AI-driven banking fraud surges in South Africa despite overall crime drop
South African banking fraud is increasingly using AI-powered techniques such as deepfakes and phishing emails to deceive consumers, according to SABRIC's 2024 crime report. While overall financial crime losses fell 18 percent to R2.7 billion, digital banking fraud cases nearly doubled and AI-driven scams are reported to be on the rise.
What happened
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) released its 2024 Annual Crime Statistics revealing that while overall financial crime losses decreased 18 percent from R3.3 billion in 2023 to R2.7 billion in 2024, the threat landscape has evolved with increased AI-driven fraud schemes.
Criminals are leveraging AI to create scams that appear more legitimate and convincing, including flawless phishing emails, AI-generated WhatsApp messages, and voice-cloned deepfakes that mimic individuals and banking officials.
Digital banking fraud emerged as the dominant mode of financial crime, with cases nearly doubling from 31,612 in 2023 to 64,000 in 2024, and losses increasing from R1 billion to over R1.4 billion, primarily driven by social engineering tactics exploiting human error.
Reported impact
Digital banking fraud accounted for 65.3 percent of reported incidents in 2024. Card-related fraud remained a critical concern, with Card Not Present transactions constituting 85.6 percent of gross fraud losses on South African-issued credit cards.
SABRIC cautioned that real-time deepfake audio and video could become commonplace in fraud schemes by 2025, posing an escalating threat to consumers.
Index analysis
AI-driven crime emerged as a growing concern with criminals deploying machine-generated content to deceive victims, including phishing emails and WhatsApp messages crafted with AI, alongside early cases of voice-based deepfake scams impersonating banking officials.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.