Brazil Fraud Trends: Pix Scams, Pension Theft and 2.26m Cases

The headquarters tower of the Central Bank of Brazil in Brasília
File photo: the Central Bank of Brazil in Brasília, which runs the Pix instant-payment system and its scam-refund rules. Photo: Senado Federal via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Scams still risingUpdated 20 October 2026

Trend summary

  • Police across Brazil recorded 2,261,055 fraud (estelionato) cases in 2025, up 2.7% on 2024 and 429.8% above 2018, the first year of the series.
  • Cases recorded as purely electronic fraud rose about 20% in a year, to roughly 347,000. Many states still do not separate them, so the true share is higher.
  • In a March 2026 survey, 15.8% of people aged 16+ (about 26.3 million) said they had been scammed or lost money online or by phone in the past year.
  • The Central Bank has tightened Pix step by step: night limits (2021), the MED refund mechanism (2021), device limits (2024), MED 2.0 money tracing (2026) and an 80-day dispute window (Sept 2026).
2.26mFraud (estelionato) records, 2025
+429.8%Rise in fraud records since 2018
26.3mPeople scammed online or by phone, 12 months to Mar 2026
R$6.3bnINSS pension deductions under investigation, 2019–2024

What the numbers show

The Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, published each July by the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, counts fraud as police records of estelionato (Penal Code art. 171). The 2026 edition counted 2,261,055 cases in 2025, about 258 an hour, or 1,059.4 per 100,000 people. That is up 2.7% on 2024 and 429.8% on 2018 (FBSP infographic; Brasil 61). The year before, police logged about 2.17 million cases, up 7.8% from about 1.9 million in 2023 (Senate Radio). São Paulo (1,808 per 100,000) and the Federal District (1,717) have the highest rates. Only seven states are above 1,000.

Cases recorded as exclusively electronic fraud rose from about 286,000 to 347,000 between 2024 and 2025 (Revista Oeste, citing FBSP). Banks see the same trend. FEBRABAN members logged 174,000 fake-sale scams in the first half of 2025, up 314% year on year, and 139,000 fake bank-employee or fake call-centre scams, up 195.7%. WhatsApp scams fell 9.9% to 73,000 (FEBRABAN). Pix is the main channel. It handled 79.8 billion transactions worth R$35.3 trillion in 2025, used by 148 million people (Central Bank Pix report).

What is driving it

Most of today’s fraud is social engineering, not hacking. A credit-data firm counted over 9 million fraud indicators in the first half of 2026. About 40% involved social engineering, 78% came through a mobile phone and 85% were paid by Pix (Agência Brasil). Mule accounts move stolen money on fast, so the Central Bank’s MED 2.0 now traces funds across accounts and can block suspicious amounts for up to 11 days (Agência Brasil). Lei 14.155/2021 raised penalties for electronic fraud to 4–8 years in prison (Planalto). Even so, the FBSP says only 2.8% of cases reach the courts.

The other big story is fraud through official systems. In April 2025 the Federal Police and the CGU (Comptroller General) launched Operação Sem Desconto. It targeted associations that took membership fees straight from INSS pensions. Investigators estimate R$6.3 billion was deducted from 2019 to 2024, and about 1 million complaints arrived between January 2023 and May 2024 (Agência Brasil). By February 2026, 4.2 million beneficiaries had been refunded about R$2.9 billion (Senate Radio).

Recent cases

  • 1 September 2026: The Central Bank extended the deadline to request or contest a Pix MED refund from 30 to 80 days, in part to stop scammers who abuse the refund system against small shops (Agência Brasil).
  • 22 August 2026: A study by credit-data firm Quod found over 9 million fraud indicators in the first half of 2026, up 10.26% on the previous six months. About 3.1 million people were victims (Agência Brasil).
  • 28 July 2026: The 2026 Public Security Yearbook reported 2,261,055 fraud records for 2025, about 258 an hour (Brasil 61).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from federal ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Health, INPE, the Federal Highway Police, CENIPA and the Central Bank, from Agência Brasil, the public news agency, and from the Senate and Chamber news services and state governments; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Headlines are our English translations of the Portuguese originals. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

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View 20 years of major Brazilian fraud press releases (2007–2026)62 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

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Many years list fewer than five items, and some have none yet. Older federal releases and the 2007–2013 Agência Brasil archive are hard to reach at their original addresses, and we only list items we could open and check. We are still adding to these lists. Where a page shows no date, the date comes from the release address or the publisher’s own index.

Photo list

A social security (INSS) office in Pau dos Ferros, Rio Grande do Norte
File photo: a social security (INSS) office in Pau dos Ferros, Rio Grande do Norte. Unauthorised deductions from pensions became a national scandal in 2025. Photo: Marcos Elias de Oliveira Júnior via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Federal Police officers carrying evidence bags into their Rio de Janeiro headquarters
File photo: Federal Police officers bring in evidence after an operation in Rio de Janeiro, July 2016. Photo: Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. Brazil’s national death data come from the Ministry of Health mortality system (SIM/DATASUS) and are usually final about two years later, and some topics, such as fires, have no single national count, so we say which year and source each figure covers. Money is given in reais (R$). Headlines and quotes are our translations from Portuguese. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.