FBI to Lead New Federal Strategy Against Scams: Targeting AI Deepfakes and $12 Billion in Fraud Losses

If you’ve ever had a weird text message asking you to click a link, a call from the 'IRS,' or been targeted by a hyper-realistic voice deepfake, you know how rampant scams have become. The numbers are staggering: consumers reported losing over $12 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% jump from the previous year. This bill, the National Strategy for Combating Scams Act of 2025, is the federal government’s attempt to finally get all its ducks in a row to fight back.

The Problem: Too Many Cooks in the Anti-Fraud Kitchen

Right now, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that over a dozen different federal agencies—from the FTC to the Treasury Department to the Secret Service—are all trying to fight scams, but they’re mostly working in silos. That’s like having 13 different security teams in a building, none of whom talk to each other about the latest threats. This legislation aims to fix that coordination mess. Specifically, Section 3 requires the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to assemble a massive working group within 90 days of the bill becoming law.

This isn't just a simple meeting; the working group must include representatives from nearly every major financial and consumer protection agency, including the FTC, the CFPB, the FDIC, the SEC, and even the Social Security Administration. Their main job is to develop a comprehensive National Strategy for Combating Scams within two years. This strategy isn't just a suggestion box; it has concrete, required deliverables that will impact how quickly and effectively the government responds to new threats.

What It Means for Your Inbox and Wallet

For everyday people, the biggest potential win here is standardization. Right now, if you’re scammed, you might report it to the FTC, your bank, or the FBI, and they all use slightly different definitions and methods. Section 3 mandates that the working group must establish a formal, common definition of 'scam' for use by the FBI, the FTC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This common definition must then be adopted by those three key agencies within one year of the strategy’s publication (Section 4).

Think about what that means for data: for the first time, agencies will be using the same language to track the problem, which should lead to better, more accurate data on what types of scams are hitting people the hardest—and where the money is going. The strategy also requires a plan to create a single, government-wide estimate of scam losses, including those incidents that never get reported. If you’ve ever stopped reporting a small fraud because the process was too complicated, this is aimed at making the data picture more complete.

Rapid Response and Real-World Examples

The bill specifically calls for the strategy to formulate a plan for rapid response protocols to warn the public about new scams. Given that the bill recognizes criminals are increasingly using Generative AI to create hyper-realistic deepfakes, this rapid response element is crucial. When a new voice-cloning scam hits, the government should be able to issue a coordinated, multi-agency warning instantly, rather than having the public wait for a patchwork of press releases.

Furthermore, the strategy must analyze how the federal government can partner with financial institutions and tech companies to support victim recovery. For a small business owner who loses a significant chunk of working capital to a wire transfer scam, or an older adult who is drained of their savings, having a coordinated federal effort focused on getting that money back—and not just prosecuting the scammers—is a huge step forward. It also requires the working group to enhance coordination with foreign countries, recognizing that many of these criminal enterprises operate across borders.

In short, this is a major organizational overhaul. It’s the government acknowledging that the current, fragmented approach is failing against a sophisticated, AI-enhanced criminal threat that cost consumers $12 billion last year. By forcing the FBI and over a dozen agencies to sit down, define the problem the same way, and create a single playbook, the hope is that they can finally start hitting back effectively.