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Public policy

2 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 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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