Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul: a workshop owner paid about R$28,000 by Pix for a car after messages and voice notes in his brother's AI-cloned voice 'confirmed' the vehicle; a second family avoided the same fraud by checking directly with their daughter

G1 MS and TV Morena reported on 19 September 2026 that criminals in Mato Grosso do Sul are using AI voice cloning to deceive people during false vehicle negotiations, with two cases. In the first, the workshop owner found a car advertised at a market-compatible price; the supposed seller said he was in Ponta Porã, where the businessman was born and still has family, so he passed his brother's contact for an in-person check. From that moment the criminals impersonated the brother: 'Entraram em contato comigo como se fosse o meu irmão, falando que já viu o carro, mandou vídeo e que estava tudo certo.' Believing he was talking to his relative, he made a Pix of about R$28,000; the criminals then blocked contact. He said that even alert to current scams he believed them because they approached him as a family member. Guided by his wife he contested the transfer through the Central Bank's MED and, after nearly three hours, an in-person registration and a police report, recovered about 20 percent. In the second case, a medical student in Campo Grande had arranged an inspection at a trusted workshop for an HB20 her mother in Dourados wanted to buy from a man claiming to be an army colonel; before the appointment the mother received messages, an audio and a video from someone posing as the student, saying she was at the workshop, had inspected the car and the mechanic had approved it, and authorising the Pix. The scammer used real details about the workshop and the mechanic; the mother checked directly with her daughter and found she was not there and that the audio had been generated by AI. A digital-law lawyer quoted by G1 said the fraud rests on social engineering with public social-media data and that AI multiplies its credibility. G1 published two images of the cloned audio messages (one credited to a personal archive, one a screen reproduction).

The workshop owner lost about R$28,000 in a Pix transfer made after voice notes and messages in his brother's AI-cloned voice 'confirmed' the car purchase, recovering about a fifth through the bank's return mechanism (his account to G1 MS and TV Morena).

The victim registered a police report (boletim de ocorrência); no opened investigation is reported and contested the Pix through the Central Bank's Mecanismo Especial de Devolução, recovering about 20 percent of the amount after nearly three hours of bank attendance (G1 MS). A prosecutor of the Mato Grosso do Sul Public Ministry's information-security research centre said no identical voice-cloning case had yet been catalogued and recommended that even attempted frauds be reported. G1 said the Civil Police had not replied to its questions by publication. No arrest or later development was found.