How digital financial literacy helps mobile money users avoid fraud in Tanzania: A user survey and a practical framework for building resilience

Kelvin Andrew Mbuya

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.4.121

Authors

Kelvin Andrew Mbuya College of Business Education, Tanzania https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9776-6426

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.4.121

Keywords:

Digital financial literacy, Mobile money fraud, Fraud awareness, Tanzani, User resilience, Financial inclusion, Tanzania

Abstract

Mobile money has deepened financial inclusion in Tanzania but has also exposed users to fraud, and because the user usually authorises the transaction, the user's own literacy and habits are the first line of defence. This study examined which digital-financial-literacy factors help mobile money users resist fraud and how that resilience can be built. This study is guided principally by theories of protective behaviour, Technology threat-avoidance theory and theory of planned behaviour. Using a cross-sectional quantitative survey with a design-science component, data from 650 mobile money users across urban and rural areas were analysed by reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation and multiple linear regression. The instrument was reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.896), the data were factorable (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.883; Bartlett's test, p < 0.001), and eleven factors explained 73.5% of the variance. Regression explained 15.9% of the variance in fraud resilience (adjusted R-squared = 0.146; F(10, 639) = 12.11, p < 0.001), with fraud awareness, social influence, security behaviour and self-efficacy as the significant predictors; information access and social influence were the lowest-scoring areas. The study concludes that the factors that most protect users, awareness and safe behaviour, are also among those users possess least, revealing an actionable gap. It recommends that providers, regulators, agents and educators deliver continuous, easy-to-reach fraud-awareness education and just-in-time safety reminders, especially for rural, older and less-literate users, alongside a practical user-resilience framework proposed by the study.

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