Over half a million people in South Africa fell victim to consumer fraud in the past year. It is a sharp rise from 385,000 in 2019/20, according to Statistics South Africa’s 2024/25 Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey. Women make up just over half of the victims.

Consumer fraud refers to being cheated on the quality or quantity of goods or services, and includes scams such as R99 debit orders, 419 schemes, and dubious online shopping deals.

Yet only one in three victims reported the crime to the police. Others turned to different authorities (32%) or tried to resolve it themselves (31%).