Latin America sees rise in digital fraud

A report attributed to Zimperium says 21 mobile malware families are aimed at 68 banking and fintech apps across 12 Latin American countries. The same material says attackers are using accessibility abuse, screen overlays, OTP interception and device takeover to steal credentials and enable fraudulent transfers.

What do regional reports show about digital fraud?

Available data points to a mix of phishing, fraudulent calls, mobile malware and identity impersonation assisted by artificial intelligence. La República, citing TransUnion's latest fraud trends report, said 41% of adults surveyed in Latin America reported being victims of some form of digital fraud attempt, with phishing as the leading scheme. It also said 27% received a call trying to extract information.

On another front, Sovos said artificial intelligence is widening the scope for identity fraud through deepfakes, synthetic identities and other forms of impersonation. The same article said CONDUSEF recorded more than 35,000 complaints over possible financial fraud between January and May 2026.

What techniques are attackers using?

The attacks described combine social engineering with technical manipulation of the victim's device or identity. The material attributed to Zimperium describes abuse of accessibility, screen overlays, OTP capture and device takeover to drain accounts or enable unauthorized transfers. Meanwhile, Marcelo Wong, national chief of cybercrime at Chile's Investigative Police, warned that AI makes phishing messages more believable and lets attackers impersonate people during video calls using manipulated images, audio or video in real time.

Silent4Business, according to articles reproduced by Mexican media, described three AI-driven impersonation methods in financial services: synthetic identities used to pose as customers, manipulated voice or video to mimic executives, and fake sites, domains or profiles that appear to belong to financial institutions. The firm also recommended liveness checks, behavioral analysis and phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, along with verifying sensitive requests through independent channels.

What do the Mexico and Chile data show?

In Mexico, the cited reports point to heavier pressure on the financial system and on users. Código Espagueti reported, based on the Norton LATAM Cybersecurity Landscape Study 2026, that 83% of adults surveyed in Mexico experienced some cyber threat in the previous 12 months and that 20% always enabled two-factor authentication. Infobae Mexico, citing the Facephi Observatory, said Mexico's financial system logged more than 108,000 digital fraud complaints in 2025 and losses above 11.3 billion pesos.

The same outlet also said, citing the Entrust Identity Fraud Report, that deepfakes accounted for one in five biometric fraud attempts. Verafin, for its part, said roughly 8.1 million fraud cases took place in Mexico in 2025, including 4.6 million banking fraud cases and 3.6 million consumer fraud cases, although the result does not clearly identify the primary study or its methodology.

In Chile, the debate focused on how to stop fraud without making the customer experience harder. MadBoxPC linked identity fraud prevention in banking and insurance to the enhanced customer authentication required under Norm 538 from the Financial Market Commission, and described the combined use of facial biometrics, NFC document reading and OCR as verification methods proposed by the cited company.