LIFESTYLE NEWS - The next scam message that lands on your phone could look completely legitimate.

It may have your name, your bank’s logo, the correct spelling and even details about where you live or a parcel you are expecting. If it is a phishing message, there may be little about it that immediately raises suspicion.

But there is one thing that sophisticated scammers and artificial intelligence still struggle with: sounding convincingly like an ordinary South African in their home language.

South Africa’s 12 official languages could therefore offer an unexpected layer of protection against scams - particularly those originating from outside the country.

According to Census 2022, only about 5.4 million South Africans, or 8.7% of the population, speak English as their primary home language. By comparison, isiZulu is spoken by about 15.1 million people, isiXhosa by 10.1 million, Afrikaans by 6.6 million and Sepedi by 6.2 million.

That means the languages many South Africans use every day are not necessarily the languages in which artificial intelligence performs best.

Anna Collard, SVP of content strategy and CISO advisor at KnowBe4 Africa, says this gives South Africans a useful tool – at least for now.

“A criminal with a free chatbot writes better business English than most of us do before our second coffee,” she says. “What they cannot do as easily, yet, is sound like your aunt in Mthatha.”

Your home language can be a useful test

The traditional signs of a scam - poor spelling, strange grammar and obviously suspicious messages - are becoming less reliable as AI tools improve.

Research into AI performance across African languages has found significant differences between how models perform in English and how they perform in many African languages.

For South Africans, this creates an interesting opportunity.

Someone operating from overseas may be able to produce a convincing English message pretending to be from your bank, a courier company or SARS. But having a natural five-minute conversation in Tshivenda, isiXhosa, isiZulu or another South African language, complete with the right expressions, rhythm and cultural references, is a much bigger challenge.

And South Africans naturally switch between languages all the time.

You might start a conversation in English, move into isiZulu or Sesotho to make a point, and then switch back again. That kind of code-switching is so normal that most of us barely notice we are doing it.

Collard says it can also become a simple verification tool.

“If someone phones claiming to be from your bank, switch to your home language mid-sentence and see what happens,” she suggests. “A synthetic voice or a scripted overseas operator will stall, repeat itself, or push the conversation back to English awkwardly.”

The same approach could be useful if you receive a call supposedly from a family member in an emergency.

If someone claiming to be your child, parent or partner suddenly needs money, ask a question in the language you normally use together - particularly one involving something personal that only the two of you would know.

But there is an important catch

A language switch is not a foolproof security test.

South Africa also has highly capable local scammers, including people who speak the same languages as their targets.

Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 found organised scam centres in 72% of the 36 African countries surveyed, with significant concentrations in Southern and West Africa.

A scammer operating locally and speaking isiZulu, Afrikaans, Sesotho or another South African language may have no difficulty passing a language test.

“The language switch raises the cost of attacks that are run at scale from far away,” says Collard. “It does nothing about the person down the road who already sounds like you.”

So, think of it as an extra question to ask – not proof that a caller is genuine.

AI is already catching up

The advantage offered by language diversity may also be temporary.

Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI to create convincing phishing messages, impersonate trusted people and tailor scams to local languages and cultural contexts.

Microsoft has warned that AI-enhanced phishing is becoming increasingly effective, while Interpol’s 2026 assessment links AI to a growing share of cybercrime in Africa.

As AI models become better at understanding and producing African languages, the language barrier that currently frustrates some scammers is likely to become less effective.

“Every year the models get better at our languages, and every year this defence weakens,” says Collard. “Use it now, but understand that it buys time rather than safety.”

The biggest weapon is still slowing down

The statistics show why that extra moment of caution matters.

KnowBe4’s 2026 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report analysed 42 million simulated phishing tests involving 14.8 million people at 64,000 organisations. Africa recorded the highest initial phishing susceptibility of any region, at 35.9%.

The same research found that organisations using continuous security awareness training reduced susceptibility by 41.2% within 90 days and by 79% over a year.

For ordinary consumers, the principle is much the same: slow down before you respond.

Scammers deliberately create urgency - your bank account is supposedly about to be blocked, your parcel cannot be delivered, your child is in trouble or you have only minutes to make a payment.

That pressure is part of the scam.

Taking a moment to ask a question, switch languages, call someone back using a trusted number or simply walk away from the phone can interrupt the process.

As Collard puts it, scams are designed to push people into making decisions before they have time to think properly.

Simple ways to protect yourself and your family

• Create a family safe word. Agree on a word or phrase that can be used if a family member ever calls asking for money in an emergency. A pre-agreed word is more reliable than recognising someone’s voice, particularly as voices can now be cloned.
• Don't trust caller ID. The number displayed on your phone can be manipulated and should not be treated as proof that a call is genuine.
• Call your bank back yourself. If someone claiming to be from your bank asks you to provide information or move money, end the call and contact the bank using the number on the back of your bank card or its official website.
• Use your home language as an extra check. If an unexpected caller claims to know you or your family, switch languages and ask a question that requires a genuine response. A hesitation can be a warning sign – although it is not proof of a scam.
• Don't let urgency make the decision for you. Whether the message involves your bank, a parcel, a government department or a loved one, legitimate problems can usually survive a few minutes while you verify them independently.

South Africa’s linguistic diversity is something we celebrate during Heritage Month. It can also give us an unusual advantage when dealing with scams.

For now, your home language may be something a scammer - or an AI system - struggles to fake.

Just don't rely on it alone.

‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’