Most of the money Kenyans lost to digital fraud last year was not stolen on suspicious websites. It was stolen on platforms people already trust. That is the standout finding in TransUnion’s H1 2026 Update: Top Fraud Trends report, released this week, which found that among Kenyans who reported losing money to digital fraud in the past year, 39% said the loss came from third-party seller scams on legitimate ecommerce sites.

A third-party seller scam works like this: a fraudster sets up shop inside a real, well-known marketplace, lists products they have no intention of delivering, and collects payment. Because the platform itself is credible, buyers drop their guard. The scam does not need a fake website or a phishing link. It borrows the trust the platform has already built.

The headline numbers cut both ways. On one hand, suspected digital fraud involving Kenyan consumers fell to 2.3% of transaction attempts in 2025, below the global average of 3.8%. On the other, Kenya still recorded the second highest rate among the African countries TransUnion analysed, after South Africa. And when fraud did succeed, it hurt more here than anywhere else on the continent: Kenyan victims reported a median loss of KES 108,132, the highest among the African markets assessed.

A quick note on what “suspected fraud” means. These figures come from TransUnion’s global intelligence network, which monitors transactions across thousands of websites and apps. A transaction counts as suspected fraud if it was denied in real time for fraud indicators or policy violations, or later confirmed as fraudulent on investigation. The consumer loss figures come from a separate survey of 495 Kenyans conducted between 20 November and 5 December 2025. So the 2.3% is what businesses flagged, while the KES 108,132 is what consumers say they actually lost.

After seller scams, the most reported causes of loss were money mule scams at 30%, account takeover at 27%, identity theft at 26%, and social engineering at 25%. Phishing, vishing, and smishing, the email, call, and text scams most Kenyans associate with fraud, all ranked lower, between 20% and 24%.

Fraud is moving to the front door

Looking at where in the customer journey fraud attempts happen, account creation was the riskiest point in Kenya in 2025. Some 4.5% of new account sign-ups were flagged as suspected fraud, compared to 2.2% of logins and just 0.9% of actual financial transactions. In plain terms, criminals are trying to open accounts using fake or stolen identities far more often than they are trying to push through fraudulent payments.

“While onboarding controls remain important, fraud pressure in Kenya is increasingly visible at access points,” said Amritha Reddy, senior director of fraud product management at TransUnion Africa. “The next fraud battle won’t be fought at onboarding. It will be at re-entry.”

Betting platforms carry the highest risk

By sector, online gaming, which covers sports betting and poker platforms, recorded the highest suspected fraud attempt rate from Kenya at 15.6% in 2025, with the volume of attempts nearly doubling, up 97% year on year. Video gaming followed at 9.1%, and government services at 6.3%.

This is a notable reshuffle. We reported in late 2024 that retail was Kenya’s most targeted sector, with a suspected fraud rate of 11.7% in the first half of that year. In the new report, retail’s suspected fraud rate sits at 3.3%, with attempt volumes down 96%. Financial services attempts fell 66% and logistics 51%. Fraudsters appear to be abandoning sectors that have hardened their defences and piling into betting, where money moves fast and accounts are easy to open.

“Online gaming platforms often act as early testing grounds for new fraud tactics,” Reddy said. “In Kenya’s connected digital economy, fraud doesn’t stay in silos.”

Kenyans will accept friction if it buys safety

The consumer survey also asked Kenyans what matters most when choosing who to transact with online. Confidence that personal data is secure topped the list, with 88% rating it very important, ahead of an easy payment process at 87% and easy login at 79%. TransUnion reads this as consumers being willing to tolerate extra verification steps, provided those steps are clearly tied to protection.

What to actually do with this

For consumers, the practical lesson is that a trusted platform is not the same thing as a trusted seller. Check seller ratings and history before paying, be wary of deals that look too good, and prefer payment methods with buyer protection over direct transfers to sellers. Reviewing your credit report regularly also helps catch identity misuse early.

For businesses, especially betting platforms and marketplaces, the data points to two pressure points: sign-up, where fake identities enter the system, and third-party seller onboarding, where scammers embed themselves. The full TransUnion H1 2026 Top Fraud Trends report covers 24 countries and regions, including Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.

The short version: fewer fraud attempts are getting through in Kenya, but the ones that do are expensive, and they increasingly happen in the places you trust most.