Financial watchdog beefs up budget to combat online scams

The Money Show's Stephen Grootes gets comment from Carl de Jager, CEO of blockchain software company SilverSixpence.

South Africa's financial watchdog is allocating more money to getting a hold on an explosion of online financial scams.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has announced it will spend R200 million over the next 18 months to scale up its monitoring and enforcement capabilities, reports Bloomberg News.

It quotes Commissioner Unathi Kamlana saying during an interview that the investment is 'the largest IT reorganisation' the FSCA has had to date.

He further says that the regulator is recruiting crypto supervision experts with the ability to probe crypto-related scams.

The FSCA's 2025-2028 Regulation Strategy spells out how regulators have to keep pace with the growth of fintech and AI, as these disrupt traditional ways of doing business.

SilverSixpence's Carl de Jager says this focus on curbing online scams is a much-needed move from the regulator.

"Whether it's enough or not we'll see, because these scams have become incredibly sophisticated. AI is now a new tool available to fraudsters around the world and while we've gotten used to the previous tech that was used and alert to some of the common mistakes these scammers made (with grammar for instance), we will have to become even more careful now."

Carel de Jager, CEO - SilverSixpence

As it became embedded in us to disregard those emails for instance that promise you an inheritance from a long-lost relative, we will have to change our habits again and not take anything we see on the Internet as the truth at face value, de Jager cautions.

"In cybersecurity theory we learn that our strategy should be prevention, detection and reaction; and we're seeing the regulator stepping up in a big way here now, allocating funding towards all of these things."

Carel de Jager, CEO - SilverSixpence

To hear more from de Jager, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article