YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesCriminal Justice & Due ProcessTransparency & AccountabilityTargets the overseas scam rings that took $10 billion from Americans, with a new task force and sanctions.
Your Money
The task force's plan must include recovering money stolen from Americans and returning it. The bill promises no set amount, and yearly reports would say how much came back.
Civil Liberties
Many scam workers were lured by fake job ads and held by force. The bill says anyone the President finds to be a trafficking victim cannot be sanctioned.
Every agency on the task force must hand over all relevant data and its plans, before and after decisions. Intelligence agencies are allowed to assist, and the bill adds no new privacy rules for what is shared.
Criminal Justice & Due Process
The bill lists 32 people and 11 companies by name. The President must decide within 180 days whether each meets existing sanctions rules, and impose sanctions on those who do.
Transparency & Accountability
Each report must estimate how much money Americans lost, how much was recovered, and list known scam centers. The reports are public, though a secret annex is allowed.
The task force shuts down seven years after the bill becomes law. Congress would have to pass a new law to keep it going.
If the President decides someone on the list does not meet the sanctions rules, Congress must get a full explanation. That report is due within 180 days.
The President can skip sanctions on anyone named by calling it vital to national security. The waiver takes effect 15 days after the reasons go to Congress.
More about this bill
A new federal team would go after the online scams that stole at least $10 billion from Americans in 2024. That figure comes from the Treasury Department, according to the bill. Most people would see no change in their own bills or paperwork. But if you lost money, getting it back would become a stated goal of U.S. policy. These scams often start as a friendly chat, then a push to put money into a fake crypto site. The President would have 30 days to set up the task force. The Secretary of State would chair it. State, Justice, the FBI, Homeland Security, the Secret Service, and Treasury would all sit on it. Within 180 days, it would owe Congress a full plan. The plan would target scam compounds in Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. Trafficked workers there are forced to run the frauds. The team could also work with banks, phone carriers, crypto exchanges, and dating apps. Within 180 days, the President would also have to rule on 32 named people and 11 named companies. Each one would be checked against sanctions laws already on the books. Sanctions would follow for those who fit. Skipping any one of them would take written reasons to Congress. The President could waive sanctions 15 days after telling Congress it is vital to national security. People forced to work in the compounds could not be sanctioned. The bill would allow $30 million a year for the State Department in 2026 and 2027. Six yearly reports would go to Congress, and the task force would end after seven years.
Congressional Summary
Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act This bill requires the President to (1) impose applicable sanctions on foreign persons (individuals or entities) responsible for online financial scams against U.S. nationals, and (2) establish an interagency task force to shut down the criminal syndicates perpetuating such scams. Under the bill, the President must determine whether 43 specified foreign persons, and any other foreign persons the President determines are responsible for or complicit in online financial scams against U.S. nationals, are subject to sanctions under specified laws and Executive Order 13581. Upon such determination, the President must impose applicable sanctions (for example, blocking the sanctioned person's property transactions within the United States). The President must also establish an interagency task force to shut down transnational criminal syndicates that use large scam centers and forced labor of trafficked persons to perpetuate mass online scams against Americans. The task force must (1) submit a comprehensive strategy to Congress to combat these scam centers and dismantle the criminal elements involved with them, and (2) coordinate and oversee implementation of the strategy. Within 360 days of submitting the strategy to Congress and annually thereafter for five years the task force must submit to Congress a report addressing various topics related to such scam centers including a list of all foreign persons sanctioned by the United States for their scam center involvement. The Department of State is authorized to provide trauma-informed care, shelter, reintegration, and support services for victims of trafficking in persons within online scam centers.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-09-18
- Date Added
- 2026-05-06
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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