News & Impact Stories

Nation’s Largest Financial Institutions, Tech Companies Warn of Rising Fraud Targeting Consumers

October 1, 2025 — Press Release

WASHINGTON – Consumers are devastated by fraud, losing $158 billion each year in schemes targeting about 57,000 new victims per day. 

A new report, United We Stand: A National Strategy to Prevent Scams, from the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention, provides key recommendations to enhance national security, protect consumers, and defend against scammers as artificial intelligence and faster payment options are making scams more destructive and widespread. 

“We need all hands on deck to combat fraud,” said Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). “Financial institutions and payment providers need to ensure criminal fraudsters are unable to open accounts and receive stolen funds. Telecom and social media companies must prevent these bad actors from accessing and abusing their systems and platforms to initiate fraud schemes. And big tech companies are needed to leverage their best technology to detect and eliminate fraud.”

During a recent Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee entitled “Fraud in Focus: Exposing Financial Threats to American Families,” Sanchez-Adams urged Congress to: 

  • close gaps in consumer protection laws to protect consumers from both unauthorized and fraudulently induced charges; 
  • hold institutions that receive fraudulent payments accountable; and 
  • work with the Federal Communications Commission to address the role that telecommunications providers play in facilitating fraud.

“Industry and federal and state governments must work together to strengthen policies and practices to protect consumers,” said Patrick Crotty, senior attorney at NCLC. “Congress and regulators should also expand enforcement of existing laws and hold companies that facilitate fraud, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call providers, accountable for fraud on their networks.”

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) should be strengthened to bolster enforcement against providers who transmit scam calls and texts and to include an explicit legal pathway to take action against the providers who allow scammers onto U.S. phone networks, according to advocates at NCLC. The FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule should also be broadened to cover all attempts to wrongfully obtain things of value, including personal information. 

The National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention, which includes private, public, and nonprofit organizations, is convened by the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program with support from JPMorganChase, Zelle, Block, Target, Amazon, and CLEAR, and impact partners AARP and Stop Scams Alliance.

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