South Africans are increasingly being targeted by AI-generated fraudsters who sound just like bank employees. However, many local banks are still struggling with legacy tech, slow change processes, limited data visibility, and a risk that is growing faster than their response.
According to the 2026 Anti-Fraud Technology Benchmarking Report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, which includes input from Sub-Saharan Africa, the AI‑driven fraud schemes most cited as having increased significantly over the past two years were deepfake social engineering (44%) and consumer fraud and scams (38%).
What’s more, over the next two years, significant growth is expected in genAI document fraud and forgery (55%), deepfake social engineering (55%), and deepfake digital injection (54%).
Despite this growing threat, the same report shows that only 7% of organisations are more than moderately prepared to detect and prevent AI-powered fraud.
Safety nets disappearing
