Fake Brazilian government site charges Pix for nonexistent betting balances

A counterfeit website mimicking Brazil’s federal government page for checking betting-related funds receivable is charging a Pix fee to “release” balances that do not exist. For high-risk operators, the useful part is not the scam itself, but the mechanics: cloned branding, a dead official domain, and a payment request wrapped in official-looking language.

1. The fake site uses the domain brasilsembets.org, which is visually similar to the official brasilsembets.gov.br. The government site has been offline since the end of the deadline for consultation and return of funds.
2. Veja Negócios found the scheme during testing. The fraudulent page claimed there was R$ 1.800 available to receive even for a reporter who had never opened an account on any betting platform.
3. To “consult and release” the supposed balance, the user is asked to provide a CPF and pay the so-called “Imposto de Liberação” (Release Tax), charged at 15% of the amount shown. That is the extraction point in the scam: a small upfront payment framed as a condition for receiving nonexistent funds.
4. Carlos Lima, president of the Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável (IBJR), said criminals copy names, logos, and visual elements from licensed operators and change only the domains to trick consumers. He said this follows a pattern already seen in recent clones of betting sites authorized to operate in Brazil.
5. Lima also said the disappearance of the official government site makes the fraud easier to run: “Now, as the consumer no longer has the legalized site to help identify which is real and which is fake, this scam has grown.” He added that simply taking down fake pages is not enough, because it is easy and fast to create a new counterfeit site.

For regulated operators and PSPs, the operational takeaway is straightforward: where the official information channel goes dark, impersonation risk rises, and fraudsters start using payment rails themselves as the hook. Lima said the fight should focus above all on making it harder for illegal operations to move money.