In 60 days from now, one of two things will be true:
- Commsrisk’s generous readers will have donated GBP7,250 (USD10,000) to fund a hundred new charts for our Global Fraud Dashboard; or
- This website is closing down.
If you are reading this, then there is a strong chance that you have above-average intelligence and above-average awareness of what the world is really like. We all know that money talks, and that one hand washes the other. However, I also know that thousands of people visit this website every day, and that Commsrisk has reached its twentieth year because I ignored all the people who tried to persuade me to shut it down before. Somehow, the global telecoms industry has progressed during those 20 years from doing a so-so job of calculating bills and provisioning services to now maintaining the infrastructure that allows crime syndicates to profit from half a million modern-day slaves in scam compounds. That is not the kind of progress that makes me feel good inside, and I imagine most readers feel the same way too.
Regular readers probably know about the Global Fraud Dashboard already. It was launched at the end of May 2025 but only our home page generated more traffic last year. Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, in which case we should be flattered that so many now offer comprehensive lists of countries where SMS blasters have been used to cheat the public, when there were literally none before the development of our SMS blaster map and the AI-powered searches that keep it updated. Irrespective of who gets the credit, we are making change happen. More change could happen more rapidly if the dashboard mined more sources of intelligence.
I am getting too old to continue producing content for Commsrisk like before. If this website is to have a legacy, it will involve automated scripts that regularly scour obscure regulatory reports and little-known APIs for information that nobody else collates because nobody can think of a way to monetize such an activity. There is a lot of unexamined truth in the data scattered around the world. We need to bring that data together to unlock its potential. Which policies are most effective at reducing scams? Are criminals finding ways to circumvent controls? These are questions which could be answered more effectively if the entire world’s data was examined as a whole, so long as we remain free from the bias that comes with a profit motive. I hope you will agree that the best way to fund the future development of the Global Fraud Dashboard involves depending on the charity of many small-value donors. The more we spread the cost, the lower the risk that any faction will attempt to censor or manipulate the results gleaned from the data.
The chief developer of the Global Fraud Dashboard, James Greenley, is a genius who is only paid a fraction of his true worth. Unlike a written article, James’ automated charts deliver fresh insights day after day, month after month. The communications sector would be foolish to lose the value he delivers. But more importantly, we need to acknowledge the scale of human suffering caused by runaway consumer fraud. The price paid through murder, torture, and human trafficking is not easily counted in dollars, euros or yuan. That is why I am begging you to visit our Kickstarter page right now and pledge any small amount you consider to be a fair representation of the value you have obtained by reading Commsrisk. You spent the time to read this far. You have probably spent time on previous Commsrisk articles. That has to be worth something.
There are a thousand logical arguments that I could throw at you, but the success or failure of this crowdfunding campaign will depend on emotion. Many thousands of people visit Commsrisk every day. We will meet our target if just one thousand choose to donate GBP7.25 each, an amount roughly equivalent to 10 US Dollars. After a couple of decades of nagging and cajoling this industry to do better, I still want to believe that we can do better, and that most of us want to do better. Please give now.
And if you have not yet donated, then perhaps our campaign video will convey the global scale of the crime that courses through our networks. Watch it below.
