Telecommunications fraud costs the country more than R5.3 billion a year, according to the Communications Risk Information Centre’s 2025 Telecommunications Sector Report, with close to 60% of mobile banking fraud linked to SIM-swap attacks.
SIM-swap fraud allows criminals to hijack a person’s phone number and intercept one-time two-factor authentication passwords used for banking and other financial services. Once a number is transferred to a new SIM under criminal control, victims can be locked out of their phones, while criminals attempt to access their bank accounts.
This vulnerability persists largely because SIM cards can still be registered easily, as RICA does not require biometric verification. Parliament should change the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) to enforce biometric SIM card registration for all SIM cards, including prepaid cards.
Telecommunications security expert Johan Van Graan said, “The solution to SIM swap fraud is straightforward: require biometric verification when SIM cards are activated and when SIM swaps are requested, using a live photo taken by the applicant and matched to the user’s ID in the Department of Home Affairs database and their ID picture. The technology already exists and is widely used by banks for digital customer verification.”
Biometric SIM registration is already used in countries including Thailand, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique, India, the UAE, and Peru, demonstrating that it is both practical, widespread, and effective. A SIM card today serves as a gateway to banking apps, one-time passwords, messaging platforms, and financial transactions. Yet millions of SIM cards remain registered anonymously or fraudulently, creating an open door for criminal syndicates.
South Africa distributes more than 150-million SIM cards each year, and many are not correctly registered.
At present, individuals can register hundreds or even thousands of SIM cards. Reasonable limits on the number of SIMs registered per person, together with biometric verification and tamper-proof packaging, would dramatically reduce fraud.
Tamperproof packaging can hide SIM’s unique identifying information and prevent the bulk registration of SIM cards.
“Updating RICA to mandate biometric registration and tamperproof packaging will not eliminate crime, but it would close one of the most widely exploited gaps in South Africa’s digital security system and better protect millions of people who rely on their phones to access their money,” added Van Graan.
