deepfake cases in 2025. In the same coverage, the publication attributed losses of R$ 1.8 billion to AI-driven scams against banks and financial infrastructure between July 2025 and April 2026.

Those figures point to a jump in both the sophistication of the attacks and their economic impact on the financial system. The Computer Weekly Brazil report places deepfakes and synthetic content at the center of fraud that no longer depends only on credential theft or classic social engineering.

What does the banking malware found add?

Researchers identified a previously undocumented Brazilian banking trojan called TCLBANKER, capable of targeting 59 banking, fintech and cryptocurrency platforms. The finding, cited by The Hacker News, broadens the threat map facing Brazil's financial ecosystem from several directions.

The overlap across these three fronts, fraud attempts in new account openings, facial biometrics exposed to synthetic content, and banking malware with reach across dozens of platforms, shows that the problem now cuts across multiple layers of the system. In Brazil, pressure on the digital channels of banks, payment providers and crypto services is now backed by different but converging cases, figures and attack tools.