Sponsors (3)
The bill standardizes scam definitions and reporting to improve transparency, coordination, enforcement, and victim services, but centralizing and publishing that data creates privacy, cost, classification, and reputational risks that must be managed.
Consumers and taxpayers will benefit from harmonized federal definitions and data collection on scams, making it easier for victims to understand, for agencies to coordinate, and for analysts to detect trends and improve enforcement.
Victims, policymakers, and the public will get greater transparency through standardized public reports of complaint counts and dollar-loss estimates, helping victims see the scope of scams and guiding policy responses.
Agencies and service providers will improve anti-scam outreach and victim assistance over time by measuring and reporting agency training effectiveness and plans.
Centralizing harmonized scam data and publishing aggregated loss estimates will raise privacy risks for taxpayers and victims if sensitive personal or payment data are exposed or inadequately protected.
Implementing new data systems, harmonized reporting, and public reporting requirements will increase agency costs, which could lead to higher taxpayer burdens or require budget trade-offs.
Using a single federal definition of 'scam' risks misclassifying local or industry-specific complaints, potentially leaving some frauds unaddressed or diverting enforcement resources.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FBI (with CFPB, FTC) to adopt a single scam definition, create a governmentwide anti-scam strategy, standardize data collection, and publish unified estimates of victims and losses.
Directs the FBI, working with the CFPB, FTC, and other agencies, to create a single, government-wide anti-scam strategy that includes a uniform definition of “scam,” standardized scam types, and harmonized data collection. It also requires agencies to publish consistent estimates of the number of consumers harmed and total dollar losses from scams, and to report complaint counts, estimated losses, and effectiveness metrics for anti-scam training within set timelines.
Official title: To require the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and the Federal Trade Commission to undertake a governmentwide effort to counter scams, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 22, 2026 by Josh Harder · Last progress January 22, 2026