Wycliffe Musalia has over six years of experience in financial, business, technology, climate, and health reporting, providing deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends. He currently works as a business editor at .

Kenyans lose thousands of hard-earned money on fraud every hour, day, week, month and year.

TransUnion Africa Fraud Report 2025 indicated that Kenyans lost a median amount of KSh 116,108 to fraud in two months.

The survey conducted between November and December 2024 showed that the average amount consumers lost to fraud globally stood at KSh 226,132.

The survey was conducted in 18 countries and regions, with 29% saying they lost money due to email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud in the last year.

"The survey determined that the median amount those consumers said they lost due to fraud in the past year was KSh 226,132. For those who said they lost money due to fraud in Kenya, the median stated amount lost was KSh116,108," read the report in part.

About 82% or more than half of Kenyans were targeted via email, text, phone or online scams during the same period.

The report indicated that 11% of Kenyans were targeted by fraudsters between August and December 2024.

The most common tricks fraudsters used were fraudulent text messages trying to trick users into sharing personal data (39%), phishing where fraudulent emails, websites, social posts or QR codes steal personal data (36%), and vishing, where fraudulent phone callers try to induce the user into sharing data (33%).

Nearly half (45%) of those interviewed said that they lost money to email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud in the last year.

About 34% of Kenyans said they lost money through third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail websites, 26% via unemployment fraud and 25% via account takeovers.

According to TransUnion Africa senior director of fraud solutions Amritha Reddy, Kenya boasts a 133.7% growth rate in mobile phone usage, where consumers get in touch with family, friends, and colleagues.

Reddy noted fraudsters take advantage of the existing relations to carry out digital fraud schemes.

"It is easy to understand why digital fraud would be such a common tactic among fraudsters targeting this region. While cybercriminals will attack at any time using any channel, they appear to focus on channels most popular in the regions they are targeting," said Reddy.

Despite a larger percentage of Kenyans being targeted, about 19% of them were unaware of being targeted by email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud at all, which raises questions about whether these respondents were targeted, yet simply unaware of the threat.

In April 2024, Kenyans lost millions of shillings invested in CBEX, an unlicensed digital asset trading platform, prompting the government to offer tips to help investors identify and avoid similar online trading scams.

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) highlighted four key warning signs of scams.

These are unrealistic returns, guaranteed risk-free profits, unverifiable contacts and addresses, and heavy social media marketing.

Source: TUKO.co.ke