Digital fraud rose by up to 206% in Central America and Dominican Republic in 2025
Digital fraud increased between 28% and 206% across Central America and the Dominican Republic during 2025. Social media became the primary attack vector, according to the Fraud Beat 2026 report.
Central America and Dominican Republic record drastic increases in digital fraud during 2025
According to infobae.com, digital fraud in Central America and the Dominican Republic surged between 28% and 206% throughout 2025, substantially exceeding the regional average. The data comes from AppGate's Fraud Beat 2026 report, cited by Bloomberg.
Guatemala leads the increase with year-on-year growth of 206%, followed by Costa Rica with 182% and Nicaragua with 170%. El Salvador recorded the most modest increase in the subregion, at 28%. The Dominican Republic, meanwhile, reported a 63% rise in attacks of this type.
Social media displaces email
The report indicates that social media consolidated itself as the primary origin of attacks, relegating traditional methods such as email. In that environment, scams and identity impersonation represent 86% of detected threats, according to the document cited by Bloomberg.
David López Agudelo, vice president of sales for Latin America at AppGate, explained to Bloomberg that "the sustained increase in phishing together with the unauthorised use of brands as the primary attack vector have been decisive. These incidents are driving a more efficient fraud chain, where identity impersonation facilitates the capture of credentials and subsequently access to accounts for funds extraction".
Finance, retail and government, the most affected sectors
The report identifies the financial sector, retail trade and federal government as the most exposed. 35.5% of attacks target the financial sector, 17.7% target retail trade and 15.7% target government. Technology, hospitality, manufacturing and transport complete the list of impacted sectors.
AppGate describes the structure of fraud in four stages: external exposure through brand impersonation and social media attacks; identity capture through phishing, smishing and QR codes; account takeover with stolen credentials; and funds withdrawal through illicit transfers and Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud.
BEC scams—where high-ranking executives are impersonated to request data or money from employees—grew 136% in transfers during the last quarter of 2025, according to the report.
Total cost: USD 5.16 for every dollar lost
Bloomberg also highlights the economic impact of the phenomenon. For credit institutions, every dollar lost to fraud generates a total cost of USD 5.16, a figure that incorporates the direct loss plus investigation expenses, recovery costs, chargebacks, reputational damage and customer attrition.
The Fraud Beat 2026 report concludes that the migration of cybercriminals towards social media poses new challenges for monitoring and identification for both the public and private sectors in the region.
Source: Google News DO — Crime