Deepfake-related scams in South Africa have surged 1,200% in the past year, with the banking and fintech sectors the hardest hit, according to TransUnion Africa.

Amritha Reddy, the company’s senior director of fraud product management, said deepfakes are synthetic media — including video, audio or images — created with AI to impersonate individuals or companies. They have been used to file fake insurance claims, build fraudulent storefronts and spread misinformation.

With 79% internet penetration, over 50 million users and 124 million mobile connections, South Africa’s digital landscape makes it ripe for exploitation, Reddy said. She called for stronger laws and compliance frameworks and pointed to tools such as biometric authentication, anomaly detection and behavioral analytics as essential defenses.

Deputy Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele urged universities to help prepare South Africa for the “age of AI,” developing cybersecurity expertise, ethical safeguards and watermarking tools to expose deepfakes.

Banks are already seeing the effects. FNB recently warned of scams where AI-generated voices and videos impersonated bank staff and even customers’ family members, leading to multimillion-rand losses.