Anew report by the Communication Risk Information Centre (COMRiC) has revealed that telecommunications-linked fraud is costing South Africa R5.3-billion a year, with nearly 60% of mobile banking fraud linked to SIM swap crimes.
The ‘Telecommunications Sector Report 2025’ highlights a surge in criminal activity targeting both digital systems and physical infrastructure.
“South Africa’s telecommunications sector continues to face complex, layered threats, including SIM swap fraud, subscription and identity fraud, ransomware attacks and infrastructure sabotage. The illicit use of SIM boxes, synthetic identity creation and criminal bypassing of SIM authentication processes present evolving dangers.”
Top common cyberthreats include rapidly growing ransomware attacks, synthetic identity fraud and business email compromise, as well as phishing scams, which cost South Africans R200-million in 2023 – a 50% increase on the previous year.
This article originally appeared on Engineering News. Click here to read the full story.