Awareness about fraud is the firewall Africa needs most - cyber experts

Global losses to scams are now estimated at more than one trillion dollars a year. The United Nations warns that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into Southeast Asia to operate online fraud networks, many disguised as call centers or customer service firms. Their victims are everywhere, on messaging apps, in email inboxes, and increasingly, inside Africa’s fast-growing mobile economy. ALSO READ: AI must be affordable in Africa, say experts at Mobile World Congress At this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) Kigali, a central theme cut through the flash of AI demos and 5G banners: trust. Panels that once revolved around connectivity and innovation are now equally focused on the darker reality of what digital growth invites. During the Security Summit, industry leaders from Airtel, MTN, Ethio Telecom, Ecobank, FraudBuster, and Rwanda’s National Cyber Security Authority gathered to dissect how the region is handling the surge in digital fraud — and what can be done to fight back. ALSO READ: Regional telcos push for spectrum reform Jean Claude Gaga, Managing Director of Airtel Mobile Commerce Rwanda, opened with a story that drew quiet laughter before landing its warning. “Someone bought a doughnut,” he said, “and realized the paper wrapping was their own printed CV from a job application.” It was a vivid metaphor for how casually data is handled and how easily it falls into the wrong hands. For Gaga, the doughnut story is a reminder that in the digital era, identity can be traded, printed, and recycled just as quickly as paper. Fraud, he explained, rarely begins with sophistication. It begins with familiarity — a friendly voice, a convincing text, or a number that looks right. “Someone might call pretending to be from your child’s school or your bank,” he said. “They sound professional. You follow their instructions. Then the money is gone.” Until recently, Rwanda’s telecom sector wrestled with unregistered SIM cards circulating freely, creating an open door for fraudulent activity. But new regulations have since tightened the process. “You can’t just walk in and buy a SIM card anymore,” Gaga said. “Biometric verification — face or fingerprint — is now required, and cards are activated only at authorized points.” Still, scammers adapt quickly. As their methods evolve, so must the defences. Airtel’s latest weapon is an AI-powered detection system that doesn’t read messages directly but studies behavior across the network. It looks for subtle patterns — repetitive SIM swaps, one-way message flows, erratic login attempts — and flags suspicious activity in real time. “The system checks more than 250 indicators,” Gaga said. “It works automatically and doesn’t require any downloads. Everyone with an Airtel SIM is already protected.” The company also introduced a SIM Swap API that alerts banks whenever a phone number linked to an account has recently been replaced — a favorite trick among cybercriminals. Since launching the API, Airtel reports that fraudulent account openings in participating banks have dropped to zero. FraudBuster, one of Airtel’s long-time partners, operates behind the scenes for several African telecoms. The company uses machine learning to spot anomalies in mobile money transactions and block them before the losses accumulate. “Fraud is not just a technical issue,” said Michael Houis, FraudBuster’s Head of Sales. “It’s a business crisis. When subscribers lose money, they lose trust, and they leave.” He explained that modern financial fraud doesn’t always look like hacking. Often, it’s manipulation: small, repeated actions designed to exploit system incentives. “In one West African case,” Houis said, “we detected 2.5 billion francs circulating through artificial transactions. Agents were creating fake cash-ins to earn false commissions. When we blocked the scheme, daily losses of about 280,000 francs stopped overnight.” Such examples illustrate the scale of the challenge. Fraud networks can be local or transnational, and they adapt faster than most systems can patch. That’s why, for Rwanda, collaboration is just as critical as technology. Ghislaine Kayigi, Chief Cybersecurity Standards Officer at the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA), underscored that point. “Technology helps us fight the symptoms,” she said. “But awareness is what addresses the cause.” The NCSA runs continuous training across schools, banks, and public institutions, teaching digital literacy and how to identify social engineering attempts — the kind that lure users into revealing passwords or one-time codes. “We remind people that scams do not only target the careless,” said Kayigi, “they also target the connected.” Across the continent, countries are developing similar frameworks. Nigeria’s Central Bank has launched a fraud monitoring portal, Kenya has integrated mobile wallets with national ID verification, and Ghana has introduced shared fraud databases between telecoms and banks. Rwanda’s own cybersecurity standards are being recognized regionally as models for consumer protection. “Fraud isn’t only a tech problem,” Gaga noted. “It’s a mindset problem. It’s about how people use technology.” His words resonated beyond the room. In the end, every click and confirmation remains a choice, a human decision within the machine logic of digital life. In a region as connected and ambitious as Africa, that awareness may be the strongest firewall yet.

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Awareness about fraud is the firewall Africa needs most - cyber experts