Standard Bank Face of Fraud

In 2026, the face of fraud is no longer a shadowy anonymous figure, lurking in a dark room. It’s become ordinary looking and unsuspicious, aided by technology that makes identity theft easier than ever.

Office: South Africa

Client: Standard Bank

• Challenge

In South Africa, banking fraud accounts for nearly half of all reported incidents. In the 2024 financial year, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre recorded over two million incidents affecting banks alone. Between 2023-2024, impersonation fraud surged by 400%.

Standard Bank wanted to confront this new reality, educating South Africans on how powerful the technology is and the need to be vigilant at all times.

• Inspiration

Instead of sending out an email, Standard Bank partnered with VML South Africa to create an immersive experience for employees, bringing them face-to-face with the reality of fraud.

• Idea

Face It – an interactive art gallery experience.

Guests signed in on arrival, using only their names. As they perused what they thought was just a beautiful portrait exhibit, custom-built AI social scrapers followed the digital breadcrumbs they had unknowingly left in plain sight. These were collected and reconstructed.

Less than five minutes later, when they reached the end of the exhibition, they were confronted by a screen displaying their own face, demonstrating how quickly technology in the wrong hands can power identity theft.

• Growth

This was an activation.

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“It’s a very scary concept and it’s even scarier when you see how easy it is.”

Lesego Ngcamu Executive Head of Digital and Interactive Marketing

Credits

CCO: Fran Luckin
ECD: Theo Ferreira, Matthew Arnold
Creative Director: Dominique Baxewanos, Neil Meyer
Art director: Hanro Manefeldt, Jonathan Auret
Copywriter: Sifiso Hlongwane, Dominique Baxewanos, Neil Meyer, Ethel Sibanda
Client Service: Anna Nashandi, Sandra McDiarmid
Production: Andries van Wyngaard
Project management: Nompumelelo Mabena
Strategy: Antonio Petra
Development: Matthew Arnold, Tilesh Bhaga, Sphiwe Dube, Lubabalo Dlwathi
Brand representative: Mohammed Ismail, Lesego Ngcamu