South Africa is experiencing a growing wave of identity fraud driven by artificial intelligence, with deepfake technology increasingly being used in scams targeting both individuals and businesses.
A 2026 Digital Identity Fraud Report by Smile ID reveals that South Africa accounts for the largest share of deepfake related fraud in Southern Africa, representing 22% of cases recorded across the region.
The report indicates that criminals are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to manipulate images, videos and biometric verification systems in order to impersonate legitimate users online.
Biometric Fraud Dominates In South Africa
The findings show that most suspected fraudulent activity in the country occurs during biometric verification processes. These systems, commonly used by banks, fintech platforms and digital services, rely on technologies such as facial recognition to confirm a user’s identity.
According to the report, the majority of verification attempts flagged for potential fraud involve impersonation or spoofing during biometric checks. This suggests that criminals are focusing their efforts on bypassing facial recognition and similar identity verification technologies.
The data outlines the most common types of fraud attempts detected:
- 47% involve no face match impersonation
- About 40% are linked to spoofing attacks
- 13% involve document manipulation or presentation tricks
No face match impersonation typically occurs when the individual attempting to verify their identity cannot be convincingly linked to the identity they claim to represent. This may indicate the use of stolen personal information, fraudulent accounts created using another person’s details, or situations where criminals gain access to existing accounts.
Deepfakes And Spoofing Attacks
Spoofing has also emerged as a major concern. These attacks aim to deceive biometric systems into accepting a fake identity as legitimate by bypassing safeguards such as liveness detection and facial similarity checks, which are designed to confirm that a real person is present during verification.
Fraudsters employ several methods to achieve this, including:
- Deepfake impersonation using AI generated or manipulated video
- Face swap technology that digitally replaces one person’s face with another
- Altered photos or videos submitted during identity verification processes
Deepfakes pose a particularly serious threat because artificial intelligence can generate highly realistic images, audio and video. In some cases, the technology can make it appear as though a person is speaking or performing actions they never actually did.
When these manipulated visuals are used during identity verification, they may deceive automated security systems that rely heavily on facial recognition.
Document Fraud Less Prevalent
Although criminals continue to use forged or altered documents in some cases, the report found that this method is far less common compared to biometric impersonation.
Document manipulation and similar presentation tactics account for roughly 13% of detected fraud attempts, making them a smaller portion of overall identity fraud activity in South Africa.
The report concludes that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence tools is reshaping the fraud landscape, increasing the pressure on digital platforms and financial institutions to strengthen their identity verification systems.
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