In its 2024 report, the South African Fraud Prevention Service revealed that identity theft skyrocketed by 400% in South Africa between April 2023 and April 2024.  SAFPS adds that out of the 8521 formal cases opened at the Ombudsman for Banking Services in 2023, 43.47% were categorised as fraud. This is part of a rising trend in scams where fraudsters use false identities or intercept the secure identification process to steal funds and data. The issue of identity fraud has come to the fore following the investigation into the citizenship of former Miss SA contestant Chidimma Adetshina. For more Bongiwe Zwane spoke to  iiDENTIFii co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Lance Fanaroff