Retail suffered an attempted fraud every 2 minutes in 2025, with a high of 4.1%, says Serasa Experian

At a time when global retail accelerates the application of artificial intelligence to redesign its operating architecture - widely discussed move at NRF 2026 - fraud risks also escalate in volume and sophistication. According to the Serasa Expert Fraud Attempt Indicator, the first and largest datatech in Brazil, the retail sector recorded 195,217 fraud attempts between January and September 2025, up 4.1% from the same period in 2024.

The reading of the indicator reflects a structural change in the sector: AI ceases to act only as an experience layer and starts to operate increasingly autonomous decisions throughout the purchase journey.This new model increases efficiency and reduces friction, but also creates a more complex risk perimeter, in which automated processes, more fluid journeys and real-time decisions require a robust infrastructure of trust and identity. For the Director of Authentication and Fraud Prevention of Serasa Experian, Rodrigo Sanchez, as AI agents gain autonomy and scale in retail, identity is consolidated as a strategic asset to sustain innovation with security.

“When artificial intelligence starts to operate decisions in an increasingly autonomous way, trust ceases to be a competitive differential and becomes infrastructure. Therefore, investing in authentication and fraud prevention solutions, which ensure that the consumer is, in fact, himself, is fundamental not only to protect the operation, but also to reduce losses and rework, preserving the experience of those who buy. In the end, when identity is treated with rigor and intelligence, retail gains efficiency: AI operates with more intact data, the business sustains innovation and the consumer advances with more security”, says Sanchez.

In addition to the volume already counted until September, Serasa Experian estimates that 2025 has ended surpassing 250 thousand retail fraud attempts.In the cutout analyzed, the average frequency was one attempt every two minutes, reinforcing that as retail reduces friction to sell more, fraudsters try to reduce friction to attack more.

Simpler checkout with authentication can unlock revenue without giving up security

A recent finding helps to scale the challenge of balancing conversion and protection: a study by Serasa Experian points out that Brazilian digital retail can recover up to R$ 4.6 billion per year by reducing repetitive steps and adopting simplified authentication and checkout, supported on a reliable basis to ensure consumer identity. According to datatech, the use of a reusable and previously verified digital identity, as in the case of Serasa Pass, can contribute to a more efficient and secure journey.

Serasa Pass is a verification ecosystem that gathers, in a protected way, previously validated authentication and payment information. The analysis indicates that this model can increase in 20% the chances of the consumer not abandoning the purchase and reduce by about 86% the onboarding/checkout time.