Deepfake video of Brazilian finance minister used in bank account scam
Scammers used artificial intelligence to create a deepfake video impersonating Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, directing victims to a fake government website to steal login credentials and charge fraudulent fees for accessing forgotten bank deposits. The Federal Government issued an alert about the scheme on October 22, 2024.
What happened
Scammers created a deepfake video using artificial intelligence to simulate Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, instructing people to click a suspicious link to check forgotten money in bank accounts.
The fake link directed users to a website that mimicked official Federal Government pages and requested Gov.br platform login and password credentials. The malicious system then charged a fee to release supposedly forgotten bank deposits.
Reported impact
Scammers could obtain personal data including CPF and Gov.br passwords, allowing them to misuse this information. The fraudulent fee itself constitutes criminal conduct.
The scheme capitalised on the Federal Government's free Sistema de Valores a Receber (SVR) program, which allows Brazilians to retrieve forgotten bank deposits without charge. Fake news and scams around SVR increased after the government set a deadline for claiming forgotten funds.
Governance controls
The Secom of Palácio do Planalto issued a public alert warning about the deepfake scam. The government advised that Federal Government does not host sites and systems using foreign domain extensions, and warned people to verify that official links end in '.br'.
The Banco Central's SVR service is free and charges no fees for access to forgotten deposits. Users can safely consult the Banco Central website using their CPF to check for forgotten bank account balances.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.