Interview with Channel Africa Radio (SABC International Radio)

Crime’s in your pocket – the dark side of mobile services

These days, there is an app/subscription for everything. Mobile services have provided so much convenience to our lives from making entertainment, payment services and creative editing tools only a subscription away. Furthermore, as the lower end handset market grows, preloaded with content and subscription services, though convenient at face value, this coupled with high end subscription services means that the growing mobile ecosystem does not discriminate and has become a playground for easy, targeted mobile crime.

Missing data, unauthorised payments, illicit spam, intrusive mobile marketing and ad fraud continue to plague the industry and are subsequently changing the fraud game. In fact, by the end of 2019, 5.2 billion people subscribed to mobile services, accounting for 67% of the global population. What’s more, mobile technologies and services generated $4.1 trillion of economic value add (4.7% of GDP) globally. This figure will approach $5 trillion by 2024 as we increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by increased take-up of mobile services. While the growth spirals away, there is a need for control and safety.

Samora Mangezi, current presenter of Africa Digest on SABC’s Channel Africa, chats to WASPA’s General Manager, Ilonka Badenhorst, to unpack how the growing mobile ecosystem is changing the fraud game.

Listen to the full interview here: