At least 67 per cent of Rwandans were targeted by email, online, phone call or text message scams between August and December 2024, according to a new TransUnion report.
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Titled the "H1 2025 Update to the State of Omnichannel Fraud Report,” it looks at recent fraud trends from TransUnion’s global intelligence network.
TransUnion argues that to counter these trends, fraud prevention leaders need to fortify fraud detection to increase fraud capture rates and support customer growth through fewer step-up challenges and false positives.
The report found that money mule schemes where people are tricked into moving illegal funds were the most reported scam type, followed by social engineering scam where users are persuaded to give personal information or money.
While most avoided losses, 10 percent admitted falling victim of an email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud scheme in the period under review.
Most losses came from money mule scams with 29 percent, third-party seller scams on legitimate retail platforms at 24 percent, and social engineering at 23 percent.
More than four in 10 respondents said they lost money to fraud in the past year, with a median loss of Rwf 733,425, stated the report.
Retail recorded the highest suspected digital fraud attempt rate in Rwanda in 2024, at 7.9 percent, despite an 11.7 percent drop from the previous year.
Gaming, with 2.6 percent saw the largest increase in fraud attempts, rising 12.5 percent year-on-year.
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Amritha Reddy, Senior Director of fraud solutions at TransUnion Africa, said cybercriminals focus on channels most popular in the regions they are targeting.
"Rwandans use mobile phones to conduct their everyday business, connect with friends, or send and receive money, so it’s easy to understand why digital fraud would be such a common tactic among fraudsters targeting consumers in this region.”
Globally, online forums and dating sites experienced the highest rate of suspected digital fraud attempts in 2024, closely followed by video gaming at eleven percent, with both online betting and retail at eight per cent.
"Digital fraud on community platforms is by no means a new phenomenon. In 2024, it appears that fraudsters targeted these areas with a renewed vigour,” said Reddy.
"Cybercriminals take advantage of the trust inherent on community-based platforms, and target members with a wide range of scammer solicitations, the most reported type of digital fraud in communities.”
Rwanda ranked among the countries in Africa with the lowest rate of consumers falling victim to fraud, second only to Namibia, while South Africa had the highest victim rate.