South Africa had the highest rate of suspects, according to TransUnion's H1 2026 update on Tuesday digital fraud Among the African countries analyzed, 3.0% of transactions involving consumers in South Africa were suspected of digital fraud during 2025 – slightly lower than the global average of 3.0%.
TransUnion's The report said that in 2025, the average reported fraud loss among South African consumers who said they had lost money due to digital fraud (email, online, phone calls and text messages) in the past year was R11,055 – the second highest in Africa after Kenya and well below the global average of R27,879.
The report indicated that South Africa's digital fraud landscape has become more complex, with the scale and sophistication of criminal activity likely to accelerate due to generative AI. “This has enabled fraudsters to target both consumers and businesses with greater accuracy and speed.”
The report says South African consumers are facing coordinated, identity-driven and cross-channel attacks similar to those in increasingly mature digital economies.
“As a result, digital fraud has moved deeper into the consumer journey: more than a third (33%) of South African consumers who said they lost money to digital fraud in the past year reported losses arising from third-party seller scams on legitimate ecommerce platforms,” it said.
“This indicates that harm is occurring not because consumers are transacting in a suspicious or unsafe environment – but because fraudsters have successfully established themselves in a trusted, familiar and trustworthy environment,” the report said.
Amrita Reddy, Senior Director of Fraud Product Management at TransUnion Africa, Said to be indicative of a market where criminals are exploiting established trust, active accounts and verified digital relationships.
He said this is a clear break from the global fraud patterns typically practiced by phishing and vishing – fraudulent phone calls or voice messages designed to trick consumers into sharing sensitive information or sending money.
Reddy said criminals are weaponizing both consumer confidence and emerging technologies.
“As GenAI accelerates the sophistication and scale of criminal actions, the threat landscape for consumers and businesses is evolving faster than ever before,” he said.
“Addressing this requires a new generation of identity-centric security that combines advanced analytics, adaptive authentication and multi-layered digital fraud detection. Organizations must match fraudsters' technological innovation to stay ahead of rapidly changing schemes.”
The report said the suspected digital fraud rate for attempted transactions where the consumer was in South Africa declined from 4.3% in 2024 to 3.0% in 2025, a trend also seen globally.
“Nonetheless, this reduction does not necessarily indicate a reduction in criminal activity; rather, it may reflect a shift toward AI-enabled strategies designed to maximize returns on investment.
The report says South Africa is one of the few markets with the highest rate suspected digital fraud Attempts at account login occur, with 3.0% of account login attempts flagged as potentially fraudulent, compared to 2.4% at account creation and 0.7% at financial transactions.
“This trend shows that attackers are increasingly trying to compromise existing accounts, in contrast to other countries globally where creating new accounts is the main focus of fraudsters.”
Reddy said this reversal tells a powerful story that criminals in South Africa are now targeting access using compromised credentials, SIM-swap-enabled entry and social engineering to take over existing accounts.
“This means sellers and financial institutions need to expand their fraud prevention strategies beyond the new customer onboarding stage, continuing to implement verification throughout the consumer lifecycle – but without unnecessary friction that will drive genuine consumers to seek alternative sites.”
Reddy said digitization has improved access to public services, but it has also created new risks of fraud.
“Fraudsters are taking advantage of official government branding and service-related messages to impersonate the state and defraud citizens.”
Reddy concluded that South Africa has entered an advanced fraud stage where criminals exploit trust, operate across different channels and target established digital relationships rather than vulnerable entry points. “Fraud is increasingly occurring within legitimate markets and impersonated public services, while the risk at login remains at its highest, as it has been on an annual basis.
“As criminals weaponize new technologies to carry out increasingly sophisticated scams, it is more important than ever for consumers to keep their personal information secure and regularly review their credit reports,” he said.
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