By ANA Reporter
Johannesburg - One out of every three mobile subscription attempts in South Africa is fraudulent, with cell phone users very often signed up for mobile services without their consent, Paris-based anti-fraud firm Evina said on Tuesday.
In a statement, it said after Kenya, South Africa was most affected on the continent by fraud that fleeces millions from the mobile accounts of cellular users around the globe every day.
This fraud is not treated seriously enough by the various mobile payment actors, with data showing 31 percent of mobile subscription requests in South Africa in July were fraudulent.
“As Africa’s most advanced economy, it is particularly tragic that South African mobile users are falling victim to subscription frauds that are well managed in many other countries," Evina chief executive officer David Lotfi said.
"This when we are all under significant financial pressure following the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic."
According to Evina, South Africans are mostly at risk from a very basic fraudulent mobile activity, clickjacking, in which fraudsters trick users into clicking on something different from what they intended online, potentially revealing confidential information or allowing others to take control of their device.
To a lesser extent, South African mobile users are also targets of a whole range of nefarious applications commonly available for app store download, including flashlight to wallpaper, pedometer, file manager and video maker apps.
Evina, which secures over twelve million daily transactions across 60 world markets, said South Africa should act now if it wanted to ensure the future of the entire mobile content and applications market.
Even those companies which make the effort to take care of customers by using advanced cyber security services are at a disadvantage to those who turn a blind eye to fraud, said Lernmond Khodaverdy, vice president of operations at mobile expert advertiser Twistbox Entertainment.
“If everyone in the supply chain participated in the same good practices, there wouldn't be an issue," Khodaverdy said.
"Since that is not the case, I only see one solution to ensure a safe mobile payment ecosystem which protects customers, and that is for the mobile operators to implement proven security solutions that manage the issue directly.”
- African News Agency (ANA)