H.R. 5490: Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act

The bill calls this fraud "pig butchering": a scammer spends weeks building trust, then steers you into a fake investment site and keeps raising the stakes until your savings are gone. According to the bill's findings, the operations are run by Chinese criminal groups working out of compounds in Southeast Asia, often in partnership with local officials.

The findings, citing Treasury, estimate Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024. Global losses are put above $60 billion a year, and the bill notes many victims never report.

H.R. 5490 would make shutting down these scam centers an official U.S. government mission, run by a task force chaired by the Secretary of State. The FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and Treasury's sanctions and financial-crimes offices would all sit at the table. The SEC, FTC, and FCC could join.

The task force would have 180 days to deliver a strategy. Its goals include pressuring foreign governments that tolerate the compounds, recovering stolen money for Americans, training foreign police, pushing to put Cambodia on the Financial Action Task Force's gray or black list, and using offensive cyber tools against scam operations.

The bill also names 32 individuals and 11 companies, and gives the President 180 days to decide whether each one gets sanctioned. Any name left off requires a written justification to Congress. People the President determines are trafficking victims cannot be sanctioned.

Private companies are part of the plan too. The task force would build partnerships with banks, dating apps, social media platforms, phone carriers, crypto exchanges, app stores, and search engines, since those are the channels scammers use to find you and move your money.