Congressional report: U.S. scam response fragmented, victims rarely made whole

A congressional investigation into the global scam industry has found that the federal response to cyberscams is fragmented and voluntary, and that the government has no unified accounting of how much money has been seized from overseas scam compounds or returned to victims ¹².

The report was released Tuesday by the ranking Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Don Beyer, and drew on a yearlong investigation into global scams by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE ¹².

The numbers the committee collected show why victims struggle to recover losses. The FBI told the committee it returned $336 million to scam victims in 2025 ¹². The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which polices consumer fraud, reported returning $1.83 billion to fraud victims in fiscal year 2025 but could not determine how much of that was lost to overseas scam compounds ¹².

The U.S. Secret Service returned more than $770 million in seized assets to fraud victims in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, but said the money came from a range of fraud schemes ¹². The State Department said foreign law enforcement agencies it supports had seized proceeds "in the low hundreds of millions of dollars," then told Congress to ask the Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury departments for details ¹².

From Channel GOPFBI on 2020 Election Fraud EvidenceSenator Welch / Director Patel · 155 plays · captioned, with the source named

Taken together, those figures add up to only a fraction of what victims lost. Americans reported nearly $18 billion in cyberfraud losses to the FBI last year — more than $2 million an hour — and many never report the crime at all ¹².

Transnational criminal organizations run massive compounds that exploit U.S. technology, including AI, to carry out scams against Americans with devastating consequences.

The report also raised concerns about cuts. It said State Department reductions eliminated at least one anti-scam program in Bangladesh that had trained local police to investigate cyberfraud, and it cited a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report last month, funded by the European Union, calling Bangladesh an emerging hub for scam operations ¹². The State Department, which says it has 60 employees in the U.S. and Asia spending significant time on overseas scam compounds, told the committee it "has the tools it needs to combat the threat internationally" ¹².

The committee urged Congress to pass pending legislation that would require a unified federal strategy against scams and create one central place for victims to report losses and seek help ¹². The White House has also advocated for greater federal coordination, the report said ¹².

Justice Department officials told Congress that private companies should do more to prevent scams, but regulators and lawmakers have not created clear incentives for them, according to the report. Unlike the 27-nation European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, the United States has stopped short of holding technology, telecommunications or financial services companies potentially liable when they fail to protect consumers ¹².

We don’t see that showing up yet in reduced victimization.

The report found that agencies are recovering real money — hundreds of millions here, more than a billion there — but without a unified accounting, the government cannot say how much of what was seized has been returned to victims ¹². That matters because the report lands seven days before the Nov. 3 midterm election, with the committee's recommendations still awaiting congressional action ¹².

The Record

1. Oct 27, 2026The Joint Economic Committee report, led by Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Don Beyer, is released, finding no unified federal accounting of seized scam proceeds or victim returns ¹².
2. Oct 27, 2026The report states Americans reported nearly $18 billion in cyberfraud losses to the FBI last year, more than $2 million an hour ¹².

Sources

1. ABC News, “Cyberscams bilk Americans out of billions and few get money back” (2026-10-27). abcnews.com/US/wireStory/global-cyberscams-bilk-americans-bi
2. The Seattle Times, “Global cyberscams bilk Americans out of billions. A fragmented US response means few get money back | The Seattle Times” (2026-10-27). seattletimes.com/business/global-cyberscams-bilk-americans-o

Found an error? Tell the newsroom. Corrections are noted at the top of the story.