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3 perspectives from the Armidale team.

Cover of Nobody Answers Any More: The Largest Cost of Scams Is Carried by People Who Were Never Scammed

Consumer scams·September 2026

Nobody Answers Any More: The Largest Cost of Scams Is Carried by People Who Were Never Scammed

56%

of consumers in Southeast Asia avoid inbound contact or transactions because of scam concerns, and those never scammed match the rest to within a point

Armidale research. Every official record of fraud counts the money taken from victims and leaves out the larger cost: the calls left unanswered, the purchases abandoned and the genuine alerts deleted by people who were never scammed. That cost lands on every legitimate business that needs to reach a customer, and no government publishes it.

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Cover of The Permission Nobody Used: Twenty-Five Years of Safe Harbour, and the Risks It Left in Place

Consumer scams·September 2026

The Permission Nobody Used: Twenty-Five Years of Safe Harbour, and the Risks It Left in Place

4.2 million

frauds in England and Wales in the year to March 2025, close to half of all crime measured, with no competition guidance of their own

Armidale research. The United States and the United Kingdom both gave firms a safe harbour to share what they know about fraud, and in both cases the sharing did not follow. Both statutes removed the risk that was easy to remove, left one in place deliberately, and never addressed a third at all.

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Cover of The Number No Government Publishes: What States Measure When Fraud Is Reported, and the One Metric That Would Change It

Consumer scams·August 2026

The Number No Government Publishes: What States Measure When Fraud Is Reported, and the One Metric That Would Change It

0.35%

of FBI complaints reached the team, even though they claim a 66 percent recovery rate

Armidale research. Governments measure reports received, arrests made and websites taken down, but not whether a case ends for the person defrauded. Measurement follows liability, and on resolution almost no state has made itself answerable for anything.

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