The number one general fraud scam targeting the Zambian public in 2025 was a combination of tactics known collectively as Mobile Money and Social Engineering Scams.
This category is distinguished by its high volume and significant aggregate losses, driven by the widespread use of mobile platforms for daily transactions.
Top Scam by Volume and Impact
Based on official reports and the launch of a nationwide fraud awareness drive in 2025:
Mobile Money Scams: This involves the manipulation of individuals through phone calls, SMS (Smishing), or social media to gain access to their mobile money wallets. This type of scam alone was cited as costing Zambians over K120 million (Zambian Kwacha) annually.
Targeting Method (Smishing): Surveys identified Smishing (fraudulent text messages) as the most frequently cited method used by criminals to target consumers.
Key Fraud Tactics in Zambia (2025)
The most successful scams rely on deception to get the victim to willingly give up critical information:
- Impersonation and Account Access: Fraudsters often impersonate bank officials, mobile network operators, or government agents to create panic or urgency. Their goal is to trick the victim into revealing their Mobile Money PINs, passwords, or One-Time Passwords (OTPs), allowing the criminal to empty the digital wallet.
- Account Creation Fraud: Zambia recorded the highest rate of account creation fraud in Africa (11.5%) in 2025. This means criminals were frequently using stolen or fabricated identities to open fraudulent accounts, which are then used as money mules to facilitate and launder funds from other large-scale scams.
- High-Yield Investment Fraud: A significant, high-value scam exposed in 2025 involved a large-scale online investment fraud scheme. This operation targeted individuals, luring them into putting money into fake cryptocurrency or Forex platforms with promises of massive returns, often resulting in losses estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of US dollars collectively.
The Zambian government launched a national campaign in late 2025 under the theme “Be Fraud Smart: Protect Your Money, Protect Your Identity” to combat the severity of these digital threats.