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.