As Africa’s digital economy expands, fraudsters are exploiting an increasingly broad range of customer communication channels, prompting businesses to strengthen security beyond traditional email protection. Infobip’s analysis highlights the need for layered, cross-channel defences as attacks involving impersonation, account takeover and identity abuse become more widespread.
Email phishing remains a threat, but criminals are increasingly targeting customers through SMS, messaging apps and compromised authentication processes. The shift reflects a digital environment in which businesses and their customers interact across more channels, creating additional opportunities for social engineering and fraud.
Africa’s digital growth expands the fraud attack surface
Phishing is now one part of a broader threat landscape that includes smishing, impersonation, credential abuse and account takeover. For financial institutions, customer interactions across SMS, USSD, email and WhatsApp can each present potential vulnerabilities.
INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 found that artificial intelligence was linked to 55 percent of reported cybercrime across Africa. Related financial losses more than doubled, rising from US$192 million in 2024 to US$484 million in 2025.
Infobip data points to changing fraud patterns
Infobip’s 2026 Fraud and Security Trends Report recorded a 118 percent increase in blocked harmful messages. The company says the figure reflects both the scale of the threat and the growing capacity of organisations to detect and stop malicious communications before they reach customers.
The report also points to changes in the types of harmful messages being blocked. Phishing accounted for a smaller share of Africa’s blocked traffic, falling to 15 percent in 2025, while gambling-related content rose to more than 11 percent. The figures suggest that fraud pressure is spreading across categories rather than concentrating on a single tactic.
Businesses need layered, cross-channel security
As attacks move between channels and involve multiple stages, individual security controls may leave gaps in protection. An attack could begin with a fraudulent SMS, progress to impersonation and culminate in an attempt to bypass authentication through another communication channel.
Businesses therefore need systems that monitor activity across the customer journey, rather than assessing each interaction in isolation. Combining authentication, continuous monitoring and anomaly detection can help organisations identify patterns that emerge as attackers move between channels.
Artificial intelligence can support this approach by analysing large volumes of interactions in real time, recognising unusual activity and identifying patterns that would be difficult for human teams to detect at comparable speed and scale.
AI strengthens fraud detection across African networks
Infobip reports that its AI-powered detection model, which protects African operator networks, recorded the largest improvement of any region in 2025. The company cites this as evidence that automated detection can improve fraud prevention even where message volumes are high.
However, technology alone does not replace broader security practices. Organisations also need employee awareness programmes, robust customer verification and strong authentication measures to help identify and prevent attacks across digital channels.
Financial services and telecoms face significant exposure
Fraud activity is particularly concentrated in sectors that depend on trust, high transaction volumes and frequent customer communication. These include financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, logistics, travel and healthcare.
To strengthen protection, organisations should map their customer journeys, identify points where fraud could enter or escalate, and apply appropriate controls across each stage. This approach helps businesses address vulnerabilities throughout the customer experience instead of relying on a single security checkpoint.
Continuous prevention is essential as fraud evolves
Fraud prevention needs to be an ongoing business capability rather than a one-off project. As digital technology develops, criminals adapt their methods, with automation, impersonation, cross-channel attacks and identity abuse expected to remain important challenges.
Fraudsters can also use messaging platform business profiles and the branding of trusted organisations to make fraudulent communications appear legitimate. Businesses must therefore monitor how their identities are represented across digital channels and ensure that customers have reliable ways to verify communications.
As Africa’s digital economy continues to grow, security strategies focused exclusively on phishing will leave organisations exposed to other forms of attack. Layered protection, cross-channel monitoring and continuous adaptation will be essential to protecting customers and maintaining trust in digital services.
Brighton Chidoma is the Senior Customer Growth Executive at Infobip
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