Sophisticated Identity Fraud Surges to 50% of Attacks in Latin America, New Unico & Liminal Intelligence Report Reveals

Unico, the leading identity verification network in Latin America, in partnership with actionable intelligence firm Liminal, today released its Identity Fraud Intelligence Report: Trends and Insights. The findings mark a critical shift in the threat landscape: identity fraud has evolved from isolated attacks into highly coordinated, economically rational network operations powered by generative AI.

According to market intelligence from Liminal’s April 2026 Global Fraud and Risk Outlook, global financial institution fraud losses are projected to surge over 120% by 2030—jumping from $25 billion in 2025 to $55.3 billion by decade’s end. Data collected across Unico’s network between June 2025 and April 2026 corroborates this forecast, signaling an unprecedented leap in attack sophistication.

The barrier to entry for advanced fraud has effectively collapsed. Driven by the commercialization of low-cost, subscription-based generative AI tools, the cost to execute advanced attacks has dropped more than a hundredfold. As a result, nearly 90% of fraud prevention leaders cite synthetic content—such as manipulated documentation and bot-driven impersonation—as a top operational threat.

Unico's network intelligence exposed a single fraud actor using 949 distinct identities to target 30 separate companies, underscoring the persistent, syndicate-style nature of modern attacks.

The joint report establishes Latin America as the global epicenter for synthetic identity fraud. The region accounts for 48.3% of all registered cases—more than double the global average of 23%. Within Brazil, fraud alerts are heavily concentrated in high-volume digital hubs. São Paulo leads with 22% of national occurrences—outpacing the entire Southern region combined—followed by the Northeast region at 11.5%.

"Brazil serves as the primary proving ground for the global shift in identity fraud. While our advanced ecosystem—driven by Open Finance adoption and LGPD compliance—enables rapid digital growth, that same scale attracts massive attacks, including 500,000 blocked deepfake attempts," said Fernanda Beato, General Manager of Unico Brazil. "For financial leaders, identity verification is no longer a passive compliance checkbox. It is a strategic security pillar where connected defense directly protects revenue and brand trust."

The Mechanics of Advanced Fraud

Attack sophistication is accelerating across multiple vectors. Intermediate-level attacks (e.g., simple digital/video injection stream manipulation) account for 45.8% of total volume. Advanced attacks combining multiple vectors—such as deepfakes and complex physical tampering—make up 23.3% globally, but jump to nearly 50% within Latin America.

When successful, these breaches inflict severe financial damage. According to IRONSCALES’ Deepfake Impact Survey, intermediate attacks cost organizations over $280,000 on average, with nearly 20% exceeding $500,000. Global financial fraud losses now exceed $400 billion annually, according to TechRadar analysis.

In 2025, Unico processed over 1.5 billion identity authentications, achieving a record-high 99.98% accuracy rate. This performance was driven by scaled deployment of multi-layer liveness detection, analyzing biometrics, behavioral signals, thermal factors, and device telemetry. Unico's liveness technology maintains a 0% False Acceptance Rate (FAR), completely neutralizing presentation attacks.

Access the full report here: https://bit.ly/Identity-fraud-intelligence-report-pr-br

About Unico
Unico is the leading identity verification company in Latin America, delivering cutting-edge technology to major brands across 23 economic sectors. With sustainable growth of over 30% year-over-year, the company processes more than 3 billion annual authentications on its global platform, powered by a proprietary liveness engine and advanced artificial intelligence models.

As the largest provider of security solutions for public and private banks in Brazil and Argentina, Unico operates in more than 20 countries, with offices located in Brazil, the US (Silicon Valley), Mexico, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and Portugal. Founded in Brazil in 2007, it became a unicorn in 2021 and reached a $2.6 billion valuation in investment rounds led by prestigious global funds such as SoftBank, General Atlantic, and Goldman Sachs. For more information, visit www.unico.io. 

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