‘AI-led digital banking fraud is surging in South Africa’ 29 August 2025

Digital fraud is on the rise in South Africa, with the number of incidents reported by the banking sector in the 2024 calendar nearly doubling year on year. The rate of successful incidents is just as endemic, growing by more than two-thirds over the same period. This is according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre’s (Sabric’s) Annual Crime Statistics report, released this week. “In 2024, digital banking crime continued to soar following the sharp upward trend from 2023,” Sabric said in the report. “Digital banking fraud incidents escalated in 2024 compared to the previous year, depicting an 86% increase in reported incidents from the banking industry and a 74% increase in the associated losses. This significant increase highlights the need for robust countermeasures.”

According to Sabric, gross losses from the 97 975 digital fraud incidents reported by the banking sector amounted to a staggering R1.9-billion. Comparing with data from 2022 and 2023, Sabric concluded that more than half of the total digital banking fraud cases in the last three years occurred in 2024 alone. Banking apps were found to be the most popular channel cybercriminals used to perpetrate digital banking fraud. Some 65% of reported incidents in 2024 occurred through banking apps, amounting to R1.2-billion. Despite the number of exploits through banking apps being so high, it is the human element that has been identified as the biggest loophole, will all reported incidents driven by social engineering techniques.

…AI is playing an ever-increasing role in the facilitation of various types of scams. In the past, the discerning user could rely on a lack of good grammar and spelling to suss out suspicious e-mails. Using AI, criminals are able to create error-free messaging that uses emotive language effectively to slip under the user’s radar. AI is also being used in more sophisticated ways to create convincing deepfakes, some of them imitating the voices of well-known celebrities or company executives. Sabric said banks are exploring countermeasures like AI detection systems to combat these type of scams. One pernicious use of AI is automation, which has given criminals the ability to increase the number of attacks they put out with very little effort.