Romance Scam Prevention Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 2481, the Romance Scam Prevention Act.

As more consumers report using online dating services, it is important that they are made aware of potential harms. This bill ensures that when an online dating service bans a user for fraud, it notifies all the other users who have been in contact with that banned person on the service. This will help to reduce the number of people who fall victim to identified fraudsters looking to extort money from dating app users.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is an important first step in addressing harm in the online dating space. However, there is a lot more to be done, and vulnerable consumers need a strong and independent Federal Trade Commission to prosecute fraudsters and scammers and to protect them from having their emotions exploited for financial gain.

I encourage my Republican colleagues to support this legislation as well as the bipartisan FTC that ensures consumer protection measures like this one are fully and fairly enforced for all Americans. I thank Representatives Pettersen and Valadao for their leadership on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I will close by saying I do think this is an important bill for avoiding fraud. I am very concerned about fraud on these dating service apps. I commend Mr. Valadao for bringing this forward, and I urge everyone to support the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source