Senate Unanimously Passes Blackburn’s Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Romance Scams

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Senate unanimously passed Senator Marsha Blackburn's (R-Tenn.) Romance Scam Prevention Act, which would require dating apps and services to issue fraud ban notifications to users who have interacted with a person removed from the app, sending it to President Trump's desk.

In recent years, digital romance scams have become more common as scammers target recently widowed or divorced senior citizens. In 2023, Tennesseans over the age of 60 lost $43 million due to scams targeting the elderly, marking an 18% increase from the losses reported in 2022. Across the country, the Federal Trade Commission reported that romance scams resulted in victims losing $1.3 billion in 2022 alone.

Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) co-sponsored this legislation. Representative David Valadao (R-Calif.) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

BACKGROUND

• As Americans continue to go online to find meaningful relationships, scammers are following suit. These scams accelerated during the COVID pandemic when more senior citizens turned to dating sites for companionship while they were isolated from their loved ones.

• When an online dating service provider becomes aware of a user committing fraudulent activity, such as illegally obtaining money, the online dating service provider immediately deactivates the fraudulent user's account.

• However, individuals who meet online often take their conversations to other communication platforms, so even when a fraudulent account is removed, an individual might not know they are still communicating with someone who has been removed from the dating platform.

• The Romance Scam Prevention Act would fill this communication gap by requiring dating app platforms to send a fraud ban notification to anyone who has communicated with someone with a fraudulent account.

Click here for bill text.

Click here to read more about the red flag indicators of romance scams and how to avoid becoming a victim of a romance scam.

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