Online Dating Safety Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank my colleague, my coauthor, Brittany Pettersen, for her support on this. I also thank the members and staff of the committee. They have been very, very helpful in us moving this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of my bill, the Online Dating Safety Act. Each year, millions of people are deceived, defrauded, and misled by users of online dating apps.

While it is sadly common to see people lie about things like their age or occupation, this bill takes aim at the more sinister fraudsters who make their livelihoods preying on vulnerable individuals.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, romance scams resulted in victims losing $1.3 billion in 2022 alone, with senior citizens being the most at-risk age group.

There are countless horror stories of people being conned out of their entire life savings, all because they trusted someone they met online. Individuals who meet online often take their conversations to other communication platforms, so even when the fraudulent account is removed, someone might not even know they are talking to someone who has been removed from that original platform.

This bill requires that the dating platform issue a fraud ban notification to users who have ever interacted with the person who has been removed from the app for fraudulent activity. While we can't stop all criminals, this is a simple and important step to fill a communication gap and help people make more informed decisions about who they are really communicating with.

These apps have been around for years, but still there are few safeguards in place to protect users. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and prevent the widespread fraud.

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