People are hesitant to report consumer fraud to the police, according to Statistics South Africa’s 2024/25 Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey.

Over half a million people in South Africa fell victim to consumer fraud in the past year. That is a sharp rise from 385,000 in 2019/20.

But only one in three people reported these crimes to the police in 2024/25. It’s a decrease from the 44% who reported fraud in 2021/22.

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.

Instead of reporting to the police, people have turned to different authorities (32%) or attempted to resolve the issue themselves (31%).