Cyber scams continue to grow, but there are actions we can take to fight them

For nearly a decade, I worked at the FBI investigating organized financial crime. I watched cyber scams evolve from crude “Nigerian prince” emails into something far more sinister—industrial-scale criminal networks that the Federal Trade Commission reports cost Americans more than $12.5 billion last year alone.

Today, sophisticated criminal networks operate in places like Myanmar and Cambodia, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. The scammers, often victims themselves, are trafficked, exploited and forced by their criminal bosses to operate 24/7 “scam centers” to siphon funds from unsuspecting Americans. It’s the criminal equivalent of a corporate production line, except instead of building a product they are stealing money.

Today’s scammers rely on sophisticated scripts and psychological tactics to manipulate victims’ trust. Take “romance” scams, for instance, where fraudsters find victims on social media, build fake relationships, and then, after a few days or weeks, convince the victim to transfer them money due to a fake urgent emergency.

The criminal playbook keeps expanding. Retirement accounts, crypto investments, credit cards, gift cards, peer-to-peer payment apps — anywhere and any way that money can be transferred has been infiltrated. The criminal networks adapt faster than our defenses, targeting vulnerable Americans with ruthless precision.

But here’s the thing: While the fraud landscape continues to transform, the U.S. government’s strategies to combat fraud remain stuck in the past.

Congress has started to recognize the severity of the threat, but their response remains inadequate. Last year’s narrow legislation on payment platforms addressed just one small piece of an expanding criminal ecosystem. We need comprehensive legislative strategies, not a fragmented approach that criminals can easily circumvent.

Now that Maryland has a former state’s attorney — Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D) — representing us in Congress, I’m hoping she can help shift the focus toward more robust solutions. Here are three places to start:

First, we need to make significant investments in specialized law enforcement units dedicated to investigating these crimes. From my time at the FBI to today, one thing holds true – we are outmatched in terms of resources. Criminal networks number in the thousands and work around the clock, while our criminal justice system is inundated with victim reports and exhaustively overburdened. Invest in more investigators and equip them with the industry’s latest cyber and intelligence tools to give them a much-needed edge.

Second, we need to address the scattered approach across multiple agencies that’s causing inefficiencies. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) offers a solid foundation, but we should empower it to work seamlessly with other agencies and provide enough funding to meet today’s needs. This would help them triage the wave of complaints more effectively, support victims, and keep Americans informed about the latest cyber scams.

And third, we need to confront these threats at their source. The United States must leverage diplomatic pressure, intelligence capabilities and international partnerships to dismantle overseas criminal networks. We’ve successfully deployed these tools against terrorist financing and money laundering operations.  There’s no reason we can’t use the same playbook against the predatory networks that target American citizens.

These fraud networks now rival drug cartels in profitability while operating with considerably less risk. Until we pursue them with the same rigor we bring to other forms of organized crime, they will continue stealing billions from vulnerable American citizens. The $12.5 billion figure cited above represents countless personal tragedies: seniors who lost their retirement savings, small business owners who couldn’t meet payroll, and families whose financial security crumbled overnight. The tens of thousands of Americans who have been victimized deserve a better approach.

The expertise exists within our government to tackle this problem effectively. What’s missing is adequate funding and political will. It’s time for Congress to act against one of the biggest threats facing American consumers today.