Mexico and Colombia warn of digital fraud

Buró de Crédito ranked identity theft as the top cyber threat for Mexicans, with 42% of responses, ahead of credit card fraud and data leaks, according to Expansión. At the same time, CONDUSEF warned about rising financial scams through SMS and WhatsApp in Jalisco, and Banco de Bogotá cautioned about calls that imitate official numbers to steal passwords and data.

What is growing in Mexico?

Mexico is seeing signs of a more diversified fraud wave, with 35,762 complaints of possible financial fraud between January and May 2026, according to a report cited by Fast Company México. That same review showed year-over-year increases in multiple banking, SOFIPOs and SOFOMES, while BioCatch reported that banking fraud attempts rose 35% and that mobile devices accounted for 90% of fraudulent sessions in an analysis of more than 370 financial institutions.

CONDUSEF's warning in Jalisco focused on messages designed to get users to click links, share personal information or contact the scammers. The pattern matches what Diario Panorama described as a mix of identity spoofing, fake benefits, deceptive messages, phone calls, fake websites and content generated with artificial intelligence to imitate public figures.

What is happening in Colombia and what techniques are appearing?

In Colombia, Asobancaria reported, according to DPL News, that there are 997 financial data thefts, 63 identity theft cases and 94 cyberattacks per second against banking entities each day. Added to that is the prosecution of three people for alleged computer fraud that reportedly affected clients of a banking institution and generated irregular transactions worth more than 870 million pesos, according to Publimetro Colombia.

Banco de Bogotá, for its part, warned about vishing, a technique that uses calls mimicking official numbers to obtain passwords, security codes or personal information. The trend is not isolated. DPL News also said Colombia is seeing a new generation of AI agents capable of fraud, in a context where automation is starting to speed up campaigns and refine deception attempts.

What other tactics are spreading across the region?

Chile and Argentina added warnings about tactics that target control of the mobile phone and access to accounts. T13 described SIM swapping, where criminals leave the phone without signal in an attempt to access the victim's accounts, while BioBioChile reported, with unconfirmed attribution, that Subtel may have received 700 complaints about unrecognized number porting during 2026, possibly linked to that method.

In Argentina, La Nación said Ualá recommends remotely locking the device and reporting the line to the telecom company after a phone theft. In Brazil, G1 explained that if a victim detects an unrecognized PIX transaction after an AI-driven scam, they should dispute the operation immediately through the bank's app or official channel and request the Special Return Mechanism.

How is artificial intelligence entering these scams?

AI is being used to automate campaigns, generate fraudulent content, find vulnerabilities and tailor messages to each victim, according to Clarín, which cited the BTR Consulting Cybercrime First Half 2026 report. That report mentioned WhatsApp account takeovers, bank impersonation and hyper-personalized phishing, smishing and vishing campaigns.

Fintech Global added that the fraud-as-a-service model is expanding with synthetic identities, forged documents, deepfake material and more personalized phishing messages. In the same vein, a corporate article from Topaz, citing Serasa Experian's Fraud Map, said Brazil recorded 2,860,957 identity fraud attempts in the first half of 2026, a year-over-year increase of 32.9% and one case every 5.5 seconds, although that figure requires review of the original report before being published as final.