South Africans report that digital banking crime increasingly involves banking apps. SABRIC says banking apps are linked to about 89% of reported digital banking crime cases in 2025 and account for 70.5% of reported client losses, according to the outlets.
SABRIC also attributes many incidents to fraud techniques that do not require bank-system breaches. The organisation says scams often start with impersonation and social engineering, rather than hackers gaining access to bank systems. The reporting also frames the scale of losses, including a figure cited as R1.7 billion, in the context of rising fraud tied to app-based channels.
Across the sources provided, the key focus is on the share of cases and losses linked to banking apps and the mechanism of the fraud. While one headline highlights the total losses figure more prominently, the underlying explanation and the SABRIC statistics remain consistent: most app-related harm is linked to impersonation and manipulation of victims instead of direct compromise of banks’ technology.
