R2 billion stolen from South Africans – over R11,000 per person
South Africa is experiencing a rampant surge in digital banking fraud, which has cost South Africans around R2 billion in 2025.
New data from TransUnion’s latest Top Fraud Trends report showed that South Africans lost the second-most money to fraud, losing an average of just over R11,000 per incident, with some losing much more.
According to the report, South Africa recorded the highest rate of suspected digital fraud among the African countries analysed.
The report found that 3.0% of transactions involving South African consumers were flagged as suspected digital fraud during 2025, compared with a global average of 3.8%.
The growing threat has translated into significant financial losses for ordinary customers and consumers in South Africa.
TransUnion found that the median reported fraud loss among South Africans who said they had lost money to digital fraud over the past year was R11,055 per incident.
This was the second-highest figure in Africa, behind Kenya’s, although it was still below the global median loss of R27,879. The report noted that digital fraud in South Africa has become increasingly sophisticated.
Criminals are increasingly targeting consumers through trusted platforms and services rather than suspicious websites or unfamiliar channels.
“South African consumers are increasingly facing coordinated, identity-driven and cross-channel attacks similar to those seen in mature digital economies,” the report said.
It added that one-third (33%) of South Africans who reported losing money to digital fraud said the losses resulted from third-party seller scams operating on legitimate e-commerce platforms.
“This indicates that losses are not occurring because consumers transacted in a suspect or unsafe environment,” the report said.
“It shows fraudsters have successfully embedded themselves into environments that appeared credible, familiar and trusted.”
The findings also show that cybercriminals are increasingly focusing on taking over existing accounts rather than creating new fraudulent profiles.
South Africa is one of the few markets where the highest rate of suspected digital fraud attempts happens at account login, with 3.0% of account login attempts being flagged as potentially fraudulent.
“This is compared to 2.4% at account creation and 0.7% of financial transactions,” the report said.
New era of fraud in South Africa – costing banks R2 billion
According to TransUnion, South Africa has entered an advanced fraud phase where criminals exploit trust, operate across channels, and target established digital relationships rather than weak entry points.
TransUnion Africa senior director of fraud product management, Amritha Reddy, warned that rapidly evolving technology is making scams more convincing and harder to detect.
“As criminals increasingly weaponise new technologies to carry out scams, it’s more important than ever for consumers to safeguard their personal information and to review their credit reports regularly,” she said.
Venture Labs CEO Dirk de Vos told Newzroom Afrika that fraud cost South African banks roughly R2 billion in 2025 and stressed that even vigilant consumers are being caught out.
“You think that you’re immune to falling victim because you’re careful. But these stories happen to the most wary and the most skilled of us,” he said.
De Vos pointed to one case highlighted by Venture Labs in which a victim lost R187,000 after receiving what appeared to be a legitimate SMS from their bank.
He explained that fraudsters can use relatively inexpensive services that allow them to send bulk SMS messages while spoofing trusted sender identities.
“They’re almost subscription services, where bulk SMS capability allows you to do just that,” he said.
Because the fake messages often appear within the same conversation thread as genuine banking notifications, consumers are more likely to trust them.
He argued that the issue stems from weaknesses in the SMS system itself rather than banking systems.
“We are stuck with this. It is a weakness in the system. It’s got nothing to do with the banks in that case. It’s got to do with the cellphone networks,” he said.
Loading ...