Some 65,964 fraud cases were reported, while other fraud-related offences totalled 8,065.

Manie van Schalkwyk, executive director of Southern African Fraud Prevention Services, said identity-theft cases were doubling each year. Fraudsters who stole other people’s identities usually did so to open new bank accounts and perform account takeovers, he said.

“Some of the loopholes are that consumers provide their information willingly, not because they are stupid but because the fraudsters will entice them.”

False documentation in employment fraud, when fraudsters generate false payslips from companies that do not exist, was also on the rise, he said.

“People do that to get loans because obviously you provide payslips to prove income. That increased in the first six months of this year by 55% compared to last year.”

Lobby group Business Against Crime SA said it was in the process of revising its strategy to focus on programmes and initiatives aimed at the reduction of commercial crimes.

“It is clear from all the scandals arising out of the commissions and elsewhere in the past year that business needs to do a lot of work to get its own house in order to prevent the rampant corruption and fraud that we have, and continue to hear about, from occurring in future,” it said.