About this episode

The episode discusses the industrialization of Africa's scam economy and the responsibilities of telecom operators in combating fraud.

Africa’s scam economy is becoming more organised, automated and sophisticated. What was once the occasional fraudulent SMS has evolved into smishing, vishing, identity theft, business impersonation, SIM-swap-enabled account takeovers, AI-generated identity documents and deepfake voice calls. I moderated a discussion recorded at the TARS 2026 Telecom Africa Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, on the 13th May 2026 titled: Protecting the Customer: Scam Typologies, Operator Responsibilities & Fraud Awareness in Africa The panel brought together: Ann Khambo - Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Manager, Airtel Money, Airtel Kenya Ogochukwu (Ogo) Onwuzurike - Country Manager, Nigeria, Truecaller Mieraf T. Birhane - Executive Head of Fraud Management, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia The discussion examines how customer-facing fraud is changing across African telecom and mobile-money markets, why social engineering remains such an effective attack vector, and why operators can no longer regard themselves as neutral pipes when their networks, brands and identity systems are being exploited. Mieraf shares insights from Ethiopia’s evolving fraud…

People in this episode

Host: Moses Kemibaro

Guests: Ann Khambo, Ogochukwu (Ogo) Onwuzurike, Mieraf T. Birhane

Topics covered

• scam economy
• telecom fraud
• customer protection
• social engineering
• fraud management
• Africa

Keywords

• scamming
• telecom operators
• fraud awareness
• identity theft
• SIM swap
• smishing
• vishing
• deepfake
• fraud training

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Airtel Money, Airtel Kenya, Truecaller, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia

Places: Nairobi, Kenya

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