A new report has identified Kenya, South Africa, and Cameroon as the top three African countries most hit by mobile fraud in the continent. In a new survey carried out by cybersecurity company, Evina, these African countries face suspicious mobile-based billing transactions of 51%, 30% and 10%, respectively. Speaking on the findings, David Lotfi, the CEO of Evina said that “Africa’s youthful population that is mostly unbanked and using some 900 million mobile money accounts is particularly hard-hit by professional cybercriminals from around the world, who together cost Africa some $4 billion every year.”
Fraudsters are impacting the long-term sustainability of the digital advertising and mobile payments industries, in particular, by perpetrating thousands of mobile-based fraud attempts daily. Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) where users are billed for purchases directly on their phone bills is being impacted by two primary forms of mobile fraud: clickjacking where a fraudster intercepts a legitimate click and unknowingly directs the user to a website where sensitive financial and other details can be stolen, and malicious apps that seek to do the same.
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While embedding malware in malicious apps can be a more refined fraudulent technique, clickjacking is a very basic type of fraud that has been around for at least five years and mostly eradicated in large parts of the mobile world.
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“Fraud is a feasible obstacle to overcome and there really is no excuse for the fact that one in three mobile subscriptions attempts in South Africa, for example, is fraudulent. Fraudsters who continue – in 2020 – to steal Africa’s wealth can be beaten with the right tools that we already use to protect millions of mobile transactions every day,” adds Lotfi.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry