ACFE SA

Africa's digital boom is a double-edged sword.

The INTERPOL HQ Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report reveals scam notifications surged up to 3,000% in some countries last year, with South Africa accounting for 40% of ransomware attacks and 65% of digital fraud incidents on the continent.

AI is making it worse. Deepfakes, synthetic voice scams, and mobile money fraud are outpacing law enforcement, fuelled by under-resourced cybersecurity infrastructure and widespread mobile financial transactions.

Businesses can't afford a reactive approach. Proactive fraud prevention isn't optional; it's survival.

Equip yourself. ACFESA is training the professionals who fight back.

View upcoming events: https://acfesa.co.za/events
Full INTERPOL report: https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2025/New-INTERPOL-report-warns-of-sharp-rise-in-cybercrime-in-Compliance Institute Southern Africa

Deepfakes already fooled one team out of $25M. Is yours next?

Deepfake fraud incidents have seen a significant surge in 2025. According to 'The 2025 Deepfake Threat Report', $1,28B of losses were reported. However, it is difficult to determine the real financial damage due to the unknown number of unreported cases. Furthermore, over $200M was lost in Q1 2025 in North America alone. 1 in 4 executives have already been targeted, and AI fraud is projected to hit $40B by 2027.

Fraudsters clone voices from seconds of audio, generate fake IDs that pass visual inspection, and join live video calls posing as your CFO, pressuring teams into approving transfers on the spot.

The hard truth: humans only detect deepfakes correctly 55-60% of the time. Process has to do the work that instinct can't.

Controls that matter:
- Verify payments on a second channel
- Use only pre-approved callback numbers
- Create executive codewords for high-value transactions
- Follow FinCEN's deepfake fraud guidance.

Modern fraud techniques are strong. Your controls need to be stronger.

Read more in the comment section!

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), organisations worldwide lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenue to fraud.

To put that into perspective, that’s not just a minor operational leak, it is a significant financial drain that directly impacts profitability, growth, employee morale, and stakeholder trust.

Fraud doesn’t only affect the bottom line. It damages reputation, weakens internal culture, and can take years to recover from. And in many cases, fraud goes undetected for months - or even years - before action is taken.

However, the good news is that fraud is preventable. Strong internal controls, regular risk assessments, leadership accountability, whistleblower mechanisms, employee training, and a culture of transparency are powerful tools in reducing exposure.

Prevention is not an expense - it is a strategic investment in sustainability, resilience, and long-term success.