Is it cyberfraud or good ol’ offline fraud? A look at section 8 of the South African cybercrimes bill

Abstract

This paper discusses section 8 of the South African Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill, a section which deals with the crime of cyberfraud. It argues that there are certain fraudulent acts which have been presented incorrectly as examples of cyberfraud when they are classified better as ordinary offline fraud. The mere presence of an internet element in the commission of a fraud crime is not enough to elevate the crime to cyberfraud status. Therefore, for an act to be called a cyberfraud crime, it must meet the minimum requirement of being a computer-dependent crime rather than being merely a computer-enabled crime.