Episode 189 - Africa’s Scam Economy Has Industrialized: What Telecom Operators Must Do Next

<p>Africa’s scam economy is becoming more organised, automated and sophisticated.</p><p><br /></p><p>What was once the occasional fraudulent SMS has evolved into smishing, vishing, identity theft, business impersonation, SIM-swap-enabled account takeovers, AI-generated identity documents and deepfake voice calls.</p><p><br /></p><p>I moderated a discussion recorded at the TARS 2026 Telecom Africa Revenue Assurance &amp; Fraud Management Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, on the 13th May 2026 titled:</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Protecting the Customer: Scam Typologies, Operator Responsibilities &amp; Fraud Awareness in Africa</strong></p><p><br /></p><p>The panel brought together:</p><p><br /></p><ul><li><strong>Ann Khambo</strong> - Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Manager, Airtel Money, Airtel Kenya</li><li><strong>Ogochukwu (Ogo) Onwuzurike - </strong>Country Manager, Nigeria, Truecaller</li><li><strong>Mieraf T. Birhane </strong>- Executive Head of Fraud Management, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia</li></ul><p><br /></p><p>The discussion examines how customer-facing fraud is changing across African telecom and mobile-money markets, why social engineering remains such an effective attack vector, and why operators can no longer regard themselves as neutral pipes when their networks, brands and identity systems are being exploited.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mieraf shares insights from Ethiopia’s evolving fraud landscape, including smishing, account takeover, subscription fraud and commission-related abuse. She also describes a striking case in which fraudsters used makeup and physical impersonation to attempt fraudulent SIM swaps—an incident detected because the agent involved had received practical fraud training.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ann explores identity theft, including situations where innocent customers may not know their photographs or personal information have been used to register SIM cards or commit fraud. She also explains why GSM and mobile-money fraud must be analyzed together using KYC, voice, SMS, location, SIM, device and transaction data.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ogo introduces the “machine era of spam and fraud.” According to the figures shared during the panel, Truecaller intercepted approximately 68 billion spam and fraud calls in 2025, compared with approximately 37.8 billion in 2021. She explains how AI and automation are helping fraudsters scale while excessive calls and messages from legitimate organisations are also eroding trust in phone-based