Telecoms fraud cost South African operators over R5 BILLION in 2025 alone

South Africa's telecoms industry lost over R5.3 billion to cybercrime in 2025 alone.

The stats come from the Communication Risk Information Centre (COMRiC), which represents local cell phone networks.

Telecoms crime touches everything from banking and energy to personal security and national infrastructure, COMRiC says.

Threats include SIM swap fraud, subscription and identity fraud, ransomware attacks, and infrastructure sabotage.

COMRiC CEO Thokozani Mvelase says the various network operators have to spend a huge amount of money on security to prevent any "catastrophic effect" of cyber attacks.

"We had to put not only resources and investment into making sure there's a secured network, but remember that revenue and service disruptions can affect the customer as well because mobile devices themselves can be used to commit various types of fraud."

Mvelase gives the assurance that COMRiC coordinates efforts to gather information and combat cyber attacks.

"We always have to be on our toes because the nature of cyber crime changes every day - you think you have the controls right, but then the criminals try something else again. We also pay attention to the benchmark to see what happens in other associated global industries."

Scroll up to the audio player to hear more from the COMRiC CEO