ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION ACT

On 2026-09-23, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) delivered a floor speech titled "ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION ACT" in the Senate.

ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION ACT

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4902] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION ACT Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, each year, Americans lose roughly $1.3 billion to online romance scams. The victims are overwhelmingly senior citizens. They go online, thinking they are going to be able to find some companionship. They meet somebody. Often, this is on a dating site. They think that what they have made is a genuine connection because they are chatting online with this individual, but what is actually happening is they are communicating with a fraudster the entire time. Often, these victims--as I said, many of them are older. They are senior citizens. These victims will lose their entire lifesavings before they realize or before their friends and their family realize what has actually happened. Here is the thing that is so important to realize. These scam artists are not amateurs. In fact, they are often part of a transnational criminal organization that traffics individuals in developing countries with the promise of getting a high-paying job. With their passports stolen, these individuals, who are victims, are often transported to what are called fraud dens, and they are forced to pay back their debt to these transnational criminal organizations by working overtime to defraud our senior citizens here in the United States. It is really quite amazing. These are scam artists. They are part of transnational criminal organizations. They lure people into being trafficked. They promise those individuals high-paying jobs in other countries, and then they take their passports and put them to work in these fraud dens. And there, they are defrauding U.S. citizens. These scams are well financed, they are very sophisticated, and more often than not, they are using AI and other technology to dupe American consumers. Scams are proliferating in the virtual space. We are seeing much of this in online dating platforms, and we do think these online dating platforms have the ability and the responsibility to notify their users when they are interacting with a bad actor. By taking this simple step, the Romance Scam Prevention Act would protect our seniors from fraud and strike at the heart of one of the most lucrative financial streams for some of the most heinous criminal networks in the world. I want to thank Representative Valadao and his staff for their commitment to protecting our seniors and championing this important legislation, and I thank my colleagues here in the Senate who have also supported it. Notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 438, H.R. 2481. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (H.R. 2481) to require online dating service providers to provide fraud ban notifications to online dating servicemembers, and for other purposes. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill. Mrs. BLACKBURN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The bill (H.R. 2481) was ordered to a third reading, was read the third time, and passed. ____________________

Referenced legislation: HR2481, HR2481