WASHINGTON— A new Government Accountability Office report is pressing the federal government to move quickly on a coordinated anti-scam strategy, warning that at least 13 agencies are working on scam prevention and enforcement but largely doing so independently, with no government-wide plan in place.
In testimony prepared for the Joint Economic Committee, GAO said scams remain a fast-growing threat to consumers and that the lack of a unified federal strategy is hampering efforts to prevent losses, coordinate enforcement and measure the true scope of the problem. GAO reiterated a recommendation first made in April 2025 that the FBI lead a government-wide anti-scam effort in collaboration with the CFPB, FTC, Treasury and other agencies, and noted the Bureau has since outlined steps it may take.
GAO said the FBI’s preliminary response includes plans for a multi-agency working group, possible legislative and regulatory changes, deeper collaboration with financial institutions and technology firms, and requests for additional funding, staffing and tools, including expanded cryptocurrency tracing and artificial intelligence capabilities. But GAO said it will continue monitoring progress, emphasizing that no agency officials it interviewed were aware of any existing national anti-scam strategy.
The report also said the CFPB, FBI and FTC all collect and publish scam- or fraud-related complaint data, but inconsistent definitions and reporting methods make it impossible to produce a single government-wide estimate of scam complaints and losses. GAO said there is still no common federal definition of “scams,” and that data limitations prevent agencies from determining a total number of complaints or financial losses across the government.
Among the figures cited, GAO said the FBI estimated that in 2023 the Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 589,355 scam-related complaints tied to $10.55 billion in losses, while CFPB estimated it received 3,210 complaints potentially tied to scams over peer-to-peer payment platforms. GAO stressed those figures likely understate the true scale of the problem because scams are significantly underreported, noting prior Justice Department and FTC research found only a small share of victims report incidents to law enforcement or government agencies.
GAO said it continues to stand by all 16 recommendations it made last year to the CFPB, FBI and FTC, including calls for the agencies to harmonize data collection, produce agency-level scam estimates, collaborate on a single government-wide estimate of victims and losses, and adopt a common definition of scams. While the agencies have described potential next steps, GAO said none has provided a firm timeline for implementation and warned that, given the scale and speed of consumer scams, “swift action” is needed.